First of all, this is NOT the next Veridis Quo Chapter and it is NOT a Redux Profile. Instead, to celebrate this Story's 50th Chapter, I have written this brief, but purposely Incomplete Spin Off. If it is well-received in the reviews and people like it then I will expand on it at a later date, so that is why it is incomplete.
Second, I forgot to mention that I was taking a Hiatus for the month of October. I know I usually release a chapter once a month (yes, I know it used to be at least 2-3 earlier, but shit happens), but things happened and I could not write.
Thirdliestmost, I have theme chapter Ideas and in order to get the next one out by Christmas (I had a great Idea for Halloween, but missed it) I need to start on it NOW, so while I'm working on it, I will also be working on the next Veridis Quo chapter. SO we'll see which one my interests favors the most and I'll get that out in time for Christmas.
Ulquiorra, about this chapter. I got the idea for it from a small section of dialogue from 358/2 Days. So, that's it. I don't own stuff that other people own. Enjoy. Or don't. I'm not getting paid for this.
...What if we all ran off?
….What?
….The three of us. Then we could always be together...
It was the weirdest thing. He hardly had the weird dreams anymore, the ones where he wasn't himself and he felt as if he were experiencing another boy's life through his eyes. No, those dreams were almost gone, and he thought that maybe they were fading because he had left all of that mess and drama months ago.
Roxas rolled over in his bed, eyes shut tight to try and hold on to whatever sleep he had left. If he had to guess, it was almost 7:00 and his alarm would go off any second, but, of course, he would always...
A quick series of knocks rocked the door across the room, followed by a voice, "Roxas! Off your ass and on your feet, ain't no time to beat your meat!" Followed by a quick laugh and the sound of descending steps.
Roxas groaned and tossed off the covers from his head, "Every morning...yeah, thanks, Axel!" He shouted after his friend. Glancing at his digital alarm clock, Roxas watched 6:59 turn into 7:00, and the horrible blaring sound followed. Eh! Eh! Eh! Eh! He shut it off, then took his time sitting up and scooting over to the other side of his bed where his bedroom window sat.
Roxas had gotten use to seeing morning light pouring in instead of perpetual night. He opened the window and the daytime breeze rushed in, jostled his curtains and a few homework papers he had on his desk. It was early in the morning and the sky was already a wonderful blue, streaked white with bulbous, billowing clouds and the vapor that came from ships that entered and left the atmosphere every day.
Roxas took in a deep breath of fresh air, closing his eyes from the sky above and the city all around him. "Just another day."
It had been three months since they left the Organization.
"...I'm just saying it's my money."
"Right, right."
"I earned it."
"Yeah."
"I don't care who owns the bank!"
"I totally agree, Xinck."
"So, I burned down the bank."
"You're lying." Axel said.
"Well, you know, I was gonna." Xinck replied.
"Yeah, sure you were..."
"Shut up and eat your bacon."
"Yeah, I'm gonna need coffee if I'm gonna listen to your crazy this early in the morning."Axel said,while snapping off a piece of bacon while Xinck sat down at the table with his plate of rib-eye steak and fried eggs. "Steak and eggs!" Axel exclaimed, "Why do you get steak and eggs and I'm sitting here with bacon and orange juice!"
Xinck chuckled while grabbing a fork and knife, "Commoners dine on bacon and orange juice. Greatness such as myself satisfy our needs with steak and eggs."
Before Axel could offer an angry reply, Roxas strolled into the kitchen, barefoot and still wearing his gray pajamas. "Good mor-", He stopped, sniffing the air, "Hey, steak and eggs! I'm starving!"
"No!" Xinck stopped him, "You eat leftover pizza! It's in the fridge!"
"Morning, Roxas." Axel said, chewing another piece of bacon.
"Good morning." Roxas replied as he went to grab a single piece of bacon on the stove, "Why does he get steak and eggs and we get bacon?"
"I know, right? I asked the same thing. Xinck, you're the worst cook ever."
"Sons of bitches!" Xinck shouted, "I don't hear you two complaining when I'm cooking your lunch and dinner! Or cleaning the house, or washing your dishes, or washing your filthy, sweaty clothes or picking out what clothes to wear everyday!"
"Ok, you cook and sometimes clean, but you barely do that other stuff..." Roxas said.
"Yeah, and no one ever said you had to actually pick out our clothes everyday." Axel said.
"It's kinda weird." Roxas added.
"Silence!" Xinck exclaimed. The Deviant had fallen into a role that he never thought he'd play so readily. Oddly enough, he didn't mind being a house-person as much as he thought he would. He found that he actually had a talent for cooking and his OCD worked great for cleaning. And, in between his busy work and watching day-time TV, he still found time to try and kill himself. Old habits did indeed die hard.
"You!" Xinck pointed an accusing finger for Axel, "Go to work and You!" He pointed to Roxas, "Go to school! It's barely 7:30 and I'm already sick of both of you!"
"School doesn't start till 9:00." Roxas said, "Besides, I-"
"Did you finish all your homework?" Axel asked.
"Um.." He stammered a reply, "..most of it."
"Roxas, come on, what're you doing?"
"What? I was tired last night, so I went to bed, I thought I'd wake up early enough and finish it."
"Do you know how important your education is?" Axel said.
"It's basically worthless." Xinck said.
"Xinck, shut up! I'm trying to do something." Axel continued, "Rox, dude, you have to go to school and you have to do your homework."
"I don't like school." Roxas sighed, "I don't have any friends and no one talks to me..."
"What about that one girl?" Xinck cut in, "She liked you."
"That was the lunchlady!" Roxas replied.
"Yeah, she liked you a little too much." Axel said, "That's why you started coming home for lunch."
The former 13th member of the Organization attended the local school during the day. At first, Roxas was excited at the idea since he had heard that 'normal' kids his age went to High School and had fun. But, gradually, since his first day, his expectations for High School waned severely. Roxas had no formal education prior to attending or any records, as a result his teachers thought he was slow. If it hadn't been for Axel and Xinck sneaking into the school at night to forge documents, Roxas could have been kicked out as an illegal alien, or worse, placed in remedial class. Worse still, his social skills weren't as great as he thought they were. Axel and Xinck were really the best social interactions he had, besides faking it with those he met on his old missions, he had no idea how to approach real people.
"Ugh! I can't stand it! It wouldn't be so bad if one of you would go with me! Why doesn't Xinck have to go to school!"
"Roxas." Axel explained, "We've been through this before. Xinck is a mentally, emotionally unstable deviant with dozens of disorders running around that giant, crazy head of his. His sociopathic mentality deems him unfit for mainstream society."
"Uh..." The young Nobody paused, shifting his gaze between his two friends.
"You hear that, Roxas?" Xinck asked, "I'm special."
"Besides," Axel continued, "We've both already been through school, and I think it wouldn't hurt for you to do it, too. Just for a while."
"When is 'a while' over?"
"Don't be so impatient. Enjoy yourself at school. It's better than busting your ass from 9 to 5...in a cubicle...surrounded by...more cubicles, with only 45 minutes for lunch! And that ass-wipe, douche-bag boss keeps harassing you, BAGGERING you to 'cut your red gorilla hair'!"
