6H:Welcome to chapter 59! Almost to 60. It doesn't seem so long ago that I wrote chapter 50. Oh well.
Anaretsu: How much longer till this fic is over?
6H:When I say! Now, Let's get going. Roll chapter!
Kingdom Hearts-Shattered Fragments
Fragment 59-Victims
They arrived inside the castle gates and stepped off the lift. The castle was very impressive-stain glass windows in beautiful colors and patterns, and a strange layout that was open to below. There was a feeling that there was something just not right in the air. Besides that it was the heartless HQ, it seemed just eerie, like the world was abondonned and ...perhaps haunted by it's previous inhabitants. There was no doubt many dead from the takeover of this world, but it was unsure how many. They just stood still, looking around. Without warning, Ryu pulled out his sword and pointed to a pair of closed doors that led inside the castle.
"There. That's where we have to go. It'll get us inside, no doubt." he told them.
"The doors looked sealed." Sora commented.
"They are. There's a lock spell over them. The only way to release them is a switch." Aru said.
"Where do we find the switch?"Ryu asked. Aru closed her eyes for a moment, thinking. Then, she looked over to a lift that went down.
"Maybe we have to head that way. If there wasn't so much power here, than I would be able to tell."
"It would be too easy if they just let us right in the front doors. Aru's most likely right." Sora said.
"Okay. We'll head down, then." The group ran to the lift, but were ambushed by a force of new heartless- Dark Balls, Guardians, and Wizard heartless. TheGuardian bashed its sheild through them. Ryu and Sora got knocked aside. Aru was up next.
"EARTHA!" she yelled, smashing a rock over it's head. It shook its head, and then started shooting a blizzard spell out of its sheild. Aru dodged in time, but got caught in a Wizard's Thundra. Sora took out his wooden sword and tried to fight one of the dark balls, but it was a hard effort. Ryu cut up two of the wizards with his own sword. Beast took on the other guardian by himself, and soon it was dead. The others finished up as well, so they continued but only made it five feet before the wyvrens came for them. These creatures were hard to fight because they attacked from the air, and Aru couldn't get a clear shot on them. Finally, as they were all low on HP, Ryu came up with an idea. He took his sword held it like a javalin. He shut one of his eyes and targeted the wyvren.
"Aru! Get his attention!" he yelled. The girl nodded and flung a fira spell at the heartless. As it came down, Ryu threw his sword and it struck, sliding in till it poked through the other side and the heartless fell onto the ground, dead. With the heartless out of the way, The gang finally made it to the lift and it took them down below the castle.
"That was a stupid manvuer back there." Beast told him. Ryu glanced at him from the corner of his eye. "If you missed, you would've lost your sword, and then you'd be useless."
"I'm not useless. Even without my blade. I'm a fragment hunter-I've been trained in what to do if you're without a weapon."
"What? Run away?"
"Stop it the both of you!" Aru yelled. "We're supposed to be working together."
"Yeah guys...come on..." Sora said. The lift stoped, leaving them on a rock in the middle of a small lake. There was what looked like the entrance to a waterway for the castle over to the side. "We could try to get in there. Maybe that would lead us to a back door or something. We could all sneak in without anyone knowing."
"I think they already know we're here. Riku's most likly blabbed to Mallificent, and she's hitting us with everything she's got." Ryu stated.
"Whatever. We should go in there." Everyone agreed with him, so they made there way over and jumped up onto the ledge where the door was. It was dark inside, with only a few candles to light the way. There was water inside, as was thought, but they found themselves already at a dead end, for a wall blocked any further advancement.
"'Let's go down guys, that's where the switch is.'" Ryu said, mocking Aru. She glared at him.
"Give me a break! If there weren't so many heartless here, then I'd be able to sense things easier, but I can't!"
"Well maybe you can figure out how to get this wall out of our way." Ryu retorted. Beast stepped through them and stood in front of them wall. After exaiming it, he punched into it with tremendous force that shook the ground. The wall broke and a hole large enough for all of them appeared.
"Well that was easy. Thanks." Sora said. Beast only glared at him. They all went through and found themselves by a small river of water tht flowed outside. "Maybe if we follow it, it'll bring us inside the castle." And the former keyblade master jumped in, running through the shallow water.
"Wait Sora!" Ryu called, but gave up and started after him, with Aru following. The Beast stepped in and stalked his way through.
