Wings of Avalon: Yes, less frustrating now that everybody knows what's going on, but now we just get to be frustrated because the bad guys are still winning :)
coolmegan123: lol yeah I just stuck with calling him Xigbar because it's from Meli's perspective and that's how she thinks of him. Dude has too many names.
Hello everyone! I've had a pretty busy December so far, writing-wise, at least. Been working on some drabbles unrelated to any of my current series for the 12 Days of Whumpmas prompts on Tumblr, and also doing some roleplaying on discord. Also went to see the Nutcracker yesterday, and have been busy ordering gifts for everyone in the family! Hope you're all enjoying your holiday season so far!
Chapter 31
Perspective – Meli
"Grim!" The scream wrenched out of my throat. I dove forward as he collapsed to the floor, jerking and writhing, but a pair of impossibly strong hands latched onto my arms and dragged me backwards away from him.
"No! Grim!" Kicking and lunging, I fought to get to him. He needed me. I was blind and deaf to anything happening around me, anything but Riku's prone, shaking figure and the faint buzz of electricity that had seized my spine like claws as soon as I heard it. I didn't even know if I had ever actually noticed the sound when I wore the band, but somehow my body knew it.
And now it was Grim, and he was hurting, and I could feel the phantom streaks of the pain that I knew he was feeling right then coursing through my body, and someone was keeping me from him, and...
I screamed again, wordless this time, just an agonized, feral screech that left my throat raw.
"Alright, Luxu, that's enough." The Master of Masters waved a casual hand, and finally, mercifully, the buzzing stopped. My ears rang in its absence. Riku's body fell still, then spasmed again from residual shock. I sobbed aloud, wanting so badly to run to him and gather him up in my arms and soothe him, but the hands kept their bruising grip and held me in place.
"What's going on here?" Aqua demanded. "What have you done to Riku?"
Grim. Please, please be okay. Please wake up. He was breathing. That was the one thing that was keeping me slightly sane, the fact that I could see the minute rise and fall of his chest.
"Riku!" The apprentices had blocked Sora and the others from getting to him, too, both with their bodies and with their brandished Keyblades, otherwise I knew that the boy would be by his best friend's side. His face scrunched, and a year ago it might've looked petulant on him. Now, though, there was a fire burning in those blue eyes, and he just looked furious. "Somebody better tell us what this is about right now!"
"Meli?" Kairi's voice was unexpectedly quiet in all of the chaos. "You're not a Nobody anymore."
No, because Xigbar killed me! I could hear myself shouting it, see myself glaring and maybe even lunging toward him, despite the fact that I would go nowhere and that my tear-soaked face would just make him laugh harder at me.
But I couldn't do it. Not when he still had that stupid remote, and I had no doubts that he would shock an unconscious Riku just to mess with me. So I clenched my jaw and said nothing, only looked at her with pleading eyes. Help us. Help him, please.
"Alright, alright. We clearly have some misunderstandings here."
"Yes, I believe we are failing to understand why our friend is unconscious on the floor!" Terra shot back.
Hm, I kinda like this guy. If one good thing had come of Riku's pain, it was that everyone was finally on alert and listening.
"Yeah, I'll get to that," the Master of Masters flippantly replied. "But let's start at the beginning. Meli here is saying that we're planning to steal all the light from the universes."
And here came the next perfectly thought out excuse to convince them otherwise.
"She's right, we are."
Wait, what?
"But what we did tell you wasn't a lie, as Riku said. Yeah, maybe we left some details out." He shrugged. "But we are planning on bringing an abundance of light like you've never dreamed of to the universe. Just, you know...not your universe. Ours."
Aha. Suddenly the whole thing – including that 'remake the universe' phrase that kept bugging me – made even more sense. Now what bothered me, though, was the careless attitude that he still kept, as if none of his plans were in danger in the least. Maybe Xigbar hadn't been exaggerating. Maybe there really was no way to stop this.
"Story time!" The Master of Masters had paced around to the front of the box, and leaned his back against it with his arms sprawled across the top. "Oh, look, 'Grim' is coming back around. Perfect timing."
"Don't call me that," Riku mumbled. Even at that volume, the sound of his voice sent relief flooding through me, and I could finally breathe a little easier. Wincing, he seemed to test out his limbs before slowly pushing himself up to sit, his eyes immediately finding mine. Ira stepped closer to him as if to make sure he stayed in place. My captor – Aced, I had finally determined – didn't budge.
"Okay, let's see now." The Master of Masters tipped his head back to stare up at the stained glass ceiling. "Long ago, people lived in peace, bathed in the warmth of light. Everyone loved the light. Then people began to fight over it. They wanted to keep it for themselves. And darkness was born in their hearts. The darkness spread, swallowing the light and many people's hearts. It covered everything, and the world disappeared. But small fragments of light survived, in the hearts of children. With these fragments of light, children rebuilt the lost world. It's the world we live in now. But the true light sleeps, deep within the darkness."