Dressing in the same dark leisure suit practically everyday and heading out the door, Axel went to make some income so he and his friends wouldn't starve. Axel was not cut out for middle management, and, to put it bluntly, since day one had had more homicidal fantasies in an hour than Xinck has in a week. Axel was the type that enjoyed action and excitement, he needed it like air or water, but he couldn't do it because he knew he had two people who depended on him.
Everyday he has to suppress the thought of just tossing it all away and taking them all on the run, using their powers to get anything they wanted or needed, not worrying about the rules or laws. But he knew that wouldn't last long. The more powerful the activity they had, the better the chances the Organization would lock onto their location. So, to stay low, hidden and cloaked from Xemnas, they had to blend in with normal people and hope for the best.
The Flurry of Dancing Flame ran a hand through his blood-red hair, "You guys think I need a haircut?"
"No." Roxas said, "Not really."
"No." Xinck replied, "Only if you think I'm getting fat."
"You have been packing it on." Roxas said, "All those steak and eggs..Agh!" Quickly and without warning, a shining fork found itself in Roxas's hand, striking veins and drawing blood. "What is wrong with you!"
"That's for calling me fat, you dumb blond!"
"I didn't call you fat, you fat skank!" Roxas shouted, yanking out the fork, the wound slowly healing. Quickly, he bounded across the table and into Xinck, shallowly stabbing him in the chest with the same fork. A fight ensured with thin wisps of blood spraying the walls. The ending to an otherwise uneventful morning.
Axel stuffed the remainder of his breakfast in his mouth and downed his coffee. He scooted out from his chair and strolled over to the door on the other side of the kitchen. "Well," He sighed heavily with weary exhaustion, "I'm goin' to work. Later, kids."
"See ya-ow! OW!" Roxas took a knife to his arm.
"Dinner at 6-Gah!" Xinck howled, "Dammit, that was my neck, asshole!"
A nice 10 minutes later, when the kitchen had a nice coating of fresh blood to it, the two boys rose from the floor, their wounds automatically healing.
"Oh, great. This is my favorite apron and now it's ruined." Xinck lamented at the blood-soaked, forked apron tied around his waist. The words 'Kiss Me, I'm Crazy' were nearly impossible to make out.
"Where did you get an apron like that?" Roxas asked.
"Shopping channel." He replied.
Axel's job was nearly 20 blocks away from the small, store-like building he and his two friends called home. Axel didn't have a car and he rarely took the bus because he enjoyed the exercise and the time he had to think as he went to work. Of course, the one, prominent thought he always had on his mind was the Organization finding out where they were. No way they would be happy about him running off with their only way to collect hearts. Needless to say, they would deploy everything they had to find Roxas and kill the two others with him. If it wasn't for the magics in place over the house, the lesser Nobodies and the Organization's radars and other methods of detection would have found them easily. But, just to be on the safe side, Xinck re-cast each spell every few days to be sure. A precaution Axel insisted be taken.
The still rising sun shined through the clouds, and its light made the space ships that sailed across the sky seem like black flies flying across a light bulb. The area he lived in could be considered a somewhat middle-class neighborhood, not bad, but not great. Poor enough to walk down the street in common clothes, but safe enough not to worry about getting a cap busted in one's ass. On weekdays, anyway.
Not too far from his job, Axel crossed, what is essentially known as 'the other side of the train tracks', which in this case was actually a bridge overlooking a busy freeway. He was nearing his office building, which was absolutely nothing spectacular. Just a medium-sized, rectangular building that could easily hide amongst the other, higher, more elaborate and futuristic-looking. Axel's boring building had the words 'Happy Time Temporary Agency'.
Working in this place ate at Axel as soon as he worked in the building, like acid dissolving flesh. In fact, the only enjoyable thing that occurred just before he got into work, was the group of homeless people that congregated a few doors down.
Downtrodden individuals who had hit rock-bottom and gone even further. Poorly dressed in either tattered rags or dozens of filthy, flea-covered coats, these sad people would beg for scraps and change. But somehow, Axel observed, they were able to maintain some dignity, either it be through their sincere smile when people passed and ignored them, or by proclaiming "God bless you" when that spare change clattered to the bottom of their empty bean cans.
Sometimes Axel would see them beating each other senseless over scraps of meat. That put a smile on his face.
Axel came up the steps of the office building. Coming around the corner and accosting him just before he ascended, a tall homeless man in a long, dirty brown trenchcoat, blue gloves and a filthy mismatched top hat, sauntered over with a brown paper bag obscuring a flask of liquor.
This man was a relatively new homeless who had appeared around the city a few weeks ago. Sometimes he'd talk to Axel, sometimes he didn't, but all the time he was drunk and seemed to be fighting the urge to break into dance. His face was completely covered in a flowery-pink scarf with bleach-white hair sticking out randomly. The man must have been old enough to have his hair whitened, but his extremely high, irritating voice gave no indication.
The homeless man greeted Axel the way he always did, "Hey, yo, man, didja geda bah da [homeless gibberish]. Yo, you wanna, tasta my flip-flop?" He casually offered Axel his brown paper bagged flask.
"Oh, hey, you." Axel replied, but declined the flask, "Yeah, sorry, I gotta go to work, so, you know, I can't drink."
"Oh! That cool, man, that's c-c-c-cool, mo' flip-flop fo' me..." The man withdrew his flask then took a large drink before hiding it in his coat. "Yo, yo, check, I got some burgers need [homeless gibberish] in a trashcan few rows from here. Got change, man, much 'preciated?"
"Uh...yeah, sure." Axel took whatever change he had in his pocket and dropped it into the man's hand. "Hey, I, uh, gotta go. See ya around." Axel practically ran up the steps and into the building, but turned around to see the homeless man dancing down the street, while shouting something that sounded like 'Cocaine money.'
Just another day of work at a soul destroying, 9 to 5 desk job. This was worlds below Axel's skill level, but at this time he knew he had no choice. He had two people he had to take care of. He only did it for them.
After Roxas helped Xinck clean up the kitchen, and while Roxas finished getting ready for school, Xinck sat on the couch, watching TV, sipping coffee and mulling over his plans for the day. In all honesty his plans didn't require much thought since he nearly did the same thing every day. He already picked out Axel and Roxas's clothes for the day, and he already made breakfast. So that left about a dozen or two other things to do, including making Roxas's lunch, since he recently decided to come home in the afternoon, and starting something for dinner.
"God! My work is never done!" Another thought occurred. He might have to reset the magical incantations and spells that are keeping the Organization and the rest of the Nobodies from finding them. The spells, while very effective, had very short lives, even with the longevity charms he mixed in. In order for the magic to be at 100 percent he needed to re-cast them every 2 weeks or so. So much to do, so little time. Xinck sipped his coffee, flipped through more channels and sighed, "Yep. Ain't easy being me."
"Oh, yeah, sitting at home all day watching the Rachel Ray Show is so hard." Roxas chimed in as he descended down the stairs.