After following the twists and turns of the waterways, they found they were no where near getting into the castle. They stood at a crossroads, as one passage went left, and the other right. Ryu and Sora aruged for which one to take.
"We shouldn't split up, so let's go right." Ryu said.
"I think we should take the left one." Sora said.
"Why?"
"Um...I don't know! Why do you want to take the right one?"
"Because right is good and the left one is always evil!"
"This whole castle is evil! And besides, the right one always has more dangers in it. We should go left!" Aru rolled her eyes and Beast looked like he could tear the two boys apart. Aru stepped forward.
"There's a better way to do this." she said. A light appeared in her hands as she walked to the right tunnel. The light didn't do anything. She then held it in front of the left passage. The light went out. "We go left."
"How do you figure?" Ryu asked.
"It's easy. This tunnel didn't have enough power to keep the light on. It's the safer way to go." And she began to walk down the tunnel. Sora stuck his tounge out at Ryu, celebrating his victory. Ryu gritted his teeth, but went grudgeingly along. Beast followed, not liking any of this, but then again, he didn't really like anything. They made their way down slowly, splashing through the water as they went and not talking. Suddenly, there was another splash.
"Hold it guys." Sora said. Ryu looked behind them.
"Did you hear that too, Sora?" Ryu asked.
"Yeah. We're not alone."
"Is it another heartless?" Aru asked.
"Let's forget it. We have to get in the castle. Stop wasting time." Beast growled. Ryu listened closely again and heard footsteps. He looked behind the group. A light from a fire was heading towards them.
"Damn it! Let's run guys!" He said. Sora and Beast took off, Beast getting down on all fours and splashing water everywhere. Ryu and Aru were slightly behind them. Ryu was running as fast as his could when he heard a large splash. He turned, finding Aru had tripped. "Aru, you okay?"
"Yeah." He turned around and bent down.
"Climb on!" he commanded. She locked her amrs around his shoulders and he supported her legs with his arms and began to run, taking Aru along for the ride. Aru turned behind them, the footsteps still coming.
"Ryu, they're getting closer!"
"Do something with your magic!" Ryu yelled back.
"Okay. Firaga Shot!" she yelled, shooting a few fireballs at the oncoming figure.
"Who's there?" the figured yelled. "Come back here!" Ryu and Aru finally caught up to Sora and Beast. The three kids were almost panicking. Finally, a blast of cold air went past them and into the water, causing it to splash up and freeze, forming a wall. The group skidded to a hault.
"Damn it." Ryu said, letting Aru down.
"Hey, this is a Blizzaga spell." Aru said, exmaining the frozen ice. Now, it seemed two figures were coming towards them. Ryu grabbed the hilt of his blade, and Sora gripped the wooden sword he now called a weapon. The figures came into view. One was a man, the other a lady. The man wore a red cape and held up a latern. His hair was long and black, with a red band wrapped around his forehead. His left hand had a glove with metal claws on it. The lady had long black hair as well, but four long hairpins in it for a bun in the back and three long braids. She wore a black dress, with belts across the front and lace on the edge of the long sleeves.
"Ah. It's just a bunch of kids." The man said, relaxing a bit.
"What are you doing here?" the woman asked seriously. Her voice was stern and hard. Sora stepped forward.
"I'm Sora, and I am...was the keyblade master." he said, remembering the event of before.
"I'm Ryosuke of the fragment hunters." Ryu told them, putting his sword back in it's sheath.
"And I'm Aru, a magician." Sora looked to Beast, who said nothing, but snarled at the newcomers.
"I see. The keyblade master finally made it here. We've been hopeing you would come." The man said.
"Our friend, Cedeile, is the heartblade master, but we don't know where she went." Ryu eplained.
"The two masters are here?" The lady asked, surprised. "I guess seven years late is better than never."
"Oh, I'm Vincent." The black haired man said. "I really don't have a title. I guess I'm a warrior...more like a broken man searching for someone's blood."
"And I'm Lulu, a master of magic." The lady said. "We've been hiding down in the waterways of the castle for the past seven years."
They sat around a fire buring on the dry ground. The cracking of the wood, conjured by magic, and the movement of water in the distance were the only noises.
"So you've lived down here for seven years?" Aru asked.
"Yes. This is the only safe place in Hallow Bastion for us. The heartless don't come down here for some reason. Anyway, it means we can hide from Mallificent. If she ever found us down here..." Vincent trailed off.