He titled his face to look at Kairi, whose eyes had gone wide. "Heard that before, haven't you? It was a pretty popular story among a certain generation. But here's the truth behind the tale – that was my universe. The universe, the original, the one and only." Now he turned to Sora. "Surprised? Well, you shouldn't be. You know that parallel universes break off from each other when coincidences happen or choices are made. So there had to have been one, original universe for all the others to start from, right? Well, that was my universe. The one that all of us –" he gestured to the apprentices –"came from.
"So you see, they're not exactly your doppelgangers. That we did lie about. Riku had a good guess, that they were from an alternate timeline –" and again, how did he know that? –"but he was wrong. We're actually the originals. Everything in your universe –" he waved his arms to indicate the room –"and your universe –" he pointed at me –"and every other universe is based off of ours. Including you."
"So you're saying we're...what, clones?" Sora asked, obviously dubious.
The Master of Masters huffed a laugh. "Clones? Nah. More like...hm. Reincarnations? We'll go with that. It's actually far more complicated, but...meh. We don't have time for semantics today. Too much to do."
Which, once again, made me think that he wasn't nervous about everyone knowing the truth at all.
"So anyway, back to the story. The fighting over the light, that happened. Sorta. Again, what actually went down was way more complicated, but the gist is that there was a war. You might have heard of it, it's often known as The Keyblade War. Or, these days, The First Keyblade War."
"Wait...that was...all of you?" Aqua blinked, dumbfounded, taking in the room's occupants as if seeing them for the first time. The rest of us had heard of this Keyblade War, sure, but I imagined that Aqua, Terra, and Ven had studied it religiously.
"Yep, that was us!" the Master of Masters proclaimed proudly. "The guy that created the original Keyblades? That would be yours truly."
"What?" Sora drew the word out, a starstruck expression coming over his face.
No no no no, don't you even, Sora. Don't lose sight of what's going on here. Remember Riku.
"Yep. In the flesh. I bet you've got plenty of questions that I could answer for you. Not today, of course, but after we're done here? I'm your man."
"How are you here, though?" Terra demanded, and again, I was happy he was there. "The Keyblade War happened thousands of years ago, and we were told that all of the apprentices were killed. None of you should be here."
"See, that's the funny thing about stories. Over time, they get twisted. Details are left out, embellishments are added. That's why I'm setting the record straight now." He gestured around the room at his apprentices. "These guys did almost die. Would have died, had Luxu not swept in at the last second and brought them here, instead."
I finally broke my silence, incredulous. "Brought them...are you talking about time travel? But that's impossible without already having a version of yourself already there, or some confusing crap like that. Wait...don't tell me we're the versions of you that allowed that."
I could hear the smile in his voice as he replied. "You're such a clever girl. I almost wish I could say yes, you're exactly right." And okay, if I didn't already kinda want to puke, now I definitely did. "But...not quite. In order for that to work, these guys would have had to abandon their bodies and either take over yours, or have other vessels waiting for them, or just, you know, be Heartless. Which wouldn't have worked too well for my plan.
"Anyway, to answer your question...time travel, yes. And yes, it's impossible to do it any other way...for most people." For a moment, he just stared at me from the void under his hood, and I wondered if he was waiting for me to figure out his cryptic sentence myself. Finally he sighed, tipping his head to the side in almost an affectionate manner. "Ah, Meli. There's so much about being a Traveler that you still don't understand. Unfortunately, there's no time for that now, so let's get back to the subject at hand."
I just blinked dumbly at him as he turned back to everyone else. Is he...? Can I...? Time travel?
"So yes, that's how we're here. Well, technically the trip was a little more roundabout for Ava, Luxu, and me, but again, time constraints."
Coming out of my momentary stupor, I latched onto that sentence, still desperate to make sure my friends knew what we were dealing with here. "Yeah, Ava's journey included being locked up by Luxu for a while. She was the one who told us what you were really planning."
The Master of Masters chuckled. "Yes, our dear Ava has always been a stubborn one. Always insists on seeing things from her own perspective." And yeah, if that didn't describe Kairi I didn't know what did. "But she's ready to do her part now, aren't you Ava?"
"Yes, Master," Ava immediately replied, but her voice was small and meek, her hands gripping so tightly onto each other that her fingers had turned white.
The realization of who she reminded me of in that moment nearly blew me over. Me. She reminded me of myself, standing in front of Aiden. Saying exactly what was expected of me. Afraid to disagree because there had been too many horrible consequences for doing so before.
My heart simultaneously went out to her, and burned with renewed hatred for Xigbar and the Master of Masters. Whether they had hurt her themselves, or her time in captivity had made her afraid of any kind of authority, I didn't care. They were clearly taking advantage of her fear.
"Okay!" The Master of Masters clapped his gloved hands together. "I know everyone's very curious, everyone's got lots of questions. But here's the important part. Yes, I am going to take all the light from your universes. Sounds bad, right? But everyone in this room will benefit. You thought I would just leave you guys here in a dark universe after all the work you're gonna put into this? Please, I'm not that heartless." He snickered at his own joke. "Get it? Heartless? Anyway. All of you will get to come with us to our universe once it's all fixed up and how it should be. And let me tell you, you're gonna love it there."