"Goddamn you, Rachel Ray." Xinck seethed, "My vengeance will be swift..."
"Oh, hey, thanks for finally picking out some clothes that aren't so...dark and gloomy." Roxas did not share Xinck's preference for dark clothing. They both had gotten used to the long black coat, but Axel stressed the need to fit in and not draw attention to themselves, so normal clothes were mandatory. Roxas wore a pair of baggy blue jeans, black shoes, and a long-sleeve white t-shirt underneath a buttoned blue shirt with a collar.
"I saw the shirt and thought of you!" Xinck exclaimed. Roxas hopped off the stairs, skipping the last step as he always did and joined Xinck on the couch as he channel surfed.
"I..uh..heard you guys last night."
"Before or after Eleven? Because after Eleven I was jacking-"
"Ugh! Ew! No!" Roxas exclaimed, "Before Eleven! About moving, I heard you and Axel talking about moving again."
"Oh." Xinck murmured, "That." Axel was adamant about keeping that from Roxas. But when Xinck thought of everything else he and Axel had hid from him, it didn't all sit too well. Axel had revealed nearly everything about Xemnas's intent for Roxas, but he and Xinck were both mum on the subject of Sora. Axel wanted to keep it that way and Xinck respected his decision. But for everything else, when Roxas had a question, Xinck had no problem answering. "Are you sure you don't want to know about after Eleven? I was touching myself and-"
"Xinck! Ew! No! Cut that out!"
"Alright, FINE!" Xinck howled.
He flipped to another channel, the Food Network. "...And, after that," Rachel Ray of the Food Network said, " We're going to mix in just a hint of EVOO, that's Extra Virgin Olive Oil, if you don't know-"
"DAMN YOU, RACHEL RAY, DAMN YOU!" Xinck howled in pain as he hurled the remote at the television screen, luckily turning it off instead of breaking it.
Xinck shivered, calming down, he turned to face Roxas. "Yes, Axel's been talking about it. There's no way for us to know what the Organization's doing to find us—specifically you-and we have to stay, at the very least, two steps ahead of them. And I agree that staying in one spot for too long is not a good plan."
"But what about all those charms and spells you put up?" Roxas snapped back, "None of us have used any of our powers and we're wearing these stupid rings to keep our presences veiled! That has to count for something!" Roxas held up his ring finger, calling attention to the ring with a small gem of white and blue. New recruits of the Organization could rarely control their individual presences, and on training missions they often wore these rings to suppress their power to keep from detection. Before abdicating from their positions in the Organization, Axel made sure to grab three of these rings, so as to help in blending in.
With Roxas shouting, the black and purple ring Xinck kept hanging around his neck seemed to grow heavier. "What are you getting upset about? Every morning you complain about school, you complain about our house-"
"That doesn't mean I don't like it here!" Roxas replied,"You complain about EVERYTHING, even me and Axel and you like us, right?"
"I-uh..." Xinck's words were caught in his throat. He had no reply. "Well, I...uh..."
"Uh-huh." Roxas murmured angrily, "That's what I thought you'd say." With a thrust, he grabbed at his backpack and headed for the door.
"No, wait!" Xinck called after him, running after Roxas just as he slammed the kitchen door closed. Xinck quickly pulled it open just before Roxas hit the sidewalk. "Okay!" He shouted, "I'll talk to him!"
At first, Roxas did nothing other than walking, then he slowed and finally turned around and stopped. "You promise?"
Xinck nodded and drew an X over his chest, "Cross my dark heart and hope to unlive."
"Oh, thank you!" His tone reversed from serious to lighthearted almost instantaneously. He sighed and began walking away, "I'll be home later for lunch!"
"I'm making chicken nuggets!" Xinck shouted, not caring who hears him.
"Again!" Roxas shouted back, "You made nuggets last week!"
"Too bad! Times are hard! Want any sauce! I imagine you're tired of just barbeque sauce!"
"Uh...sweet and sour!"
"Ugh!" Xinck groaned, "Fine, I'll have to go to the store, but Okay!"
"Thanks! See you later!" Eventually Roxas turned a corner and was gone, out of sight. Xinck was left alone just outside the store -like building that functioned as their home. It was a quaint neighborhood, not really middle-class but by no means poverty-stricken. It was peaceful and easy-going. The perfect place to have a normal life.
Xinck hated it with a passion.
Suddenly, as Xinck turned to go back in the house, their closest neighbor, an elderly, extremely nosy woman by the name of Ms. Lowsly, eyed Xinck from afar. Xinck hated her and he was more than sure she hated him. She had no idea how to mind her own business and seems to have been startled by Xinck and Roxas's shouting down the street.
"What the hell are you lookin' at, Ms. Lowsly?" Xinck snapped at her. Her curtains quickly ruffled as she pulled her head back into her home. "Hate this friggin' place..." he mumbled, slamming the door behind him.
Xinck hated it with a passion, but he only stayed for Roxas.
The walk to school was a plain one, as it always was. Everyday Roxas would go the exact same route: Up the street for two blocks, turn left and go straight down for 5 blocks, cross through Central Park, then continue for 3 more blocks and turn right to reach Northeast Southwest High School. Roxas was now on the end of the 5 block stretch that lead into Central Park. This was usually the part of his trek where he would take notice of the other kids who went to his school.
Roxas, for the most part, paid them no mind since they barely noticed his existence. This never sat well with him. On missions, he was supposed to go unnoticed, or blend in with the crowd so long as he went undetected. Axel adopted this same principal now that they were on the run, but Roxas didn't want that. Not anymore. He had a new life, a chance to actually be normal and experience whatever it was that kids his age did. Axel would say it was too dangerous, Xinck would say it was overrated, but Roxas didn't care. He had to try.
He just didn't know how. Three months of running from the Organization, living on 4 different worlds and attending his current school for three weeks, Roxas had hardly made any real social connections despite trying his best. But there was only this one girl...
"Hey! Blondie!"
A shiver tingled down his spine as the words permeated the air. "Oh, God, no..." Just on impulse Roxas kept walking, even speeding up in hopes of making it through the intersection before she caught up.
"Hey! Wait up!"
Roxas anxiously stood at the intersection, hoping traffic would stop just for him and giving him enough time to escape. She continued calling after him, he dared not look back. Roxas began to panic now and traffic showed no signs of stopping. He could hear her steps growing closer as she ran nearer and nearer.
"Bitch, I know you hear me!" She shouted.
"Oh, forget it!" Roxas exclaimed as he leaped into the street, dodging cars and running for the Park. Avoiding danger had become part of his muscle memory and while it might seem impossible, Roxas easily avoided each honking car. Tires skidded and people shouted through their windows, but there were no casualties or pileups. He safely made it across and dashed into a small thicket of trees, out of sight of that girl.
Roxas found himself breathing heavily as he hid behind a large Park tree. He was shocked that running through early morning traffic had shaken him up so much, especially since he had leaped off mountains, ran up skyscrapers and taken on whole armies without so much as breaking a sweat. Inching left to right and vice versa, he scanned the area and the girl was nowhere in sight. He was in the clear.