"She would most likly kill us." Lulu finished for him without fear. "So, we live here. There is more than meets the eye down here."
"Wait a mintue, do you guys know Leon?" Sora asked, suspicous. Lulu and Vincent looked at each other confused.
"Leon?" Lulu asked.
"How about Yuffie? Or Aerith? Cid?"
"Yeah! Those guys...they made it? Thank god. I though they died seven years ago, when this world was taken over." Vincent looked relieved.
"I should've picked up that you knew those guys when you said you'd been waiting down here for seven years. I've met Tifa and Yuna and Cloud as well."
"So they all made it alright. We had been worried." Lulu said.
"You have to understand-this is not the Hallow Bastion of seven years ago. It was much different than this. Many generations ago, a large group of people landed here. They found the castle and everything, so they decided to leave behind the old ways and have one solid community. They began by building a village all around the castle, and the castle was open to everyone. It was like, even though everyone had their own homes, the castle was their home, too. Everyone was equal-everyone lived together. There were hundreds of waterfalls and places like the Rising Falls out front-the only valley left. There was the field where they grew the food, the ruins of the old village, Squall's hill with the rock and tree, the demon forest, the River of Souls, the butterfly garden...it's all gone now..."
The sun beat down upon the land, giving it's warmth to everything below that had the chance to bask in it's warm gaze. The tall plants russled through the field as a boy made his way through them, runnng at full speed. His black hair flew out behind him as he lept out of the plants to an area that had already been havested.
"So, here you are, Lulu." Vincent said to the girl. She wore a simple black dress with fishnet material for sleeves and along the low neckline. Although she insisted on pinning some of her hair up behind her, the rest of it flowed down her back like water.
"What do you want?" she asked. He threw himself down on the ground next to her.
"How's the magic going?" She slightly smiled.
"There's this new type of magic that instead of focusing your spell to come up on the target, you actually shoot it from your body.(1) It's much more acurate than the old magic. I've been working on my fire spells. Watch." She stood and summoned a fireball in her hands. She threw it at a nearby plant and it burned to ashes. "It's also more controlled. If I had used the old magic, the whole field would've been ablaze. "
"Very good. You've been working very hard." he said, sitting upright. It was easy to tell his left hand was missing. "You're going to become a master mage, right?"
"Of course. I won't let what happened to my parents happen again." she said fiercely.
"Yeah, right..."he said, sort of on edge. "Anyway, Squall and Seifer got into another fight." Lulu rolled her eyes.
"Not again."
"And guess who had to break them up!"
"Cid again?"
"Nope. Auron. He really let them have it." Lulu half smiled. "Lulu, you should smile more. You look grumpy all the time. 14 is too young for that yet. Wait till you're eighty."
"I'll smile when I want to."
The bells of Hallow Bastion tolled across the land. The entire population gathered in the castle chapel, now applauding the new couple before them. Braska stood off to the side, happy that his daughter was finally married off. Everyone cheered for the family-Braska was one of the most respected people in Hallow Bastion.
Lulu stood in the back in the doorway, glaring at Braska.
"Disgusting..."
"What is?" Vincent asked, coming up beside her.
"Nothing." she said.
"You seem in a bad mood. Aren't weddings supposed to be joyous occasions? But that's right-you really hate the color white, don't you?" she glared at him from the corner of her eye.
"That's not it."
"Will you wear white at your wedding, Lulu?"
"I'm not ever getting married. If I got married, I would have to share all my time with the person I loved, and they wouldn't understand my goal. I have to focus all my strength on becoming a master mage. Until then, I have no time for anyone else. No one will stop me from doing this, understand?" she turned and walked away silently. Vincent turned and shrugged, not sure why she was in such a foul mood.
"It's because...your parents were killed by Sephiroth, the demon...right?" The girl stopped in her tracks. "I remember that day. It was the first time we saw him-a true demon, not like the demons in the forest. And..."
"He slaughtered them. There was blood everywhere, and there was nothing I could do to stop it."
"I heard you screaming in your house and ran to see what was wrong. There he was, covered in blood and you in the corner, terrified. I had no idea what was going on, but I knew it had been his fault."
"You fought him...and lost..."
"He cut off my left hand. I bet the bastard still has if as a trophy somewhere. Damn him." he looked down at the useless stump that had been left behind. Lulu walked off somewhere into the castle, leaving Vincent with his old memories.
