Chapter XII

Death and Life

"There are so many," Bergljot whispered as she gazed out at the Heartless. Groups of Neo Heartless were gathering around the house. She drew the blades. "Let's go to work."

"Right. Gilda," Gwandoya turned to his wife. "Stay in the house with the kids. I don't want anything to happen to you three."

"Of course," she whispered sadly. The trio ventured out to what Gilda felt was certain doom.

"Force!" Anselm called once they left the house. The Heartless affected flattened, popped back up, and were promptly destroyed by Bergljot and Gwandoya. There were still dozens of Heartless.

"Keep your eyes peeled," Bergljot whispered. The trio attacked swiftly. "Ayah! Ha!"

"Take this!" Gwandoya called as he rammed a group of Heartless. They disappeared.

"Fire! Deep Freeze!" Anselm was screaming one spell after another. The shadows were blown apart, but there were still too many.

"AH!" Bergljot screeched. A Heartless came up and clawed her in the back, causing a two-inch deep gash.

"Heal Bergljot!" Anselm called at her cry.

"Thanks," she said as she turned on the monster.

"Bergljot, help!" Gwandoya was pinned against the wall of the house by a group consisting of no less than twenty Heartless. She ran up and slashed through all of them. "Thank you."

"No problem," Bergljot looked at him somewhat menacingly. As they fought side-by-side, Bergljot decided that it would be a good time to give him a piece of her mind. "I heard you and Gilda arguing last night."

"You eavesdropped?" Gwandoya took his anger out on a trio of creatures that snuck up on him.

"You know," Bergljot continued as she slashed through the enemies. She paused. She could hear Anselm, who was a short distance away, casting spell after spell. He couldn't hear the conversation. "You shouldn't take your anger out on your family. Your wife and kids didn't do anything wrong."

"Yeah? You think trying to keep me from saving all the worlds is right?"

"You're not saving the worlds alone. You're supposed to protect me. I'm the one with the blades and power to seal the door."

The two of them fought in silence for a few minutes as he pondered. Bergljot finally gazed at him sadly and spoke.

"When I was taken to the Farplane with Sora and Kairi, they told me not to feel any anger. No hate is to ever enter my heart. The Heartless feed off of that, and if I feel it, my heart will be taken and we'll all die. I think you should try not to feel any negative emotions, too. No frustration, anger, or hate. At least think about it."

"Hmm," Gwandoya mumbled as he stood still. During his paralysis, a Heartless leapt at him from above.

"Doya, look out!" Bergljot jumped and knocked him out of the way. She held her blades straight up and destroyed the shadow upon impact.

"Thanks, Bergljot," he whispered. A scream sounded from the house and the next moment, Gilda was running out with the two young children.

"Gwandoya, they're almost in the house!"

"Aeroga!" Anselm called. The house was wrapped in a whirlwind.

"I'm not going back in there," Gilda hissed.

"Fine, just stay hidden in a corner," Gwandoya instructed. Gilda did as she was told. There were no Heartless at the back of the house, so Gilda curled up near the edge so she could watch.

"Anselm, your back is bleeding badly," Gwandoya yelled.

"This should help, Anselm," Bergljot directed the spell at him.

"Behind you!" Anselm was looking at a large patrol behind Bergljot.

"Thanks. Take this!"

"Ah!" Gwandoya screamed as Heartless shot towards him.

Gilda turned away from the scene and held her kids close. They were trembling with fear.

"It's okay, you two. Daddy will be fine, don't worry. I wish I knew which song Bergljot sang to you last night, Omega."

The two of them calmed a little at the thought of Bergljot's voice. Omega was finally able to recall some sounds and memories associated with certain words. Bergljot's voice was one of those things. Gilda laid them behind the pile of firewood next to her. Gilda curled up even tighter. She covered her ears and shut her eyes, refusing to open either one.

=================

Gilda was startled by the flash in front of her. She opened her eyes slowly. The sky had begun to darken. Upon revealing her ears, she began to hear thunder.

"Gwandoya?" she called. Only thunder and lightning replied. The silence was surprisingly deafening. Zita and Omega were still by the log pile. Gilda stood slowly and walked to the front of the house, not seeing any sign of anyone, even Heartless. She had no idea how much time had passed. When she was halfway across the lawn, a voice startled her.

"Gilda?"

She turned to find Gwandoya standing in the doorway. Zita was also awake and approaching their mother. Gilda began to run to them, but stopped suddenly when a pool of black formed in front of her.

"BERGLJOT! ANSELM! Another Heartless! Get out here now!" he screamed as the creature rose. He tried to get out of the house, but the door was stuck. "Gilda, run!"

That wasn't going to work. With each step she took, the Heartless walked right in front of her. She tried to break into a sprint, but the monster was too fast. She finally stood very still. The Heartless looked at her curiously, as if trying to figure out her next move. Gilda began to cry a little. She knew what was about to happen.

"Gwandoya," she called. "I'm sorry about all I've done to you."

"What do you mean?" he replied.