Roxas broke into a sprint towards the end of the park. He looked over his shoulder to make sure she wasn't following him anymore. He turned back when-
"Hey, you!" The girl shouted directly in his face.
"Gah!" He shrieked, his voice reaching several octaves higher than normal as he fell backwards onto his backside. Groaning, he looked up into the large green eyes of the most annoying girl he had ever met. She was oddly dressed, as always, sporting mid-calf black boots with her pants stylishly tucked in. she wore a paisley-like black and golden yellow shirt under a short black jacket with various charms and decorations attached. Wrapped around her waist was a belt-like accessory that wrapped around her once then fell behind her and ended in an arrow point like a devil's tail. Adding to the tails overall image was her hair accessory, a hairband with two points at the top like horns.
Her hair, Roxas observed, was brunette, but it was still odd. Though it was brunette, it was such a pale brown that it appeared pink to some degree. There was no hint of a dye or alteration, but her hair was naturally pink. Her bangs partially covered the left side of her face, but Roxas knew it was symmetrical. The shadows that played across her face, her overall appearance and mystique intrigued Roxas. He couldn't explain it, but she could easily be the center of his attention, taking the very air with her whenever she came by. She could do all this things, but then she would open her mouth and talk, and talk, and talk, and talk. And Roxas hated her for that.
"Oh, hey, you." Roxas started in a halfhearted stupor, "I didn't see you there..."
She had a beautiful voice, but she just wouldn't shut up, "Oh, that's fine, I mean I saw you jump into traffic and honestly I thought you were dead. But then I remembered when I jumped into traffic just a few months ago and nothing happened to me. I mean, a few people got in wrecks, but I was just fine. You know, Roxas, I've been thinking about this for a while, but do you have a last name? I mean usually the teachers call it out at the start of the day, but for you they haven't. So what is it?"
"Uh..." That question always caught him off guard. He, Axel and Xinck had never established an official surname. Sure they had created a few random ones out of momentary necessity, like, 'Lee', 'Alexander', 'Hellsing', or Xinck's favorite, the 'Anti-Kardashians'. But then, Roxas remembered something he caught Axel saying that he thought would apply best, "We don't have last names, we're like Cher."
Roxas finally answered back, "Oh, I don't have a last name, kinda like...uh...Bear." Why was he so bad at remembering celebrity names?
"Bear?"
Gotta make something up quick! He thought, "Yeah, just like bears. Animals don't have last names, so why should I?"
"Oh my god, you are so right. Animals don't bother comparing themselves to humans, so why should we do that? I mean, humans are basically animals when it comes down to it. So, Roxas No Last Name, how's your morning?" She started walking beside him as he made his way out of the park and back onto the city blocks. Roxas was trying to get away from her by walking faster, but she was keeping up easily. Roxas never answered her question because she started talking again, this time going into intimate detail about her morning. Roxas could have sworn she spent 3 minutes talking about everything that moved in her room as the wind blew in through the window. Her words bore into his brain and he could do nothing to make her stop. A simple 'shut up' would do nothing, since she seemed to automatically tune out any attempt to silence her.
Ever since Roxas had come here and began to attend the local high school, this girl had been there, just talking to him. He shared no classes with her, but she would walk to and from school with him most days. And the oddest thing was that during all this time he had never caught her name (He was sure he lost it during one of her many monologues).
Maybe its not so bad, he thought, the school coming into view. Roxas never thought that maybe this was as real as it gets, social-wise anyway. One person talks and talks and talks while the other person just listens and hopes their ear doesn't fall off. More often than not, that happened whenever Xinck or Axel talked to him. One thing Roxas-
"...Saw him running around in a black coat, I don't think he saw me, though..."
"What?" Roxas exclaimed, loud enough to silence his female companion, "What did you say about a black coat?"
"Mm?" Apparently she was so deep in the words that she had to stop and think exactly what she had said, "Black coat, yeah, a few nights ago. I saw a guy running around the city in a black coat. He looked busy, but not too busy, know what I mean? Like, he didn't have time to stop and chat with coffee, but if you stopped him he wouldn't mind telling you what's going on in his world. But I was tired and my sleeping pills were starting to kick in, so I just went to bed. Anyway-"
A black coat. Pictures of his former attire ran through his mind. The Organization was here. From what She was saying it sounded like they hadn't exactly located the house. It must be the charms and spells Xinck placed around it. But still, it would only be a matter of time before they found them.
What would Axel do? Of course he had to tell Axel, they had to leave as soon as-Roxas quickly stopped that train of thought. 4 worlds in three months was enough. In that time the Organization had found them in each world, attacking and trying to subdue them without a moments notice. But this time, this time Roxas had an opportunity to strike first before the Organization had a chance to ruin everything. He could strike first before Axel or Xinck had to worry.
Roxas and the Girl came to the steps of Northwest Southeast High School. As she continued talking, Roxas could only try to think of a plan of action. The only thing he had to go on was that the member was spotted at night. If so, then Roxas would have to go out on patrol. He'll go tonight as soon as Axel and Xinck fell asleep.
Finally, He thought, I can do something for them.
PREVIEW
Girl Samurai & Devil Boy
Even in the most dire of situations Xinck's mind can slip off into random thoughts. The mere fact that his body was under attack by Orphan didn't stop this from occurring.
"That last 'Harry Potter' movie was cool." Xinck said to himself, "I wonder if they talked to J.K. Rowling when they changed up some of the parts."
"Yeah, like the part where Snape dies in the boathouse, or the part where Harry's in limbo and he's supposed to be naked."
"Oddly enough I wanted to see that part. Oh, oh, and you know what was weird? When after Voldemort thought he killed Harry and he brought his body to the front of the school, he really looked fat didn't he?"
"Who? Harry?"
"No. Voldemort. He looked fat in that dingy green robe. I mean, yeah, he's powerful and everything, but what's power if you're ugly, you know? Oh, what was even weirder was when he hugged Draco. I bet that's uncomfortable."
"Oh, I know, right?" Xinck said, "Like what does the Dark Lord smell like? Probably old Fritos and Mayonnaise. I bet that was uncomfortable. Oh, hey, you might wanna pay attention."
"Mm? For what?"
"Orphan." He replied.
"Orphan? What about her?"
"She's about to cut your legs off."
"WHAT!" Xinck's eyes shot open to view Orphan holding him upside down, her blade, Sunyata, poised to slice through his left leg. "Hey, quit it!" Xinck tried wriggling free of her iron-clad grip, but she would not let go. Orphan reared back her blade and struck. At the last second, unable to get free, Xinck bent his captured leg and swing up to a 90 degree, narrowly missing the blade.
"Ha! Missed me, whore!" Xinck exclaimed. Orphan responded by gripping Xinck's ankle, raising him up over her head and slamming him back down onto the floor, cracking the white surface. "That all you got, eh?" Orphan lifted him up again and brought him back down, cracking the floor even further. Groaning, Xinck replied stubbornly, "You smash like a girl. An ugly girl! Oh!" Orphan hauled Xinck up again, this time bringing him down in the opposite direction, smashing his face on the floor, repeating the process over and over until her arm began to tire.