There were books everywhere in the dark room, opened to all kinds of charts and diagrams. Lulu sat in the center of some kind of circle, flipping through the pages of one such book and holding different bottles and things in her hands.
"Let's see...here we are..." she poured what looked like silver sand onto a point formed by the lines on the floor. "Alright, it's done. Now, to unleash the spell..."
"Lulu!" the doors burst open. There stood Vincent, out of breath. "I heard it all from Aerith and Tifa. You're going to use magic to bring back your parents!" He ran up the stairs and looked down at the circle in whic Lulu was sitting. "That's a-"
"A pentagram spell." She looked down at the floor. Vincent touched her shoulder and knelt down next to her.
"That's sinister magic, Lulu. It's even worse than Hexagram spells. They're curses and evil magic. Why are you using them?"
"To bring my parents back. I've been studying magic for years, and I've read that a distant culture believed the human soul and body was a blance of five elements-fire, water, wood, earth and metal. When combined in harmony, these elements could make human beings and bring people back from the dead." she explained showing him the books around her. "It may seem to be evil magic, but I'm not using it for evil, Vincent. I'm going to bring back my parents, and you can't stop me."
"Listen, Lulu. I know you miss them and are lonely without them, but you can't just bring people back from the dead whenever you want. It's dangerous magic, and you could kill yourself doing it! Is it worth it, when you know the chance of success is so narrow?" She pushed him away.
"Go away! Leave me alone, Vincent! I have to try! And so what if it kills me? At least I'll be with my parents either way." she began to conjure up the spell, magic beginning to be released from the circle. Sparks of different colors began to travel along the lines to the five points of the pentagram within the circle until all the lines were lit up. A great burst of power came up from the circle, blowing her black hair around. She squinted her eyes as it stronger.
"Lulu! Stop now!" She bit down on her bottom lip, ignoring his voice. The power became stronger. Pages in the books began flipping about. The shelves shook violently. People in the castle at that moment could feel a small tremor from the room the spell was being cast in. Finally, it became to strong and Lulu dispelled it. The magic energies disolved, and she fell forward on the ground, exhausted. Some excess sparks still zapped along the lines of the circle. Vincent lifted her up, seeing her knocked out cold.
"Oh, Lulu...I'm so sorry..." She moved a bit, and then pushed away from his grasp, standing up on her own. "Lulu, you have to take it easy. You tried to cast a difficult spell!"
"Get out of here now..." she said, trying to remain calm.
"But-"
"Get out!" she pointed to the doors on the other side of the room. He glared at her turned back.
"You're an idiot, Lulu. I'll leave you alone, then. But I won't come to save you next time, so you can go and get yourself killed!" He stood up and began to storm out of the room when he heard a soft cry.
"I felt so helpless..." she got out. He stopped turning back to her. She was now at the top of the stairs, and it was clear she was crying. "I hated that feeling, so I sought to get rid of it. I'll do whatever it takes, Vincent. Just so that pain will go away. "
"You'd even let yourself get killed?" he asked.
"I would. But I won't give up on my training in magic. I've almost mastered every spell. Soon, I'll be strong enough to control the magic of the pentagram spell and will bring them back."
"It's stupid to try. People die, Lulu, and we may not like it, but we have to accept it. You don't see me useing sinister magic just to get my hand back, do you?" He turned his back to her and walked out the door, letting them close behind him.
"That fateful day seven years ago came without warning. The day started out normal, but then..."
"Attack! We're under attack!" Shadow heartless appeared everywhere, and the world began to break apart. Pieces of rock flew up everywhere. There were cries for help and frantic shouts. People ran everywhere trying to escape. Cid Highwind was one of them, dashing through the rubble to get to his greatest invention-the gummi ship. Nothing was going to get him to give up that ship! It would get everyone out of here, although several had already left.
"Uncle Cid! Uncle Cid!" he heard from the wreckage. He turned, seeing the young Yuffie trapped under a rock.
"I'm coming kid!" he ran and lifted up the rock so she could crawl out.
"Thanks Uncle Cid." she said, sniffing.
"Are you okay, kid?" he asked.
"Yeah...but I can't find my daddy!" she cried.
"He's off fighting these heartless, but don't worry! We'll meet him when we escape this place." Cid reassured her.
"Really?"
"You betcha, kid."
"Cid! Cid!" A boy's voice called. He turned to see the young Squall limping towards him with Aerith's arm drapped around his sholders, knocked out cold.
