Part 3: "A letter! Shall we burn it?"
Ansem smacked his forhead and tried valiantly to resist the urge to tear his hair out (which he discovered he once again had an ample amount of, thank god). A group of traveling adventurers, he could deal with. The feisty dancer girl, she was a worthy opponent. But a FROG?! The Universe was laughing at him right now, he just knew it. Seemed to think that just because he decided to become a scientist, it automatically obligated him to work to better mankind. He was allowed a selfish act once in a while, right? Must he be punished so simply for being human?
All this internal lamenting, of course, went unheard by the frog, who seemed to have only one objective in mind: to skewer Ansem on his shiny, pointy sword. This action, of course, was not on Ansem's agenda for the day, so once he had finally composed himself, he said the most intelligent thing he could think of at the moment:
"Stupid frog..."
The frog got into a fighting stance and replied, "I rather liketh this body, Magus, and I oweth it all to you."
It could TALK?! And not only that... in olde English as well (either that, or it had a lisp)? ... It was that damn hat's fault. He was still tripping out. He had made it a point to never do drugs in his youth, but it looked like his mind was leaving him, regardless.
In the meantime, the frog had been joined by two other companions: two humans, thankfully. One was a boy with ridiculously spikey red hair, and the other was a girl with a helmet and glasses. The two humans also assumed fighting stances, brandishing a katana and a gun, respectively. Jeez, what had this "Magus" fellow done to tick them off so much? Ansem wasn't terribly looking forward to a three-on-one fight, but it looked like he was running out of options. Like hell he was going to try reasoning with a frog. He had his pride, after all.
Ansem stepped back and allowed the battle to get under way. However, he noticed that he apparently was supposed to choose a weakness. He had the ability to erect a barrier that blocked all but one of the four magical elements. Why the hell couldn't he just block them all if he could block any combination of three? Stupid magic... He selected lightning and stood at the ready.
Unfortunately, the first attack came from the spikey red-head in the form of a lightning bolt. Ansem stood there for a moment, sizzled, but none the worse for wear. He growled and threw his own lightning bolt back, but his was MUCH bigger and hit all three members of the party. "Hey... neat!" Ansem thought to himself. Maybe this wasn't so bad after all.
The next attack came from the frog, who slashed at him with his sword. Ansem winced and clutched his side. That hurt way more than it should have (of course, if he was any normal human being, he would have been dead just from the lightning bolt). Speaking of lightning bolts, maybe having that as his weakness was no good. So, this time around, he selected fire instead.
Which, of course, turned out to be a crappy choice, since no sooner had he done that, the glasses girl hit him with a fireball. Could they READ his weakness or something? Not fair, not fair. How come THEY didn't get weaknesses? Fed up with this, he decided that he should try the good old power of darkness, and summoned a big, dark, spinny, thingamabobber that smacked the entire party. Ah, that felt good.
The good feeling lasted only a second, as the frog and the spikey redhead double-teamed him and slashed at him simultaneously with their swords in a cross pattern. That, understandably, did not feel so good. Ansem collapsed to the ground, panting. "What... the heck was that?"
A roar behind him was the reply. Oh god, NOW what? Whatever it was, it didn't sound terribly friendly. He turned and saw a gigantic blue portal opening behind him. Was he leaping out of this world already? It had never happened like THIS before, though. But, whatever it was, he was getting sucked into it, along with the three heroes who had stood before him. Well, wherever it was taking him, he just hoped there were no more frogs.
"Ack!" Thud.
Riku awoke with a start as Sora came literally stumbling back into the campsite, his arms overflowing with a random assortment of small, ornate boxes. After Sora had fallen, the boxes had scattered all over, and he was hastily trying to collect them back into a somewhat orderly pile.
Riku yawned. "Sora, what are all those things? Where did you get them?"
Sora tapped on the tops of one of the small boxes twice with the end of a stick, and it popped open, revealing a small potion. Sora giggled dumbly and did the same to the next box, which revealed a small piece of metal. He was getting waaay too much of a kick out of this.
Riku sighed and pressed his question again, also getting Sora's attention by simulteneously thwacking him on the head with his wooden sword. "Yo. Where'd you get these?"