"Bah! O...okay, you...can stop now." Xinck sighed, his face bloody and smashed, "I'm starting to taste blood." Orphan was silent, only offering her glare as a response. His face healing, Xinck said, "You know, you really ought to try smiling. I don't do it because it's awkward, but it might work for you." Taking whatever strength he had, Xinck kicked upwards into Orphan's face with his free leg, but missed. As his body went upwards, he caught a glimpse of the great black creature situated a great distance behind him.
"Kurayami!" He bellowed to his Redux, "What the hell are you doing just sitting there!" Xinck had remembered that he hadn't ordered his Redux to do anything, as a result it just sat there, wagging its twin tails. "Get your rear in gear and help me! ENDER!" Before Xinck could receive a response, Orphan recovered and moved Sunyata into position over Xinck's head. Then, the shadow of Xinck's hound enveloped them both as the center head, dubbed Ender, moved into to strike with its jaw agape.
Orphan merely gazed directly into the dog's incoming maw. With Xinck still in her grip, she grabbed hold of his arm, spun him around and let him go, screaming and hollering into Ender's mouth as she jumped and sailed into the air. The dog smashed into the ground, making a large crater as its head impacted the white floor, unharmed, it slowly rose up.
"Agh! Agh! Agh!" Xinck hollered deep inside Ender's mouth, "You ate me, jackass!"
"Your dog cannot touch me! Ever!" Orphan proclaimed from the air above. Willing it so, her body shined and shimmered with a harsh red aura. The aura expanded around her into a sphere, radiating like a red dwarf star, "Brynhildr Star!" From the surface of the sphere, five meteor-like blasts of fire developed, arched downward.
The flames rained down, burning like comets and bombarding each head with concussive force, causing the dog to stumble nearly off balance. Ender's mouth opened from the attack, shaking Xinck loose and he fell from the incredible height. In mid-fall, he threw his chain for Erebos's collar and safely swung down to the floor.
"Shit!" Xinck exclaimed as he touched down. "How strong was that spell! It almost knocked him down, that's impossible!" Orphan's spell ended and she began her dive-bomb descent. Xinck's Inugami growled and hissed, each head recovering from the assault. Orphan re-situated herself in mid-air until she was directly above Ender, ready to attack. Xinck gasped, shouting, "Kurayami, move! Now!"
"No, you don't!" Orphan bellowed. Before the Redux could react or move, Orphan, using the full force of the fall, raised her leg and smashed down on Ender's nose. The sound of its howl echoed madly throughout as Orphan drove her foot so far down its nose, that it forced the entire dog and its upper body straight into the ground.
"Agaaggh!" Xinck was blown away as the impact caused a shockwave that forced him back. "No! Stop it, Orphan!" Inugami could be heard, groaning in confusion and growling in pain. This only added to Xinck's frustration. No human should be that powerful, ever.
Orphan touched down, unfazed by being directly in front of the wounded Ender's face. "This beast is a part of you, is it not?" She asked. She didn't wait for an answer, "Then the more pain I inflict on it, the more pain I cause you." With that, she took hold of Ender's upper lip with her bare hands, stomped on his bottom lip and began prying his mouth open.
For a second, Xinck was paralyzed by a sensation running through him that he could only compare to fear. Fear for himself, for his Redux which he saw as more of a pet than a weapon. He could do nothing as he watched the muscles in Orphan's body tense from afar, she braced her legs and in one swift, impossible jerking motion, she pulled on Ender's head, his neck and the entire bulk of Inugami was hauled into the air above her head. In less than a second, she flung the Redux down on her other side, a horrible SLAM! resounding throughout. She hollered, wasting no time in repeating the process, hauling the massive dog into the air again and slamming it back down.
"Once more." Orphan said. She gripped Ender again and prepared to pull. The great hound that was Inugami, for the first time since Xinck had discovered it deep inside himself, released a whine of fear. The same type of whine that a normal dog would sound when it was scared or in pain. Despite everything, it was still an animal, and Xinck, despite everything, was still a child. Before Xinck knew exactly what he was doing, he was already dashing for Orphan.
"GET YOUR FUCKING HANDS OFF MY DOG!" All of his strength and speed went into his attack. He never had qualms about hitting a woman, making this evident by contacting her face with his fist. The punch caught her off guard and Xinck briefly saw shock in her gorgeous emerald eyes. The attack ripped her away from Ender's head, sending her flying full-force into the charred ruins of the recently burnt-down Black Cathedral.
Xinck didn't wait to see if Orphan was still active, since he already had a feeling she was perfectly fine. He turned towards his Redux, kneeling down to it and hoping for the best. "Are you okay?" He asked, but expected no answer. The middle head was the most wounded, nothing noticeable but possible, while the other two, Tristitia and Erebos were merely confused.
The rustling of wood, metal and stone rumbled behind him, Xinck turned to see Orphan picking herself up from the rubble, her trademark look of both apathy and melancholy stapled to her face. "Finally." She said. "You're awake."
Xinck huffed, standing to his full height as his Redux recovered and stood tall behind him. "Fine!" He said, "I'll fight you, you big bully! You wanna kill me? You'll have to earn it!" Xinck raised a hand to the air, calling a single Thanatos blade to his hand. He recited,"You Were Asleep For A Thousand Years, The Way Your World Has Changed Will Bring You A Thousand Tears." This call to Tristitia received a wailing cry from the right-most head of Inugami. It disappeared, fading and dissolving into black ash that settled around Xinck.
Orphan responded by calling her curved black blade back to her. She ran a single finger along the length of the blade, "Sunyata." She said, and the blade smoked and blazed in a plume of black and purple flame.
Xinck commanded the remainder of Inugami to get as far back as possible. He wanted no more casualties on his part. Turning back to Orphan, he brandished his Thanatos blade and hollered, "Scream! Tristitia!" Thanatos flashed red and the blade shattered into shrapnel. A flurry of a black snake-like creature with the face of a hound expounded from the hilt, growing in massive size and curling upward above Xinck. Tristitia curled into itself, hiding behind its elongated body, but for only a moment. Then, a whisper, a moan briefly emanated from the creature, before it opened its mouth and produced a terrible, inhumane screech.
"Go!" Xinck hurled Tristitia through the air, wailing a horrible scream as it went. Tristitia closed the gap between Xinck and Orphan almost instantly, Orphan had no choice but to jump left out of the way, letting Tristitia nosedive into the Cathedral rubble. "You're not getting away!" Xinck pulled back on Tristitia, hauling it from the rubble, then sent it out after Orphan once more.
"Just keep running, Orphan!" Xinck howled jubilantly, his concern and demeanor changing with Orphan on the run. Xinck trusts Tristitia behind her and missed as she ducked down just out of reach of its jaws.
Orphan offered no witty banter in return, no comment or remark, Xinck noticed. Her lack of verbal interaction with him only backed her justification in seeking revenge on him. Xinck hated this, he hated having nothing to work with. He wouldn't have minded at all if she gave him nothing but threats, but don't leave him there alone in a brutal silence.
