Here's chapter fifty - one. Thanks to Flightfoot, SkyWarrior2, KanjiKitsune, kingdomdisney, DaniPotterCedric'sGirl, caitlinkeitorin, kelseyluv2read16, NumberXIII, CatchingForRain, Confizzledworld, and Sora Tayuya for reviewing last chapter!
Chapter Fifty - One: Syndrome's Island
"Thanks for saving us," Violet said as they headed away.
"No problem," Shadow said in response before anyone else could.
"I'm Dash!" The boy was the first to formally introduce himself. "This is my sister, Violet."
Roxas nodded in response. "I'm Roxas."
"And I'm Shadow!" the brown haired girl proclaimed. "The guy with weird hair is Angel."
"Thanks for that wonderful introduction," came the sarcastic response.
"Your welcome!"
As the five trekked through the jungle, Roxas turned his gaze to the two newcomers in their odd, matching jumpsuits. He quirked an eyebrow at them, silently asking the question: What's going on here?
The girl, Violet, caught his question gaze and began hesitantly. "It all started when my dad got a strange letter that said to come and help stop some sort of monster that had appeared on a remote island. When he didn't come back after a while, my mom decided to go look for him."
She paused, and Roxas took the opportunity to ask a question. "Why was your dad called for this?"
"He's a super," Violet replied hesitantly.
"And I'll repeat my question; what's a super?" Shadow interrupted, coming into step with them and looking curiously at them.
"A super is someone with really cool abilities that normal people don't have," Dash replied.
"Oh, that's why you could run so fast!" Shadow exclaimed.
"Thank you, Shadow, for stating the obvious," Angel sighed. She stuck her tongue out at him, and a small smirk made its way onto his face.
Roxas didn't really bother to ask what went for 'normal.' "Do you have any powers?" he asked Violet curiously.
She gave a hesitant nod. "Yeah."
She didn't say anything else about them, so Roxas didn't press it. Instead, he said, "You said your mom went to look for him. So why are you here?"
"We snuck on board her plane," Dash replied.
"It was Dash's idea," Violet interrupted quickly. "Then the plane crashed, and use an mom hid in a cave, and those creatures attacked, but we were saved by another stranger…"
"Stranger?" Angel inquired. Roxas knew what he must be thinking; It might be a Time Racer.
"Yeah. Somebody calling himself the Phoenix," Violet responded.
"Hey, that's the second time we've heard of him!" Shadow exclaimed.
"The second time?" Violet asked.
"We…just heard of him somewhere else." Roxas gave a nod to her to encourage her to keep going.
She nodded back and continued. "Well, after the Phoenix saved us from those white things - you called them Nobodies, right? - we asked him where they'd come from. He told us they were wanderers, but would listen to anybody strong enough, and that, right now, they were listening to a guy named Syndrome. Then he just…left." She shook her head. "Anyway, Mom thought that whoever Syndrome was might be keeping Dad prisoner, so she went to look for him. That was a few days ago."
Roxas's eyes clouded in sympathy. He couldn't help saying the words that came next; "Maybe we could help."
The siblings looked at him in surprise. "Really?" Dash exclaimed.
"Duh!" Shadow said, grinning. "It's kind of what we do."
"Oh, yeah, that reminds me," Dash said suddenly, "what was that key-looking thing you had?"
In response, Roxas stopped and summoned the Kingdom Key to his hand in a burst of light. "It's called the Keyblade."
"That thing's awesome!" Dash said excitedly. "Does it do anything other than beat up monsters?"
"Well, it gives some the ability to use magic," Roxas replied. "Not really me, but…Keyblades can only be wielded by certain people."
"Cool," Dash said, staring longingly at the weapon.
"And…how did you know what the Nobodies were?" Violet asked.
"I…I've been fighting them a long time," Roxas replied, dismissing the Keyblade. He wasn't really sure he wanted to tell them he was one.
Thankfully, Shadow had enough sense not to add it in. Instead, she said, "So, when are we going to go get this Syndrome guy?"
Angel glanced towards the sky. "Helping's fine, but we can't just go running in there."
"Why not?" the brown haired girl pouted.
"Some of us like to keep the skin on our bodies."
"Stop arguing," Roxas sighed. "We can make plans when we find somewhere to camp." No one argued with that idea, so he took the lead and they continued to make their way across Syndrome's Island.
Darkness had fallen over the land, but the group still weren't entirely sure on what they were going to do. Finally, Roxas had suggested going to find Syndrome's lair the next day, and then make their plans from there. Everyone agreed to the plan, though Angel felt somewhat reluctant to do so. It was one thing to go into a small-scale battle without any planning, but quite another to jump into something this big with no idea what they were going to do. Of course, he guessed they didn't really have much choice…
"Can't sleep?" a voice asked.
Angel looked up in surprise as Shadow walked towards him. "Do you want something?"
She held up her hands. "Hey, don't get mad. You just looked all gloomy and I wanted to know what was wrong."
"I just don't like going into this unprepared," he responded.