Sora rubbed his head dejectedly and explained, "I was tryin' to do that whole green ball thing you did earlier. You know, when you hit that animal. 'Cept when I did it to a bird, I got the green balls and all, but one of these little red box things came out of it, too. So, I tried it on fish, an' on weeds, an' on mushrooms, all sorts of stuff. And some of them gave me these box things with neat stuff inside! Why do you think mushrooms carry Mythril Shards?"
Riku held up the piece of metal and turned it over in his hand, letting it glint the morning sun into his eyes. Squinting, he put it back on the ground, saying, "Dunno. I don't even know what you'd use one of these things for."
"Yeah, an' I got a lot of 'em, too," said Sora, looking at the contents of his loot. "Couple of 'em even gave me these things," he added, pulling a multi-colored ball out of his pocket. "I tried eatin' one, but it was hard and yucky, and after I touched it, it didn't go away like the green ones."
He handed it to Riku, who tapped on the offending multi-colored ball curiously. After a moment, he shrugged and annouced, "Eh, maybe you could just sell it. I'm sure there's someone who knows what it is and would like to have it." A sudden, completely unrelated thought suddenly dawned on him. "By the way, where's Kairi?"
Sora blushed and looked at the ground. "G... girly things again..."
And "girly things" she was definitely doing. Kairi had gotten a call from Cid in the middle of the night, which she was none too thrilled about. Cid had apologized in his defense, claiming that he didn't know Destiny Island was in a different time zone than Hollow Bastion, but that hadn't made her feel any better. She was missing her beauty sleep.
"So, have you found the old man or not?" Kairi demanded, trying to straighten out her hair to make herself at least somewhat presentable to the young sceintist on the other end of the line. Just because she was mad at him didn't mean SHE had to look bad as well.
"Well, yes and no," Cid explained. "I've been able to locate him on several occasions, but he keeps leaping around, and I lose my lock on him each time. I'm still trying to work on a way to get him back, but his signal gets fainter with each leap. If he keeps this up, we may lose contact completely."
Kairi blew air through her bangs. Men. They were so incompetant. "Well, how 'bout you try to find a way to keep him from 'leaping', and we won't have that problem! Either that or 'leap' me on over to wherever he is and I'll kick his butt!" She only half-paid attention as Cid hurriedly went through the details of why he couldn't possibly do that, and how he wasn't even sure what caused Ansem to leap in the first place, yadda yadda. She figured as much. Even though she was just a kid, she HAD lived with those scientists for a few years, after all, so it was only natural that she had picked up some knowledge in the field. If Ansem's heart ended up fading into oblivion, well, sucks to be him. All that was on Kairi's mind was getting back to the castle, where she had a comfy bed and a big window and servants to wait on her, and NO IRRITATING BOYS!
Kairi held up a finger to silence Cid's ramble, and interjected, "Cid? Cid, just... go do what you've been doing. I don't care. I'll see you in a bit." Before Cid got the chance to ask just how Kairi would be seeing him in a bit, she slapped her bracelet shut and marched back towards her pack mules, er, friends. They'd have to start double-timing it or they'd never make it to Hollow Bastion in time.
"Owwwwhhhhh...."
This less-than-coherent remark came from Ansem, who was currently laying on his back in what appeared to be a pile of snow. So, did he leap or not? Whatever happened, it certainly was trippy, nonetheless. Flying blues and purples and swirlies... He wondered if the entire ordeal up until this point had just been one big hallucination, and he was just now coming off it.
"Ciiidd..." he mumbled. "I need coffee... Just bring me the whole pot..." There was no reply. It was completely silent, save for the wind blowing overhead. After a few more minutes of lying there, Ansem decided that the snow was rather cold, so made an effort to sit up. He looked around and noted that he appeared to be on a barren, snow-blown tundra. There were a few mountains in the distance, including a flying one that was held to the ground by a chain.
Ansem blinked groggily. "Man... not again..." He'd had his fill of flying islands. He stood up and decided to walk in the direction that was NOT towards the floating mountain. He had too much to deal with right now, and didn't need anything else hampering him at this point.