Xinck sneered and tightened his grip on Tristitia, "I'll make you talk to me." He seethed. Orphan was quick, almost to quick for Tristitia, but Xinck did not want to wait for her to tire out. If she even could. He pulled back on Tristitia, calling the snake-like dog back into the portal on his hilt nearly instantaneously, reforming the blade. Orphan stopped in her tracks, seeing Xinck retreat, she dashed for him. He shouted with force, "Become Framed In The Depths of My Jaws!" He pointed Tristitia downward, a bottomless darkness materializing at his words. "Scream!" He thrust Tristitia down into the shadows, wailing madly.
"Hey, Orphan, check it out!" Xinck laughed. Just below Orphan the black portal appeared, Tristitia fired forth, mouth agape and shooting for the ceiling. Orphan was caught just outside of Tristitia's mouth, her blade caught in its teeth.
"Damn beast." Orphan shouted.
"Yes! Now strangle her!" Xinck pulled his dog back, just enough to release Orphan, leaving her suspended in air for only a second. Willing it so, Tristitia went in for the kill.
Time slowed, nearly stopping with Orphan staring down the throat of Tristitia and Xinck with anticipation in his eyes. Anticipation that would become disappointment. Orphan's expression had not changed at all since the fight had begun, she had not broken a sweat and she barely said more than what was necessary. Those cold, pulsing emerald eyes were all Xinck could focus on as his darkness drew in closer to swallow her.
Time resumed. Orphan opened her mouth, reciting quickly, "Ubique Reflect!" Popping into life around her, a shining orange sphere of translucent energy encased her in midair. Tristitia curled about her, hurriedly wrapping itself around the sphere several times until the light of the sphere was completely cloaked in darkness.
"Squeeze!" Xinck commanded and his Redux obeyed. Tristitia constricted, immediately delivering 1000 megatons of force on Orphan's force-field. A cracking, shattering sound exploded throughout and the orange light faded just as Tristitia constricted even further. Orange shards of light fell to the ground like broken glass, fading into nothing. "Ha ha!" Xinck cackled madly, "I took them all to the grave, Orphan! All of them! Men, woman...and children..." He laughed, but stopped suddenly, his voice taking on a more harsher tone, " I beg your pardon, its quite hard enough just living with the stuff I have learned."
He received no reply. He could not tell if she were dead or not. "Why don't we just part ways, leave as we are, but, you know, stay contacted through email for the next decade or two. Then, we can can meet up again at a hotel reunion and pretend that we aren't having an awkward conversation, eh?"
Once again, he received no reply, other than a sudden, ear-piercing scream from Tristitia. Gazing up, Xinck saw a sword point, bathed in purple and black energy effortlessly tear through his dog's skeletal body. "No, No, No, No, NO!" The sword began tearing and slashing through the darkness, like a blade splitting a curtain. Tristitia screamed, the bulk of its body exploding and raining to the ground as large globs of blackness. Whatever was left came reeling back to Xinck, who stood there too stunned to move.
Orphan fell like a shooting star, blade poised as she came down on Xinck"Just Die!" She roared. In a moment, she was on him, her blade came down on his face and struck out his right eye in a bloody strike.
Xinck dropped his swords and wailed, grabbing and cradling his face. "Agh! Agh! Nagghhh-ahh!" He cried out, his tears and blood from his empty eye-socket mixed and streamed down his face. Orphan watched Xinck roll around, letting his blood pool around him. Yards away from them both, Orphan spied the full bulk of Xinck's Redux twitching and whimpering as Tristitia's head reappeared. It came back, but it was, in fact, dead. The rightmost head was broken, limp, it's eyes closed, jaw open and tongue dangling out listlessly.
Inugami finally regained itself, the remaining two heads with their teeth bared broke into a run to aid its fallen master. Orphan raised her sword. "NO!" Xinck managed to screech, "Stay back!" The panic in his only remaining eye stopped the behemoth and his sheer will forced it to dissolve into a cloud of blackness. He had to end his Redux. If Orphan inflicted any more damage to his dog, Xinck would have faded away along with it.
The Desolate One spoke, regaining Xinck's attention, "If the eye causes you to sin" Orphan reached down into the pool of blood tears and retrieved Xinck's fallen eyeball, grabbing it by the optical nerve, "Pluck it out." She squeezed the eye in her grip, letting it ooze out between her fingers.
"Its not enough that you want to kill me." Xinck seethed, his hand covering his exposed eye-socket, "You just want to make me suffer!"
"Yes! You get it. Killing you would be nothing! You'd learn...nothing." She said, kicking Xinck in his ribs to turn him over onto his back. "How many killing blows have I given you since we started? 15? 20? We still have a multitude left to go before I let you die, even then, it will be slow, I'll take my time."
"Then what?" Xinck shot back, "After you kill me? You don't seem like the type of girl who lets a grudge go that easily. What, are you gonna follow me into Hell or the Realm of Darkness and fuck me over there, too?"
"Yes." Was her simple reply. Orphan raised her leg and stomped it down onto Xinck's wrist. After she wrestled with the hand covering his opened eye socket, she stomped on that wrist as well, keeping him from protecting his face. Then, she produced the black, curved blade of Sunyata again, "This blade is created from a compound composed of Nth metal, Stygian Iron, and several other materials that are used in the creation of Zanpakuto. I created this sword myself, everything that it is, it is for a purpose."
"Ugh." Xinck groaned, "Why do you sword guys always have to talk about how cool your swords are? I don't do that! Agh!" Orphan stopped his talking by driving her heels into the tender parts of his wrists.
"Listen, for this last part concerns you. The materials used in Sunyata's creation allow it two abilities SPECIFICALLY designed to kill you. The first ability you witnessed when I destroyed your snake." With that, she presented Sunyata to Xinck and called its name, the blade flamed with a black and purple plume, "Calling its name gives me the ability to cut through darkness. Your elemental power has no effect on me, no matter how strong it is."
'She can cut through Darkness?' Xinck thought, 'That's how she killed Tristitia, slicing through him like he was water!'
"And my second ability, which I will finally use to end your life..." The Desolate One placed the very tip of Sunyata's blade at the bottom of Xinck's left eyelid. He flinched noticeably, trying his best to save his remaining eye. "Enclose, Sunyata." A faint, emerald green flare enveloped Sunyata's black blade and Orphan placed it gingerly on Xinck's skin. It burned, not just his flesh, or his face, but his soul. He could feel it deep down inside of him as she drew the blade down, leaving a darkness black line under his eye all the way down to his chin. A tear line, to match the ones Orphan had underneath her eyes.
"Sunyata's second ability destroys the healing factor around whatever wound I inflict. That mark, MY mark, will never heal. No matter where you go, in this life or the next, I will always find you."
"I Will always find you." Those words burned into Xinck's brain, worse than the Mark of Orphan burning into his soul. No matter where he went, or what he did, she would always be there. There to make him suffer for what he did to her. That was her logic, her insane logic, but it couldn't simply be revenge. Killing the same person over and over again for closure? That was illogical, Xinck knew it and something in her had to know it as well. Orphan was beyond obsessed with him.
