Back in Castle Oblivion
"That makes no sense! I mean, yeah, the human body can fix itself after just about anything. But, how can a guy with one eye have such well-adjusted depth perception to have that kind of near-perfect aim!" Rachel exclaimed.
"I never liked him all that much but I liked him a lot better when he wasn't shooting at me." Lea said, rubbing at the parts that stung.
"Well," Bryan suggested. "Maybe he's got a scope under that eyepatch."
Lea froze, his expression that of someone trying hard not to laugh. It shouldn't have been funny but it was.
"You know," He said, clearing his throat so not to chuckle. "It wouldn't surprise me a bit if you're right."
There hadn't been a lot of options other than to accept the challenge after Xigbar initiated it. Of course he knew the advantage was his so long as he kept to the high ground. And he did. The treasure room of the giant's castle had plenty of large piles of gold, boxes and shelves and he made sure to keep to them however he could. Not only could he not be hit by close-quarter attacks, but he maintained his special ability as a Nobody to manipulate Space to a degree. Even a misfired bullet could change direction mid-shot. He could also keep himself a step ahead or away from them by changing where he stood in any space even by a little. Even flying via pixie dust had its drawbacks as the aforementioned bullets could change direction. After ducking the barrage, Xigbar would have moved.
Finally after going round and round with little progress, Rachel made use of her Shadow. That was the wildcard they needed.
Years ago Rachel had been bitten with a thought that intrigued her for a long time. When she first met Peter Pan she had been amazed that his shadow was alive. A crazy hypothesis formed that maybe his shadow was a manifestation of his own Darkness. It was still a part of him but its own entity complete with personality. She had no proof to support that theory regarding Peter but had succeeded in bridging the gap between thought and fact for herself.
When she first called the Shadow it would cover most of her body and head like some awesome super villain outfit. From there it could fission away and become a three-dimensional figure. That was exactly what it did. And much like a Shadow Heartless, Rachel's could flatten itself and move fluidly across any surface. Doing so it skated easily up the mountain of treasure and grabbed Xigbar by the foot. There wasn't a lot he could do about dislodging it either. Just like a Shadow Heartless, it was impossible to hit while flat. Getting closer for the attack was much easier when he couldn't move.
But, while effective, the tactic was short-lived. Xigbar was not the fool to ignore the signs of an advantage lost. And not one to take unnecessary chances with the finish line in sight he also knew when to cut his losses. Xigbar opened a dark door around himself was gone. The battle ended as quickly as it started.
"Coward," Lea growled.
"He who turns and runs away,"
"Please, no clichés."
"I don't think he was ever serious about fighting us."
"Oh? Forgive the sarcasm but how'd you stumble upon that conclusion?"
"I think we all know that from the start. It was just to keep us busy with something dumb. I'm just glad we didn't have to waste any more energy than we had to."
A howl stopped the chatter.
"I think Seger found the door."
"Not like that fills me with the warm and fuzzies; considering the track record."
Rachel dismissed her shadow and the trio made for yet another door.
"Before we go through," Lea said. "Absolutely no new ideas to end this cycle? I know we're all tired of being stuck like rats led around in Xehanort's little maze."
"Your motion is seconded and thirded but as much as I don't like it no knew strokes of genius have hit me." Bryan replied. "Not to mention the difficulty I'm having concentrating with all this noise."
"Actually,"
"Of course a Rachel-ism is going to save us."
"Can the sarcasm, Lea. Bryan, you said something earlier about striking the walls all at once. Was there a reason behind that?"
"Well…kinda."
"Share?"
"I, well it seems a little silly now,"
"We'll be the judge of that. Now spill."
"I was actually thinking of something like an overload."
"Overload?"
"Combination of understanding sound frequency and watching Cid work on his computers from over his shoulder."
"Well that doesn't make a lot of sense. So please, keep talking."
"I'll explain both ways. You how sound waves-nope. Both of you come here first."
"Um, okay. What for?"
"I'm not going any further until the throbbing in my head stops."
Bryan sat down on a treasure chest. He grabbed Lea's jacket and pulled him down next to him. He then put his hand on Lea's shoulder and closed his eyes.
"What are you doing?"
"Pardon the intrusion but I'm listening to your Heart Song."
"You could have at least bought me a drink first."
"Shut up."
"Both of you hush. It's working though?"
"Yeah. And might I add I'm surprised? Gosh, Lea. You act all smooth and strong on the outside but you're really just a big kitten chasing a laser light aren't you?"
"I'm just multi-dimensional that way. Rachel, stop giggling."
"I'm feeling a lot of references to something like an impossible dream?"
"Actually…yes. Isn't that the name of the song you shared with me?" Lea asked Rachel.
"Yeah. Those were the words I heard."
"How did it go?" Bryan asked.
Rachel looked to Lea. He nodded so she sang the last of it.
"This is my quest to follow that star. No matter how hopeless, no matter how far.
To be willing to give when there's no more to give. To be willing to die so that honor and justice may live.
And I know if I'll only be true to this glorious quest that my heart will lie peaceful and calm when I'm laid to my rest.
And all the world will be better for this. That one man, scorned and covered will scars, still strove with his last ounce of courage to reach the unreachable star."