"Squall!" Yuffie yelled. She and Cid ran to him as he collasped from exhaustion.
"I was...fighting them...and then Aerith screamed from her house. Her parents were taken..." Cid lifted the girl and began gently slapping her face to wake her up.
"Come on Aerith, wake up. There's no time for this." The girl's aqua green eyes fluttered open.
"I was hoping it had been a dream...Momma..." She looked like she was going to cry.
"Aerith, get it together! We have to get out of here!" Cid yelled. A group ran up to them. It was Braska, holding the three year old Yuna, with Tifa and Vincent behind him.
"Cid, are the kids alright?" he asked his old friend.
"Where's Cloud, Mr. Braska?" The young Tifa asked, tugging at him.
"He already made it out okay." Braska told her, patting her on the head gently. She smiled.
"He did?" Cid asked. Braska looked at him.
"He got seperated from us, but I'm sure he'll be alright on his own. He's pretty tough."
"Wait a minute! Where's Lulu?" Vincent suddenly asked. "I never saw her today!" He turned and ran back to the castle.
"No! Vincent!" Braska yelled. "Cid, get to the ship. We'll join you shortly!"
"Do you want me to take Yuna and Tifa?"
"No, it's better if they stay with me!" He said, running off after the black haired boy. Vincent, meanwhile, was already at the castle's front doors and thrust them open, running as fast as he could through the front hall and up the many starways . "At that moment, the only thing I could think about was 'What if they got her?' I wanted us to all escape together. I thought if Lulu came with us to a new world, she might really smile again." He burst through a pair of huge doors that were in the heart of the castle. The huge room had been refered to as the grand hall, althought it was never used for anything. It contained a heartshaped portal with swirling colors inside of it. It was the keyhole of Hallow Bastion. He ran down the carpeted aisle and up the left set of stairs to see Lulu sitting on the middle of a huge circle. This time, it was a double hexagram circle, and at eight of the points there was an object or pile of something.
"Lulu! What are you doing, it's time to go!" Vincent yelled.
"Not yet! I'm going to try and seal the keyhole. I've gathered the eight elements that are within the keyblade. I had to fudge things a little-I counted Summon as an element and included it with Fire, Blizzard, Aero, Cure, Thunder, Gravity, and Stop. By placing the elements at stratigic points-the cardinal dircetions and the intermediate dircetions- and leaving the four points that point towards the secondary intermediate directions (2) ,I was able to make sure the power was transfered through the circle evenly, so that they blended together. After all, when you strip down the metal of the keyblade, that's really all it is. I'll blast the force of the spell towards the keyhole, and it'll think it's the keyblade and lock itself. Hallow Bastion will be safe. " she explained, summoning up the power of the circle.
"No, Lulu! It's not just the magic that makes the keyblade so powerful! It's the master and his heart that bring out the true power of the keyblade." The magic energy blew up her long hair. She looked over at him.
"I have to try, Vincent. I couldn't save my parents, so I have to try to save this world. It's all I have left!" He walked into the circle, kneeling behind her and putting his hands on her shoulders for support.
"Then I believe you will do it. I'll stay here with you, because even if this world falls apart, you still have me, your friend." Lulu closed her eyes, concentrating, and built up the magic in the circle. The whole castle shook violently, some pieces falling out of the walls and ceiling. The magic grew brighter and brighter until it lit up the whole room. The two teens held on for as long as their bodies would let them, having the strong desire to save this world. When the power reached mass capacity, she cast it all upon the keyhole. It blasted into the portal, hitting the keyhole beyond the door. The two watched in suspense, praying with all their might it would work. But the light died down, and the elements around the circle disappeared. Lulu looked around the circle, shocked as it slowly faded away.
"No! It must've rejected the spell!" She cried. A huge tremor came from deep within the world, and the magic flew back out of the portal, causing an explosion. The two went flying and crashed through the railing, landing hard on the ground. Vincent slowly got up, feeling his head to make sure he was in one piece. He looked up on the platform above, seeing millions of heartless looking down on them.
"It was then we knew that we wouldn't be leaveing. We ran as fast as we could to get away. They were around every corner, and it didn't seem like there was anywhere safe to go. Finally, we made it outside and found the entrance to the waterways that ran under the castle."
Lulu slunk down against the wall, breathing heavily from their long run. Vincent looked outside, making sure it was safe. Lulu got up, beginning to walk away from him, but he grabbed the material of her dress tightly.