After walking for a while, he came upon a small, deserted building. All that was in this building was a glowing circle in the center of its floor. He felt decidedly low on energy, but glowing circles on the floor always signified something good, so he decided he might as well try it. Who knows, maybe it was a healing spot.
Nope. Turned out it was yet ANOTHER portal, and before Ansem could say "Beam me up, Scotty," though I have no idea why he'd say such a thing, he was transported to yet another land. This land was decidedly more inviting than the one he had just left, with ornate buildings, flowing rivers, green grass, clear skies... It was all well and good, except for one thing...
"WHY THE HELL AM I ON ANOTHER FLYING ISLAND!!" Ansem crumpled down and mourned to himself. Seemed the universe was full of flying islands, even though he'd never seen one up until this whole adventure began. Maybe he just didn't get out enough, and they really were quite common.
Ansem turned around and staggered into a building. Once he pulled his face off the wall, he decided maybe he should try staggering through the door instead. Once inside, he was greeted by a complete stranger who seemed unusually happy to see him.
"Oh, you poor thing," she said. "You could use a good recovery. Come, step in this circle on the floor, and your health will be restored." Oh, so THERE'S where the infamous recovery floor tiles were. Silly him. Granted, it's not like he could pass it up, and sure enough, his weary body instantly recovered once he stepped on the ornate tile. His mind, however, was still a little hazy. Guess a guy can't have everything.
"Are you related to one of the royals, m'lord? You have that regal bearing about you."
Ansem straightened himself and brushed off his cloak and armor... well, Magus's cloak and armor. At least he still exuded the feel of authority. Smiling smugly to himself, he turned to examine his appearence in the mirror behind him. He furrowed his brows slightly, but wasn't nearly as taken aback as the other times. His white hair had returned, but his skin was deathly pale. The pointed ears were a little weird, and he would have preferred a black cape rather than this reddish-violet one, but all in all, not bad.
"Vampire king?"
"That's what I was thinking," Ansem admitted. "But I still have a reflection." He then relized that it was not the random woman who had spoken to him. Turning, he noticed that the woman was staring at him oddly, completely oblivious to Cid standing beside her.
"Cid!" Ansem said in a monotone, not sure whether he should be angered or relieved. The woman on the other hand, was completely confused, but assumed that perhaps it was normal for the royals to talk to themselves or invisible familiars. All those in Zeal were skilled in magic, after all.
Cid tapped on his console feverishly, a relieved look on his face. "Thank goodness, your majesty! Ziggy was having quite a difficult time finding you this time around. We kept losing your signal, and I was fearing the worst!"
Ansem cocked an eyebrow. "Worst? What worst?" He wasn't terribly sure that he wanted to hear it. Cid, on the other hand, wasn't terribly sure that he wanted to say it, especially when there was currently nothing he could do. Yes, if Ansem kept leaping around, his signal would eventually die out completely, but Cid really didn't know what all that would mean. The king's heart's energy, which is what Cid was tracking, was slowly deteriorating with each leap. If his heart's energy were to totally die away...
"I... was just afraid we wouldn't be able to get your signal back!" Cid explained hurriedly, telling a half-truth. "I've been all over this world looking for you, and you know, they've got some pretty neat stuff. There's this whole underwater palace, and a flying mountain, and a huge flying machine of some sort...!"
"Cid!" Ansem interrupted. "I don't care! How do I get out of here? I'd like to get back to Hollow Bastion sometime within this lifetime, you know."
Cid flinched. "Um, well, this is such a nice place, maybe you could, you know, stay here a while and not worry about leaping..."
"No thanks," Ansem interjected again. He'd had his fill of flying islands and strange bodies, and the last thing he wanted to do was prolong this experience. "Unless there's some reason you don't want me back in Hollow Bastion."
"Oh, no, sir! It's nothing like that! It's just that, well... with all these stressful and unpredictable situations that you've been thrown into before, I don't know if your heart could take it if you were suddenly somewhere more unfavorable..."
He had a point, actually, but at the moment, Ansem was willing to risk it. He had been given a clue about the "royals" and how he apparently looked like one, so maybe he should pursue that lead. If anything, he could have Cid spy on them and then blackmail them into helping him. That settled, he marched out the door and made his way towards the palace.