"I only hope that you can forgive me, and you'll have an easier time with your mission now."

"Gilda? Gilda, NO!" Gwandoya was beginning to realize what was going on. He banged at the door as rain began to fall heavily.

"I love you," she whispered. Just as Gwandoya managed to break through, the Heartless leapt at Gilda. She didn't even try to fight. She let it grab onto her front and stick its claws through her flesh.

"Ugh," Gilda gasped. The Heartless removed the claws, and had her heart clutched in them. The heart shriveled and darkened. Another Heartless popped up out of it. The two creatures began to escape.

"NO!" Gwandoya screamed. The new creature ran after Zita, but the other stayed. Gwandoya plowed into it as he ran to Gilda. She collapsed into his arms.

"Anselm, you help Zita and I'll help Omega," Bergljot whispered from the porch. They had watched as the Heartless stole Gilda away.

"Will do," Anselm said as he ran off towards Zita and her attacker.

"Omega?" Bergljot hissed. She looked for what felt like hours.

She finally found him nestled and crying behind the woodpile. A Heartless was scratching at him, but had not taken his heart. Omega was jostling so much, the monster could not get a firm grip.

"Get your claws off of my nephew!" she screeched at it. The creature looked up to see two large blades prepared to hit him in the face. They did two nanoseconds later. "Omega, are you okay?"

She gently picked him up, but he was too far gone. She tried a healing spell, but the injuries were too many and too deep. She hugged him and whispered as he cried and drew his last breath.

"I'm so sorry, little one. I should have come to you sooner. At least you'll never be lonely or unhappy again," she then began to whisper, "Can't find the answers. I've been crawling on my knees. Looking for anything, to keep me from drowning. Promises have been turned to lies…"

=================

"Gilda, no," Gwandoya was sobbing heavily as he held his now late wife. "I should have gotten you inside as soon as the battle was over. This is all my fault."

"Gwandoya?" Anselm whispered.

"Yeah?"

"Zita… her heart was taken before I got to her. I'm sorry, but there was nothing I could do."

Gwandoya looked up at his brother. His eyes were badly swollen. Zita was laid next to him.

"Omega's gone, too," Bergljot whispered sadly as she approached. "A Heartless attacked him. He was too badly injured for the healing spell to work properly. I tried. I'm so sorry."

"Don't tell me that," Gwandoya yelled angrily. "Don't tell me that! My family can't all be gone!" He began to sob even harder and spoke quietly as his voice cracked. "This isn't fair."

"It never is," Anselm whispered as he knelt by his brother.

"You still have us," Bergljot whispered as she rubbed Gwandoya on the back. The three of them sat and cried for the entire length of the storm.

=================

The next day turned out to be just as rainy. Gwandoya had spent the previous evening preparing the bodies for burial and cried himself to sleep. When he woke up, he immediately began busying himself with preparing the plots.

"I feel so bad," Alpha whispered to Anselm as they watched Gwandoya dig three holes out back. Ace and Alpha had been watching yesterday's event from one of the basement windows, and Alpha decided to come up to give Gwandoya her sympathy.

"Yeah."

"Hey, is Bergljot gaining weight?" Alpha asked suddenly.

"I don't know. Why do you ask?" he replied, taken aback.

"She just looks a little bigger than when you guys left. Maybe its just muscle."

"What's just muscle?" Bergljot asked as she came downstairs.

"Nothing," Alpha said hurriedly. She was a tomboy, but Alpha was still a woman, and she knew how insulting it was to ask any woman about her weight gain.

"Anselm, I just cleaned out Gilda and the kid's things from the bedrooms. Should I do the bathrooms?"

"Wait until after the funeral."

"I don't want you there."

"Doya, why not? We loved them just as much as you did," Bergljot looked at him as he walked in, his entire body caked with earth.

"Get your tenses straight. Just because they're… dead… It doesn't mean I don't still love them. I should not have had to bury my children. They should have buried me," Gwandoya said sadly.

"Oh, I just remembered something. I'll be right back," Bergljot said happily. She ran back upstairs.

"What did she remember?" Gwandoya asked his brother.

"I don't know. I'm going to go get something to eat," Anselm replied. "I'll leave some for you when you decide to eat again."

"I'm not hungry."

"I said 'when,' not 'now.'"

"Doya," Alpha muttered. She wrapped her arms around him. "I'm so sorry. I saw everything yesterday. I wish there was something I could have done. If you need anything, let me know."

"Yeah," Gwandoya sighed. Alpha left as Bergljot returned. She was holding a black bundle.

"I found this in one of Gilda's drawers," she whispered. "There was a note in the pocket. It was addressed to me. It said that if anything happened to her, I was to give you this cloak. Gilda and the kids made it for you."