"Real smart, Lulu. Now we're stuck here! Everyone's already gone!" he yelled at her. "We'll be dead in a week, at most."
"What happened to you being there for me?" she retorted sharply.
"Oh shut up!" he yelled. He let go of the cloth he had been gripping with his only hand. He looked at his left wrist, where there should have been a hand. He clenched his eyes shut in frustration and griped his other hand into a fist, making blood drip down his knuckles. Lulu ripped off the edge of her sleeve and took his hand by force, wrapping the makeshift bandage around it.
"Don't go doing stupid things." she told him. "We have to survive down here." He turned his back stubbornly. She walked deeper into the waterways.
"Where are you going?" he asked.
"I'm going to find someplace to stay down here. Somewhere dry and clean. That's what I'm doing. If you want to help, fine. If you don't, the you're on your own." She continued on her way. He stood there for awhile, but then decided to follow her. They walked for a long time till they made it to a split in the tunnels. After deciding to go left, they found the perfect place to stay-a large dry area near the water. A candle was bolted to the wall. Lulu took the candle out of it's holder and began to look around the area.
"What is it?"
"I thought I saw a door. Yeah, it's over there, see?" Indeed, there was an iron door across from them. Lulu went to it, turning the strange handle around until the door clicked. It took the both of them to open it. A stairway going down was revealed.
"It looks steep. I wonder where it goes?"
"I don't remember anyone saying anything about a secret room in the waterways." Lulu said, going first down the stairs, picking up her skirt so she wouldn't trip. Vincent followed right behind her. She held the candle up, lighting the way. At last they made it to a dark room. Lulu found a latern on a table and lit it, filling the room with light. "I see. A magic lamp that just needs a little spark. If left alone, it'll burn for a hundred years."
"Lulu, it's not just the lamp that's magic. It looks like we've found the Achive of Forbidden Magic. Every banned charm and curse and spell ever written is down here." he said looking at the bookshelves loaded with all sorts of books. Books were stacked on the floor and on the desk. Lulu began to examine the titles of some of them. Vincent sat down in a chair.
"Think about it-we could learn the spells in these books and fight the heartless. We'd be formiddable..."
"Lulu, put your head on straight! These magics are forbidden for a reason! They're sinsister, evil magics! These spells kill people or their users! Or both. We could be executed if anyone found out we learned magic from here." She glared at him.
"Do you want to live down here completely defenseless, or do you want to fight back? This is our world, and we found this place for a reason, so let's use what it has to offer! I can learn so many things-how to conjure up anything we need, how to make weapons...how to make you a hand..." She looked at his left arm, eyes trailing down. He looked at his missing hand as well.
"That's a banned artform, Lulu. And besides, you could kill yourself learning all this stuff."
"I don't care. I'm not going to die down here like a rat, and I'm sure you don't want to either. So, shall I make you a hand or what?" He thought long and hard, weighing the consquences on both sides. At last he sighed, closing his red eyes.
"Fine. Let's go."
"For the next few months, we began reading every spell that achive had to offer. Some of the books were cursed, or locked. Some were bigger than we were. But I was determined to learn all the magic I could to save me and Vincent...and our world."
"After a year, we had learned enough magic to begin our first task, make me a hand..."
Lulu zapped the circle with a thunder attack and it was completed. She lifted it delicatly-a hand with claws over it-for weapons-made of pure goldmir metal. Goldmir was a very durable metal, and strong as well, which made it hard to work with. But after reading many blacksmith magic texts, she had perfected the art and had made the outer armor for the hand. The hand itself was inside the glove and was made by conjuring together blood, a slice of human flesh, and a gravity spell. It was covered by a leather glove, over which went the armor. Vincent had thrown off his red cape and pushed up one of his long sleeves to reveal the place his hand had been cut off many years before.
Lulu picked up a hammer and a few small, goldmir bolts, that she would use to attach the hand to his arm. She knelt down placing her tools on her lap. She gently picked up his stump and smoothed a herb mixture on it.
"This will hurt. Just try and stay calm...I'm nervous about this..."
"Do what you have to Lulu..." He said. She placed the hand how she wanted it.
"Okay, now hold it in place like this. No, just like this..."
"Like this?" he asked She adjusted his hand.