"I'm sensing about the same."
"What exactly do you mean, 'sense'? You talk about your gift a lot but there's still so much that's hard to understand."
"Ever listen to just the music of something and different adjectives go through your head as you do? Slow, gentle, fast, skippy, boring, aggressive, flow-y, yada-ya. Maybe even colors and shapes? The combination of all of those maybe make a little movie of images and feelings in your head. You hear fast, high-pitched flutes and maybe you picture a bunch of songbirds singing. Low kettle drums might make you picture a dark thundery storm? That's kinda what it is. I hear the music of your heart and each part of the score creates a feeling as clearly as a well-written sentence."
"That helps. Is it helping you?"
"A lot. And may I add that I really feel a lot closer to you now, Lea?"
"Shut up."
"So now that your head is less of a train wreck, we're circling back to the explanation you started, right?"
"Yeah. So different sound frequencies can be seen as different squiggly lines,"
"Like a sine graph," Rachel confirmed.
"Yeah, sure. If you play its' opposite at the same time, the signals will eventually cross and cancel each other out. The two clash and stop. I was there once when Cid was doing some…something. I'm kinda getting interested in computer gimmicks to be honest and he was the best person to ask. Cid was making something but the whole thing all but literally went up in smoke. He said he made a mistake with how much power the server thing had. He tried to run his program whatsit thing but there wasn't enough computing power or whatever."
"Rachel, can you translate what he's trying to say with an analogy I can understand?"
"If I could say with certainty what he's getting at I would."
"Great. Now I've gotta think like her. Um, oh! Okay. Rachel, think about in terms of magic. The very first day we came to the Tower and you learned you could use magic, would you have been at all capable of doing some of the spells you know now?
"Capable? A few spells come to mind that the answer would have been absolutely not."
"What would have happened to you if you were to try?"
"Probably get knocked flat. Maybe even knocked out."
"Keep going,"
"Um, well, Master has told me I've got, as he put it, the deepest wellspring of magic of any student he's ever had. Flattering, yes but I'll just stick with the well metaphor. Think of a deep well but the water is way at the bottom. Practice and dedication brings the water level up. The higher it is to the top the easier it is to perform complicated magic. So if I were, say, at the bottom and tried to perform a spell that required the well to be at least half-full-."
"It wouldn't work?"
"Ultimately, no. But not right away. The magic within me would push itself to reach the level asked of it to pull off the spell. It would fail but I'd be feeling the pain from the effort. Like the day after trying to running a marathon without training for it first only in a much shorter span of time."
"You'd be overloaded."
"With a whoppin' headache on top. And that would be all, if I was lucky."
"Guys, guys, as fascinating as this is, what does it do to get us out of here? We had an original topic about a year ago we kinda veered away from. Bryan's the one talking and even Seger's getting bored."
"Right, right. Sorry." Bryan said. "Think of the crashed servers or the magic stretching itself too far. This place has magic, right? Some kind of unnamed power? Xehanort knows this and has found a way to shuffle it around to serve his purposes."
"To a degree, yes." Lea agreed. "Obviously if he could tame the castle completely he would've found the Chamber of Awakening a long time ago."
"Right. But in order to do that, his own power would have to serve as the string that pulls things around. He's got enough strings on the marionette to make it do a light samba but not an aggressive tango."
"Beautiful analogy. I'm so proud."
"Not to be rude but we're still on a bit of a deadline. Spit it out already."
"Xehanort's power isn't supposed to be here. It's a foreign power woven within the power of the castle. What if we tried to do the same? Flood the very walls with our own magic. I doubt even all three of us would be able to overpower Xehanort's hold on the castle to the point of taking the reins ourselves. Not like we would know how if we could. But we could try to short it out enough to maybe break the cycle. We'd flood it with so much magic it would be like the servers crashing."
"Too much information is trying to get through at once so the whole thing stops because it doesn't know how to contain it all." Rachel confirmed.
"Exactly."
"First of all, if you agree with her, why didn't you lead with that description in the first place? You know how much time we could have saved?" Lea asked, annoyed.
"I felt context was necessary," Bryan defended with an inflection of sarcasm.
"Second, as good as this sounds in theory, any idea what the actual percentage of success might be? And even if it's guaranteed to work, how much of our own energy would it need? We could make it that Sora, Riku and Kairi could get back to each other but leave ourselves as sitting ducks unable to stand."
"Your concern is valid. But what other option do we have than to at least give it a shot?"
"She's right. Besides, if it were to work I think the three of us would be the best to do it."
"I have a feeling you're not saying that because we're the best looking."
"Think about it. I can control sound and music itself. Rachel's gotta have more magic potential than the other five of us combined."
"Aw shucks,"
"And you're an Elemental. The very essence of Fire is woven within your soul itself. You can't exactly run out of that kind of power."
"I'd beg to differ on that point but we'll ignore that for now."
Seger huffed and stomped his cloven hoof on the floor.
"And of course we'll have the firepower of a dream wolf. Of course I didn't forget you."
"Should we try it in here or the next white room?" Rachel asked.
"I say the white room." Lea answered. "It's easier to go full-throttle on something that annoys you."