"I can't believe...that you are SO OBSESSED WITH ME! That you would throw your life, your soul away!"
"YOU STOLE MY LIFE FROM ME! YOU TOOK EVERYTHING FROM ME!" Orphan grabbed Xinck by the throat and hauled him up to her level with ease, "It is not obsession to seek Justice!"
"Justice!" Xinck croaked, "Justice with malice as the forethought is just revenge. All you want is closure, Orphan! Killing me for the rest of your life and then some isn't going to give you what you want!"
"LIAR!" Orphan struck Xinck across the face, flinging more eye blood from his socket. She hurled him downward onto the floor, bashing his head into the already cracked floor, "You know nothing about me! You don't deserve to! All you deserve is damnation, so lay there and die!"
Struggling to breath, Orphan's iron-grip flattening his windpipe, Xinck managed to crack the slightest hint of a grin, "I'm not dying by your hand, you don't deserve to kill me." His grin grew wider as Orphan's eyes grew in anger, that amazing emerald hue grew in intensity and power. But something even brighter dwarfed Orphan's eyes with its radiance. That stone of sparkling azure that nestled itself just above her breasts.
"Magical pocket!" Orphan tossed Xinck away, sending him sliding along the floor. He recovered and pulled himself up just in time to see Orphan reaching behind her to the small of her back and the azure stone pulsing with her words. A brief light shined, quick and bright, and when Orphan reproduced her arms Sunyata was gone and she held onto a pair of silver guns. She braced herself and unloaded round after round into Xinck.
"Ow, ow, quit it! Stop! Ow! Dammit!" At least a dozen bullets embedded themselves into his torso, normal bullets, luckily. They hurt, but they were nowhere near fatal. "Ugh! Ow! I said Quit It! Blizzagun! " Xinck swung his arm at its full length in a circle, generating cool air at the center of his palm. He opened his hand and fired off a straight beam of freezing blue energy. The beam missed Orphan as she jumped, taking off into the air.
"Meteors of Heaven!" Her commands tore through the space around her and the air began to waver and tear,"Unleash Thy Fury!" A hole tore itself open above her, revealing a view into a hellish and chaotic region of outer space filled to the brim with debris. That same debris became caught by Orphan's magic and was pulled through the hole, dozens of meteors came storming through.
The meteors ripped through the air, blinding with blue fire. Yards away and coming in fast, Xinck prepared himself. He moved his hands about him just as a shining blue aura moved its way up his back and along his arms, "Seoshi!" He exclaimed, his magic constructing a clear, transparent dome around him.
The dome held up perfectly, protecting Xinck from the onslaught of space rocks that bombarded his shield. As long as he kept his magical energy in balance, it would hold against her assault. Orphan had power, more power than a human should have. This made no sense to Xinck. As long as he had been fighting her, combined with the fact that she was using nothing but high level spells like Abaddon Flare, Brynhildr Star and Ubique Reflect, meant that she should have tired out. Or at the very least used an Ether to recharge her magical energy. It had to be the gem above her breasts, it glistened and shined as she spoke, there could be no other reason explaining her level of power.
He knew he could no longer depend on his darkness to battle Orphan, not if her power worked on the nullification of that aspect. Xinck would have to use everything else in his arsenal to gain the advantage, all his magical knowledge, whatever objects he had in his knapsack and, if it came down to it, his Necrokinetic power.
Finally, Orphan abandoned her spell, the meteors stopped and the portal closed. She descended once more and fell onto the magical dome. "Get off!" Xinck shouted.
"Bath'silo Da!" Sunyata reappeared in her right hand, while a long sword made of solid white energy materialized in her left. She struck the dome with her white sword, easily slicing through the top, and the rest shattered, exposing Xinck to an attack from Sunyata. He blocked just in time with Thanatos, and parried another strike from her white sword.
"Tell me, Orphan." Xinck groaned, following a series of blocked strikes and parries, "If you hate me, can I assume that you hate all Nobodies? We're all cut from the same clothe. You worked with Xibre, right? You must hate yourself for-"
"You can't goad me." Orphan cut in, missing as she struck for Xinck's face, "Don't even try!" Temporarily missing an eye, he was still capable of holding his own with a sword pair, but Orphan was more than willing to stomp on his prowess.
"So your twisted form of 'Justice' is what turned you into such a humorless girl-dick? Rah!"
"Hah!" The duo were locked in arms, swords crossed in an impasse. Both of them pushing against the other one and making no progress. Orphan, glaring Xinck in his eye, Xinck staring at the pulsing blue gem just under her neck. Its inner colors swirling, almost pulsing with a living presence of its own.
"Justice." Orphan's words brought Xinck away from the gem and into her ferocious gaze, "Revenge. Whatever. They're just words, same words, different words, to different people, same people. It doesn't matter. Justice won't come to the small child who screamed so loud at the horror she witnessed, that her hair turned white. I want you to know that I'm not waiting for Revenge to be given. I didn't sacrifice 20 years of my life for Justice to be handed to me. The only real thing in this world...is the Justice you take!"
In Giving Every Man His Due
(A/N: Okay, uh...I kinda ended this a bit soon, I'm still on page Eighteen and I set myself to at least have a minimum of Twenty pages. So...um...here's this...)
"I'm not awful." Aqua said, "I'm just trying to keep everyone safe." The Keyblade master walked the streets of the city of light, Radiant Garden, her thoughts on the meeting between her two dearest friends. Ventus gone and Terra angry at her, her mission was burdensome already and she didn't need her friend's weighing so heavily on her heart.
Aqua rounded a corner into an alleyway that led from a series of houses into the town square. Just as she did-, "Hey!" She exclaimed, turning around to see a boy with flaming red hair running away from her.
"Yeah, I did it, Isa! I told you I could!" He yelled triumphantly, "I touched her butt, you owe me munny!"
"You little bastard!" Before the boy was too far out of range, Aqua reached and grabbed a rock the size of her fist and hurled it at the back of his head.
"Agh!" The boy's shrill shriek was cut off when he collided face-first into the cobblestone ground at the feet of a boy with spiky blue hair and aquamarine eyes. "Uh...
"The bet was to cup a cheek with your palm." Isa said, "Not goose her with your finger. I owe you nothing."
Aqua shook her head at the boys' behavior as she left them and came into the Town Square. She was thankful Ventus never acted like that.
The Town Square was a nice sized plaza, the exact center of the city, which meant that the most important places where within walking distance. As Aqua walked into its center, she found the gates that led to the Castle to her right, a passageway that led to the Outer Gardens to her left and an alleyway that led to a residential neighborhood in front of her.
From what Aqua had already seen of Radiant Garden she knew why it was dubbed "The City of Light". It was beautiful. Nothing more needed to be said, for it simply was. The fountains that shot sparkling water into the air made everything almost glisten and glow, the water droplets fell lazily through the sky like star dust. Aqua hoped to one day see this pleasant world at night one time. It would have to look even more brilliant, she thought.