"There. Like that." She said. Hands shaking, she wrapped her thin fingers around the handle of the hammer and picked up one of the bolts. Carefully, she placed it in the hole she made for it and took the hammer up to it and banged it in once. There was a loud, aweful curse that flew out of Vincent's mouth. It startled her so much that she dropped the hammer on the floor and covered her ears. Suddenly, she felt a hand on her back, squeezing her tight. She looked up at him.
"Lulu, don't worry about me. Do what you have too..." he got out, obviuosly in pain. Lulu nodded, picking up the hammer. She banged it again and then again, and soon the beats of the hammer were constant, just as were his curses. She picked up the second bolt and began again. After hitting it twice she stopped, looking up at him.
"Would you stop yelling profanities at me everytime I have to hammer one of the bolts in!" she yelled at him.
"It hurts like hell! What do you want me to do?"
"Well, this is the only way to attach the hand to your arm! I'm sorry!" she yelled back. He sighed.
"Sorry, I'll try to cool it a bit." She picked up her work again, banging on the bolt over and over again, this time with some silence from Vincent, though he did whimper a bit from time to time. Finally, the last bolt was secured in place. Lulu wiped off her forhead, and Vincent looked at his new body part. How long had it been since he had two hands? "How does this thing work?" he asked.
"All you have to do is use your will power and think about how you want to use it. It's no different from useing a normal hand really. If you...ever get your real hand back from Sephiroth, then I could reattach it for you, and you could use the armor part as a weapon still." He looked down at the new hand and started to move the fingers a bit, making sure it was real.
"It's...wonderful, Lulu..." he said.
"Now the both of us can use the full potential of this place."
"Me? I don't have any magic in my blood, Lulu."
"No, that's true. But if I learn the magic of making weapons, then I could make you magic weapons, like a gun or sword, and then we would be able to infiltrate the castle and take down their leader. It's possible. Look at all the knowledge left here. These mages REALLY knew what they were doing to write such intricate books and spells. Look at these works-" she picked up a book from the floor and handed it to him. "-these people knew magic better than themselves, than their own heart. This kind of magic requires great strength, and no doubt alot of sacrifice. So, are we going to try and make it together? That's the only way we'll survive. " Vincent flipped the pages of the book, looking at the texts and the drawings and charts.
"Alright, then. We should get started with step 2."
"So, for the past seven years, we've been learning forbidden magic. I can even cast a few weak spells, even though I don't have any magic in me. Still, this is not the life I would've liked to live." he said. Lulu looked into the fire fiercely.
"We read about the two masters and how they would force back the darkness into the west. Well, this is pretty far west, but there's still something else out there, I guess. We had been hopeing you would make it here soon. And here you are..."she looked at Sora through the flames. He shivered a little under her fierce stare.
"Huh, why are we wasting our time over such a stupid story about two useless shells." Beast growled. "I should be getting back Belle." Vincent looked up at him, glaring.
"You sound like a little kid who can't find his favorite toy, and you won't yet anyone rest until you find it. Is this girl a friend, someone prescious, or a possession?" he said coldly.
"I will NOT have a scared man like YOU tell me how I am!" he roared back at Vincent.
"I'm not afraid." Vincent replied. "You're the one who's afraid. You're afraid about going on without this girl, about being alone, aren't you? Well sometimes, you just have to tough it out by yourself when no one will help you up and you've been left all alone." Ryu looked from Vincent to Beast, his navy eyes weary.
"So..."Aru chirped in, "What kind of magic did you learn?" Lulu stood up.
"Just simple things. Like this spell...Light!" She shot a staticy ball of light into the darkness.
"You can cast light too?" Ryu and Aru asked at the same time. Lulu laughed.
"It's not really a Light spell at all. I learned a sort of cheat from a book. That was really an amplified Thunder spell."
"And that stuff's forbidden?" Ryu asked, skeptical.
"It gets alot worse than that. Alot of the stuff were spells with human body parts, blood, and parts of animals. That's why they were banned. Like the making of fake, magic body parts..." Lulu looked to Vincent's metal hand. He looked down at it as well, almost ashamed.
"Is there really a chance of getting your real hand back?" Sora asked.
"I'd bet my soul that there is. Sephiroth's got it somewhere, I know..."
"Do you know what Mallificent is planning here?"
"She's trying to gather the seven princesses to complete the keyhole." Lulu replied.
"The princesses?"
"The princesses of heart. Seven girls with the purest hearts in all the worlds are chosen and given sacred powers that are linked to the keyholes. Mallificent, although she has control over this world, has yet to infiltrate the keyhole. The princesses are also tightly linked to the keyblade and heartblade, though it is unknown how." Lulu explained. Sora looked at the hand that last held the keyblade.