Things didn't go quite as Ansem had expected, but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. Instead of thinking him a charlatan, the royals instead assumed him to be a prophet. Well, whatever floats their boat. He'd gotten on someone's good side for once, though the fact that the royals all seemed to share his dark heart probably helped. Now, just as long as that damned frog didn't show up again...
It was not to be, however. The spikey redhead, glasses girl, and, yes, the frog, appeared within the castle shortly thereafter. Ansem was thankfully allowed to escape to the Ocean Palace, while the heroes fought random summoned monsters. Honestly, he really didn't want to put up with those types of people anymore. Any spikey-haired boys who dared cross his path in the future... ohhh, he'd give them something to cry about.
This reprieve, of course, couldn't last forever. The royals were attempting to summon some giant monster that lived in the center of the planet, which Ansem though was a pretty dumb idea, but it wasn't his problem. Getting out of this freaky world, now THAT was his problem. Teleporters seemed to be all the rage here, and he'd lost Cid again immediately after using one. Not that he really minded, since that meant the little voice of compassion would shut up. He didn't need a conscience following him around, anyway.
Nor did he need those blasted heroes following him around, either. As soon as the Queen summoned her Lavos monster thingy, who should show up but the spikey readhead and his frog. This was getting seriously old. It didn't help that the background had suddenly gone all blue and swirly and trippy again. Please say he was leaping, please say he was leaping... he wasn't leaping. What the heck did it take to get out of here?! Was he going to have to destroy the place again?
Well, why not? He was screwed anyways. Ansem turned to face the giant hedgehog-looking thing that had popped out of the earth and pulled a scythe out of hammerspace. This Lavos monster certainly looked like it could do some damage, so if he just beat on it a little to get it ticked off, maybe...
The next thing he new, Ansem was flattened on the ground. That certainly didn't work, and it hurt, to boot. The Queen gloated that Lavos would soon absorb everyone. Ansem realized that "everyone" included the boy and his frog, and he sure as heck didn't want to spend an eternity sharing a monster's body with them. If only he could move...
Although he couldn't move, the boy still could. Pathetic. The spikey redhead's body was beaten beyond recognition, and there was no way a child could ever have the power to defeat a monster like this. It was a losing battle; the boy should learn when to admit defeat. Instead, the boy wordlessly marched up to Lavos's head and brandished his sword, showing the monster he was still able to fight. Stupid kid...
The result was as Ansem expected. Lavos sent out a huge beam of energy, easily vaporizing the boy. Ansem stared on in disbelief. He really was a stupid kid. Stupid... to be that selfless... for no reason... Perhaps...
Ansem squinted at the area the boy had just occupied. Something small and glowing was still floating there, completely oblivious to the destruction around it. Ansem's eyes widened as he exclaimed, "Wait, is that his... heart?!" Before he could get a better look, everything flashed white around him, and he could see no longer.
Splash.
Ansem opened his eyes and was greeted with the clean smell of soap and a fresh ocean breeze coming in through the window. His mind held a mixture of disappointment and relief. He was glad he finally appeared to have leaped again, but it was just when things were starting to get interesting. But these thoughts were slowly fading as he sighed happily and slid back down into the warm bath, completely covered in soft, fluffy bubbles. Perhaps the Universe was being nice to him for a change. He even appeared to have his own manservant to wash his back for him, and a big bowl of cherries to indulge in as he pleased. Life was good.
That is, until a grey and black animal swung in through the window and landed in the bath with him. Ansem wiped the bubbles out of his face and growled at the newcomer. What was this thing, some sort of tanuki? And it was huge, to boot. Practically the same size as him.
Unless... there was another reason for them to be the same size...
As the bubbles floated through the air between them, Ansem caught a glimpse of his reflection in their soapy surface.
"Woof!" he exclaimed, which translates as, "Oh boy..."
God, I'm evil. But I have a pattern going, which I may or may not explicitly mention at some point. And sorry for the lack of updates, but it's summer and all, and it's my job to slack off, given that I couldn't actually find any other sort of job. Grr.