Just then, coming out of the alleyway in front of her was a man, or a boy in a mask. Aqua seemed to notice him before he noticed her. He was dressed in a battle suit, red, black, and seemingly organic in nature and appearance. Hanging of his waist was a cloth that seemed close to a skirt, but it was open in front and was more like a waist cape. The mask he wore covered his entire head and neck, and the visor in front of it was black like a never ending void, cold and alone.
As the boy walked along the sidewalk, in his grip was a large cup with the words "BIG GULP ORANGE SODA" written on the front in a logo. The straw through which he was sucking his beverage was long and when it came to his helmet, a small hole appeared just big enough for it to fit through.
Aqua braced herself, but the boy seemed to pay her no mind as he made loud, obnoxious sucking sounds. Aqua remembered Ventus mentioning fighting a boy in a mask. Who else could it be? This boy was not only stained with a dark presence, he radiated something more of that. He reeked of evil.
"A Mask! You're that boy Ve-" Aqua called out, but was interrupted. She caught the boys attention, but he didn't seem at all surprised to see her. He continued sucking on his drink, making even louder sucking noises that cut her off. He had reached the bottom of the cup, shaking it and the remaining ice and soda inside.
"You're that boy V-"
"BURP!" The boy burped, stopped drinking and smacked his lips. "It's good." He said.
"You're that b-"
"Orange is my favorite." He said, resuming his obnoxious sucking.
"Are you or are you not the boy Ventus mentioned!" She didn't know why she asked the question when she already knew the answer.
"AH!" The boy sighed, finally finishing his drink, he tossed it aside, "There's no better way to get your daily dose of vitamin C."
"Orange soda doesn't have any vitamins!"
"Yeah-huh." The boy said. "An Orange has Vitamin C, ergo Orange Soda has even more Vitamin C. Damn, you know, you're dumb for a smart girl."
"Tch!" Aqua growled just as her Keyblade, shined into her grip.
The boy chuckled, his tone changing as he spoke, "So. Ventus. Tell me something, has he learned to put up a decent fight yet?"
"What..do you mean!"
"I'LL BE ASKING THE QUESTIONS!" The boy snapped, flailing his arm for her silence. Once again, his tone changed back to calm and cool, "And why shouldn't I?" The boy braced himself as a twisted, mangled Keyblade shined into his grip, " After all, between the two of us, I'm the only one who will walk away from here alive."
"Guess again!" Aqua winded her blade in a circle, collecting a cold wind at the tip of her Keyblade, she fired off a salvo of spiked ice for the boy's head.
"Tch! Is that it?" The boy mocked, sidestepping the ice with ease. "Time for my theme song." With that, the boy bounded into the air, all the while humming a foreboding beat, which he long ago dubbed 'Enter the Darkness'. "Buh Buh Buh Bum Bum Bum Dun Dun Dun Dun Dun Dun Dun!" As he looked down on Aqua from above, she moved her Keyblade through the air, surrounding herself with a volley of fiery orbs.
"Firagadun!" She fired the attack, shooting dozens of fireballs for the boy as he entered his decent.
With an impossible ease, he dodged and spun and maneuvered out of the way of each blast. "Oh! Watch me go! Whoo!" Evading the final few blasts, he fell on Aqua and attacked, striking and bashing into her Keyblade with his own. Aqua ducked down, dodging a horizontal strike, she sprung up and arched her back into a flip while kicking the boy in the chin with her foot as she went.
"Gah!" The boy recoiled and backed away before taking off once again into the air. A quick twist and he charged his Keyblade, he fired off several thin bolts of black lightning, striking Aqua in her back and sending her to the ground. "Gotcha." The boy dived straight down into a black portal and was out of sight.
Aqua winced and shrieked in pain as her back began to bleed, the smell of her burnt flesh filling the air around her. "Cura!" A green light shined above her, exuding a mist that coated her back. Out of the corner of her eye, she witnessed the ground under her darken to a coal black and instinctively, she rolled out of the way as the Boy fired upward in a spiral.
"Suffer!" His spiraling conjured a torrent of fire balls crashing into the ground around Aqua as she dodged out of the way and onto her feet. The boy hit the ground and Aqua charged him from behind, striking against his back. He ducked, just narrowly avoiding the blade. He flipped himself over onto his hands and spun wildly, kicking at Aqua as she blocked with her blade, "Come on, come on, come on, COME ON!"
Aqua struggled to keep up with his speed, and his attack power was even better. She couldn't risk letting this go on any further. She needed to end it now. "Ha!" Aqua shot back on her foot, then fired off, flying for the boy and striking him against the stomach. She didn't let up, as he tumbled over, she grabbed him by the arm and threw him with all her might into the air.
"Agh! Seriously!"
Aqua reared back and charged her Keybalde, causing it to glow a shimmering white, "Farewell!" With all her strength, she hurled her Keyblade into the sky where it struck and dug into the Boy's front and knocking his head back at an unnatural angle. As he fell back to the ground, his blood fell like rain from his wounds. The boy hit the ground with a thud, the back of his head hitting first, and he was silent.
Aqua's blade returned to her hand as she cautiously made her way She had broken out into a cold sweat fighting this boy. If he was strong enough to make a Keyblade master break a sweat, Aqua thought, then this boy was a force to be reckon with. She stopped in her tracks, just before reaching the boy. Ventus was right. She had let being a Keyblade Master go to her head. If so, then maybe this boy was just serving as a reminder of humiliation.
"Who are you?" The boy wasn't breathing when she knelt down to him. Carefully, she raised a hand to his mask, even before reaching it, she could feel a cold energy surrounding it. Her fingers nearly went numb.
Suddenly, the boy inhaled and broke out into a fit of mad laughter, prompting Aqua to jump back and summon her blade in defense. But the Boy just laid there, laughing louder and louder. He kicked his feet and beat his fists on the pavement and neared mad screaming as his laughter grew.
"Oh!" The boy sighed, quieting down as his body healed, his suit repaired itself and the Boy finally stood to his feet. "Oh, man, not too bad, not too bad at all! Congratulations." With that, the space just behind the boy shifted and blackened, ripping open and creating a oval-shaped portal of Darkness. "I'll keep you around, bluebird. Never hurt to have a back up."
Aqua didn't move for her body was tired and she want to risk baiting him to attack again. All she could do was watch him leave.
"Now, watch this!" The boy said and he began scooting backwards into the darkness, Moon-walking so seamlessly towards the portal. "Oh! Dancin' in the shadows, its a moonwalk, it's a moonwalk, oh!" The shadows wrapped about his body and he was gone, leaving Aqua alone. For now, anyway.
And there it is. Remember, that first part was incomplete, so if it sounded interesting to enough people, let me know and I can do more. For the Second Xinck vs. Orphan part, I have a lot of stuff for that fight, and I wanted to get some of it out of the way and concentrate on Roxas's next encounter in Veridis Quo. And for the Birth by Sleep part, I realized that it would take too much to do a whole thing with it, so instead at the end of a few chapters in the future, I'll just write out a little dialogue and encounters between the characters. Just like the Aqua and Vanitas thing.
So, that's it. REVIEW!