"Thanks," Gwandoya took the cloak and slid it on. It was jet-black leather, with a high collar and a zipper from the bottom hem to the top of the collar. The garment nearly reached the floor. The fit was big, but comfortable. He nodded and went outside to the burial plots. As Bergljot watched, she saw him pull a chain from his jeans pocket. He slid something off of his finger and put it on the chain. There were already two other gold objects on it, one of which seemed to have a gem in it. Gwandoya put the necklace that held his and Gilda's wedding rings and engagement ring on his neck. She walked away as he laid the bodies in the graves and knelt by them to say prayers and his final good byes.

=================

Two weeks passed between the funeral and any more unexpected turns of events. Gwandoya was still refusing to eat more than one mouthful during the day. The only thing keeping him alive was the fact that he was drinking water more than he ever had before. The cloak was getting a little larger on him each day. He spent nearly all of his time either sleeping or wrapped up in the rocker-recliner in the living room. He refused to take off his cloak, except to shower.

"Gwandoya, you've barely eaten for two whole weeks," Anselm complained one morning right after breakfast. He was stretched out on the couch and his brother was pouting in the chair as usual. Anselm had spent the entire meal trying to convince him to eat.

"This is my way of grieving. I did the same thing with mom and dad, you know that," he muttered.

"Yeah, but you only went a few days and they died a couple of years apart. This has been two weeks. Two weeks. Dos semanas. Please, as a friend and your brother, eat. When our parents died, you only needed enough strength to hold a job and support your family. Now you need strength to protect Bergljot. Please eat," Anselm begged.

"Fine. I'll eat at dinner tonight," Gwandoya agreed reluctantly.

"You better, or else I'll have to knock the shit out of you," Anselm threatened. He decided to change the subject. "Where's Bergljot anyway? She wasn't in bed when I got up. Actually, I haven't seen her since last night."

"She locked herself in the bathroom when I woke up. She asked to be alone, but her voice was shaky. You think she's sick?" Gwandoya looked at his brother.

"Could be. She had stomachache the night before we got back," Anselm nodded. "But then again, Alpha said Bergljot looks like she's gained weight. How can she have stomach flu and still gain weight?"

"I don't know. Women are strange. You realize our courtship lasted for three years and were married for ten? During all that time, I never really figured her out. I'd think I had her all mapped out, and Gilda would turn around and do something that would throw me off. Thirteen wonderful years," Gwandoya smiled at the memories. He was fingering his necklace gingerly.

"At least you have some things to remember her by," Anselm nodded at the necklace. "You have pictures and memories of the past thirteen years, and you two actually made two kids together. At least you got to experience those miracles. That should be enough to be proud of. If anything happened to Bergljot, I'd only have our rings. But then again, I still have my ring from my first marriage. We can't have children until after all this is over, and who knows what could happen between now and then."

"Yeah," Gwandoya said. "Hey Anselm?"

"Yep?"

"Thanks," Gwandoya whispered. "I could never talk about stuff like this with anyone but Gilda. Now that she's gone…"

"I know. It's hard," Anselm sighed.

A long silence followed. The two men looked at the top of the stairs as they heard a door open. Bergljot came downstairs slowly, her hand across her stomach. She sat down in the windowsill and gazed off into space. She was trembling.

"You okay?" Gwandoya looked at her, a concerned look on his face.

"Yeah," she said shakily. "I mean no. Maybe. I…"

"Bergljot?" Anselm walked over to her and laid a hand on her arm. "Is there a problem?"

"I was cleaning out Gilda's stuff in the bathroom. I found some unused pregnancy tests in there. I was going to keep them for after the mission, just in case."

"And?" Gwandoya pushed her to tell them.

"Well, I've been gaining weight, had cravings for the strangest foods, and I've had a lot of stomachaches. The amount of time and symptoms seemed to be about right, so this morning…" Bergljot began shaking more.

"So what?" Anselm began rubbing her back.

She began to cry.

"Oh, Anselm," she looked at him.

"Come on, tell us," the men pushed and, with a shaky, breathless voice and what seemed like a lot of difficulty, she told them the problem.

"The test was positive. I'm pregnant."

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Poor Gwandoya... The saddest chapter yet... sniff. Okay, everybody. Remember what I said way back in chapter four, The Gummi Ship? That it's that shortest chapter? I lied. This is the shortest chapter. I wrote it in two days with various additions and subtractions, so that's why it kinda stinks. If anybody cares. I know it's only been about three or four days since that last update, so I won't complain about the worlds. I recounted, and I only need one more world. I am accepting both of Mediciner's ideas and will most likely put in the machine world. Sorry I made you think it stunk! The dinosaur world is a cool idea! So is the island! Oh, and for anyone who does not know Spanish, dos semanas means two weeks if you couldn't figure it out. And send in those reviews! I only got one for the last chapter! And I think the one before that only got one, too!

Please note: I will probably be permanently removing this story from fanfiction.net sometime this summer. Soul Vagabond and I will be starting a fan-based Final Fantasy/Kingdom Hearts/possibly Star Ocean Website that will feature this story, fan art, and other fanworks during the next few months. I'll provide details (the last chapter posted before the removal, etc.; keep an eye on my profile for the address) at a later date.