Turning toward Sora and Kairi, he spread his arms out wide. "You can have all the benefits of living in a darkness-free world. All the rewards of being heroes that you truly deserve."
He pointed at Aqua. "Have the life a Keyblade Master should."
It was when he addressed Terra that I started feeling it, the oppressive air of manipulation. I could see it working, too, on their faces and in their stances, if a bit more slowly and reluctantly than before. "You can just relax, and for once not have to worry about being ready for the darkness."
Riku was next, still sitting on the floor as if he didn't want to bother getting up only to be knocked down again. "All those people and dark beings that have hurt you and your friends, will be long gone." A shadow came over Riku's face, but then he shook his head, looking down at the floor. Yes, Grim, fight it! They all need to fight it. If only they knew...
"And you..." I was so focused on Riku that I wasn't prepared for that magnetic pull to start up in my own mind again, but as soon as the Master of Masters spoke my eyes were yanked to him. "Everyone will give you the love and recognition that you need."
Yes. I do need it. For once in my life, I'll be important. I won't just be thrown aside.
"Maybe he's right," someone said, and I was so wrapped up in the feeling being shoved into my head I couldn't even tell who. "Maybe we should do it. I mean, the darkness is taking over everywhere anyway, and we've been fighting it back for so long. Maybe we should just let it have its way here, and we can all go somewhere we don't have to worry about it anymore."
And somewhere, deep in the still-working part of my brain, something screamed no!
Something said, what about Ventus? What about Axel, and Roxas, and Xion? What about King Mickey, and Donald, and Goofy, and Robin, and Little John, and all of the dozens of other people we've met on our journeys? What about Kaj?
The feeling of want pushed back even harder, but I stretched past it, fumbling for the door that I had slammed on it earlier, and with great effort threw it shut again. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Xigbar stumble a step backwards, as if struck. So it's still him.
"No!" I spun to face him and pointed furiously. "You stay out of my head!" Glancing around wildly at my friends, I saw that they were unaffected by my outburst, and in fact seemed to be moving into position around the box. The air was growing thicker and heavier by the second. "Guys, stop it! They're in your heads! They –"
My words were cut off by Xigbar appearing directly in front of me in a flash of darkness and clamping his hand around my throat. Precious little air came through when I opened my mouth to gasp for it, and my heart stuttered in fear.
"I've had just about enough of you and your mouth," he hissed, golden eye flashing. The next sentence threw over his shoulder at the Master of Masters. "Remember that idea I had about the muzzle? I'm starting to like it more and more."
The Master of Masters chuckled. "I don't think there will be any need for that. Try this, instead."
He waved his hand, and I felt the familiar tingle of magic hit my body, though I couldn't tell right away what he had done. Maybe it was because I was too busy fighting off the dark spots that were invading my vision. My head ached with the need for oxygen. Just as I was sure I would pass out, Xigbar released my throat, and I collapsed to my knees, gasping and coughing and retching. Tears dripped down my cheeks. When I had finally somewhat caught my breath, I reached up and gingerly touched my swollen neck, wincing at the pain as well as the memories that flashed through my mind, of doing the exact same thing while kneeling on my apartment floor in front of a pair of brown combat boots.
"Meli, are you alright?"
I looked up to see Riku back on his feet, Ira's hands on his arms seemingly the only thing keeping him from being by my side. Ah, that was probably who I thought I heard screaming.
"I'm okay," I tried to say, expecting my voice to be raw, but not expecting it to fail to come out altogether. Frowning, I tried again, with the same result. The magic that had been cast came back to mind, and I glared at the Master of Masters. "What did you do to me?"
"It's called Silence, sweetheart. When you've been around as long as I have, you pick up a few things here and there."
Xigbar was positively grinning when he stooped down next to me. "Gotta say, I like you this way much better. Now, are you gonna cooperate like your friends are?" He swept his hand out toward the box where, sure enough, everyone else was standing with their Keyblades ready.
Then he held up that blasted remote, and my chest automatically tightened as my mind overlaid his image with that of Saix's. "Or are we gonna do this the hard way?" When he flicked the dial up to the first notch, I flinched bodily, before regaining my senses and jerking my head up to take in the grimace on Riku's face. Tears filled my eyes again. My poor love. He shouldn't be having to go through this.
"You know, I still haven't tried Level Five on him. I hear it's a bugger. I'm kinda curious to see what his reaction would be, aren't you?"
I couldn't help the sob that escaped then, silent as it was. Riku was holding my gaze, uttering reassurances to me over and over, I assumed trying to convince me to let them hurt him some more. But I couldn't do it. I couldn't put him through that, I couldn't watch him seize and collapse again. I couldn't fight against the manipulation that had taken hold of Sora and Kairi and the others, not on my own without even my voice to warn them. I couldn't let all the other people and worlds that I cared about get destroyed, but I also couldn't stop it. Not now, at least. I was trapped.
Hanging my head in defeat, I summoned my Keyblade to my hand and nodded.
"That's a good poppet. Let's go."
A/N: I just...really like the Silence spell for whatever reason. Anybody remember when I used it on Riku in my very first fanfic? Megan, you may be the only one who's followed me for that long haha.