"When Riku called the keyblade to him and away from me, it pulstated, like I could feel it's heart. The keyblade had a heart in it...I could feel it."
"You might as well forget it, kid. You'll never get the keyblade back. Sure, there are keyblade weilders, but only the keyblade master can unlock it's full potential." Vincent said.
"How do we know that Riku's not wrong, and that Sora is the true keyblade master?" Aru asked. "Mallificent is liar, no doubt, and she probably told Riku about the keyblade to get it away from Sora, not cause it was true."
"Why do you say that?" Ryu asked her. "What makes you so certain?"
"...I'm not sure..." There was a pause of silence. No one was sure what to say, or in what direction to go. Finally Sora stood up, his chain that hung at his side clinking as he moved. Everyone looked at him.
"I'm not just going to sit here and waste my life." He said. "I'm going up to that castle and I'm going to get my keyblade back, I'm going to find my friends. I have to, there's no other way. Even if I have to go by myself, I don't care." Ryu stood too.
"You won't have to go by yourself. I've been in this for a long enough time to be a part of it. It's not just about getting the fragments anymore. It's about saving all the worlds from death and destruction. I may be a fragment hunter, trained under secret arts with one goal in mind, but for now I'll cast my true self aside to do what matters more." He said to Sora. "Cedeile would want us to get along. At first, I didn't like you, but that made her sad that her two friends couldn't get along. I made you a promise that I wouldn't leave her alone. I'll fulfill that promise to you now and go with you, to save her." Sora looked at him, surprised, thinking that maybe it was a joke. But Ryu's eyes were completely serious, so Sora smiled.
"Thanks." Ryu turned away, crossing his arms.
"Hmph...whatever." Aru stood too.
"I want to help. I may only have one memory to clutch to, but it's enough to move towards the future with. No-I've only been thinking about the past, my origins...this whole time while travelling with you and Cedeile, Ryu, I've been making memoires that I can fall back on. So I'll fight to protect those memories." Sora smiled at her.
"Thank you, Aru. I'm glad Cedeile had friends like you."
"She still has us, as far as I'm concerned. I was talking like that, too, back on the ship. 'We made a great team', I said. She told me to stop talking like that. It made her uneasy."
"I guess she felt that this was the end. She just didn't want to say it." Sora replied. He turned to Vincent and Lulu. "You guys know this place better than anyone. Please...will you come with us?" Beast stood up, walking away. Vincent and Lulu looked to each other. It was as if they were having a telepathic argument with each other. Finally, Vincent spoke up.
"We haven't seen what the world looks like in seven years, it might be...too hard for us. But you need our help. Maybe you are the keyblade master, and maybe you're not-I don't know. But I want to be able to trust you, because I want to able to have the life that exsisted for me here before all this."he told him. He looked back to Lulu. "Get my gun." he told her.
"I hope you know I'm going too. I don't really care about how much this place has changed. I just want the heartless gone." She said, more to him than Sora, as she walked away to the iron door in the wall. She disappeared behind it. Vincent shrugged. When Lulu returned, she held a wooden box in her hands. She gave it to Vincent. He set it on the ground and opened it to reveal a golden gun with several bullets. The bullets were a faded gold color and had small marks on them that glowed different colors. He took the bullets and stored them in his pocket and loaded one into the gun. He looked to Sora.
"We're ready." Sora nodded, and they all left the area, walking into the darkness of the passages.
6H:Kind of long, huh?
Anaretsu:I nearly died from that one.
6H:You're already dead, baka. Anyway, I hope you all liked it! Footnote time!
(1) If you've ever played FFX, then you know that when Lulu, or anyone, casts a black magic spell, such as fire, that they wave their arm and the enemy bursts into flames. That's the 'old magic.' The 'new' magic is the KH style of spell casting, where fire shoots out of the keyblade. It's also the way Aru casts magic.
(2) The points that contained an element were pointing north, south, east, west, northeast, northwest, southeast, and southwest. The directions that weren't covered were Northnortheast, Southsoutheast, Southsouthwest, and Northnorthwest. I forgot the name for those directions, so I called them 'Secondary Intermeidiate.' I'm sure they have some other name.
Anaretsu:You think about this too much.
6H:That's what makes my story so good! Please Review. Next chapter wil not be so boring, I promise!