"Oh, come on, I do it all the time!" Shadow responded with a cheeky grin.
"But that's you," he hissed in response.
Her grin faded. "Angel…" For once, she seemed at a total loss for words. Several moments of silence passed by before she finally spoke up again. "I guess I don't really know what I can tell you. Just…follow your heart?"
He flinched at the words. Follow your heart. "I've heard that one before. Look where it got me."
"What? You mean the whole Time Racers thing?" Shadow shrugged, a small smile returning to her lips. "Maybe you weren't listening hard enough."
For some reason, that managed to get a small laugh out of him, and he looked up towards the sky. "I wish I'd never been given those powers in the first place."
"Uh, truthfully, me too," Shadow informed him. "Then we wouldn't be in this mess." His eyes closed slightly. "But," and here Angel looked down to meet her gaze as she spoke, "you can't really do anything about it now. You're like one of the supers from this world. You have really awesome powers, and you could do them to do a lot of good, as well as a lot of bad. But you have to make that choice." He felt his eyes widening. The girl before him gave him her trade-mark grin and a shrug before turning around and heading away.
He lowered his head to look into his lap. He wasn't sure which surprised him more; the words themselves or the fact that they came from Shadow. A small laugh escaped his lips. "For all your flaws, Shadow, sometimes you actually can give some good advice." He knew she would've have heard him, but that didn't matter. Right now, his mind was focused on one particular memory of his; one of brighter days:
"Sira, you seen Zylen anywhere?"
A young girl turned her gaze towards him. "No, not recently."
A much younger Angel sighed. "Ah, man. I was hoping to show him these." He held out his hands to show her what was in them.
She frowned when she looked at them. "Rocks?"
"Well, not just rocks," he argued quickly. "Look at them!"
Sira examined them closer. "They are kind of weird looking. How'd you find them?"
He shrugged. "I just went out to see if I could find any of you guys to play with, and they were there."
A small grin spread across his friend's face. "Maybe your heart lead you to them."
"My heart?" The young boy was somewhat skeptical of the idea.
Sira nodded. "Yeah. You're heart can do a lot of things." She looked suddenly shy, and she slowly folded his fingers over the rocks. "Always…follow your heart."
He returned from his memories to the present, a small tear threatening to escape. Mist was slowly beginning to spiral around him. Maybe…he could go back and look at some of those brighter memories more clearly…
Then the memory of Sira's death hit him like a rock, and the mist that had begin forming disappeared. No…I can't. He shook his head forcefully, his eyes clouding with pain. I can't use those powers again.
Hilran wasn't really sure what she should be doing at this point and time. Any hunts for Roxas and any possible ones for Lea were put aside because of the knowledge the Keyblade - wielding Nobody now possessed. She really wanted to go out to some world and pass the time destroying some Heartless, but Zylen had made it clear that that would not be a good idea. And, truthfully, the leader of the Time Racers scared her. If he could do something so bad to Angel, his best friend, what would he be willing to do to one of them?
She paused when she saw an unusual shadow hugging the wall. She summoned her pole-arm and lanced out her weapon at it. "Who are you?" she hissed, harassing the unknown shadow with the tip of one of the blades.
The shadow held up its hands in a defensive gesture. "Easy, Hilran. It's me."
"Kisue?" The Time Racer snorted with frustration, letting her weapon return to the place it had once come from.
"You sound disappointed," the other Time Racer commented, stepping out of the shadows.
"I was hoping it was Lea," she hissed, "or some Heartless that was dumb enough to come here."
"It's getting to you too, then, isn't it?"
"What's getting to me?"
Kisue gave her an intense stare. "Zylen's plan."
Inwardly, she cringed. Outwardly, she snapped, "I don't know what you're talking about!"
Kisue went on as if he hadn't heard her protest. "It's crazy. Everything was going so well until the newest Keyblade Master stabbed himself with that Keyblade Zylen has hidden away. Then everything started to unravel."
"Obviously," Hilran growled with a roll of her eyes.
Kisue turned his eyes out to the darkness that forever shrouded the castle lost to time. "It feels like we're trapped here. Forever imprisoned, with any hope of escape shadowed by Zylen's darkness." He shivered, and she couldn't really blame him for that. "Maybe it's time we thought of leaving this place behind."
Her eyes widened in surprise. "Are you insane? Zylen wouldn't rest until we were dead!"
He turned his eyes back to her. "You hate being stuck here as much as I do. I can see it in your eyes."
She jerked her chin up. "Maybe I do. But I can tell it's for different reasons than you."
A small smirk edged its way onto his lips. "Fear and a desire for revenge against the warrior who outsmarted you." She gritted her teeth and glared at him. His smirk faded, and he slowly lifted his hood over his head. "Just a thought. But who knows? Maybe Zylen will come through before anything has to be done." As he walked away, he called over his shoulder, "Only time will tell."
Hilran snorted. She lifted her head to look at the crumbling stone ceiling above her. "Always, it comes back to that."
That's the end of chapter fifty - one. Review, please?
