Author's Note: This chapter can get confusing; it even confused me, the
author! So if it gets confusing, please don't mention it; I know.
Secrets of Memories
Chapter 7: A Long Shadow
They looked about each other warily. The silence and the emptiness of the Third District was strange, out of place, completely unreal. The Second District was swarming with white Heartless and here, adjacent to that district, was completely devoid of any life. Any life. Or was it?
From the platform they were standing on, Riku could 'see' a strange, crystalline fountain. It was a very pretty fountain, very pretty. To the far right was a strange battery-like structure, with electricity running through the ends, jagged and glowing intensely. He could also 'see' the door that led to First District. And saw that it was boarded up and chained. Why?
"Where's that door of fire?" Tarzan whispered. The silence pressed in on them and Tarzan emphasized the quiet.
"I don't know; I don't see it," Pooh answered, lookin very intently at the vacant house what was once, a year ago, filled with light and life.
"Um, Pooh? Not there. There," Riku pointed out the empty space of the center of the Third District to that forgetful yellow bear.
"Oh, yeah, right," Pooh noted and bounded down the stairs that led to that square.
"Wait!" Tarzan exclaimed. "Pooh, we don't know what might be down there!"
But Pooh was already down the stairs and beyond their view.
"You mean there might be something down there?" Riku demanded. "All I know is that there's a big square of emptiness right there in plain sight."
"Well, I'm only just guessing," Tarzan replied with a shrug. "Who knows what might be down-"
"Oh!" Pooh's voice exclaimed.
"Pooh!" Riku and Tarzan shouted and they charged down the stairs. Riku summoned the dark keyblade and Tarzan readied his spear as they reached the bottom of the stairs and turned left to find Pooh.
"What? What is it?" they exclaimed as they settled into fighting stances.
Pooh was standing just a few feet in front of them, staring at the door before him. The door was meters away, snuggled into a short hallway to the left of the Third District. The door had an ensign of fire on it.
"The Burning Door!" Tarzan breathed.
But something was wrong. The door was oddly shadowed in darkness. The emblem was obviously supposed to flicker like real fire but the color was a flat orange-brown. It did not dance like flames, as Riku remembered it a year ago, when he met Sora here in the Third District square.
"Is that smoke I see?" Tarzan wondered, narrowing his green eyes.
It seemed to be wisps of very dark smoke were leaking through the cracks around the perimeter of the door. Very dark smoke.
"Pity it wasn't that my house was on fire," a very elderly but cheerful voice boomed into Riku's ear. "There wouldn't be a problem, eh?"
Riku jumped into the air, whirled around, and swung his keyblade forward. It rested against an old man's neck.
"My, my, twitchy are we?" the old man chuckled. He had a very long, white beard, moustache, and white hair. He was dressed a long blue robe and a tall, pointy blue hat was perched rather precariously on his head. His round spectacles were slid very forward on his nose, and he carried a long, thick wand and a carpetbag. He looked very ruffled.
"Are you Merlin?" Tarzan asked right out.
"Why, yes I am," Merlin answered with a smile. "Hello. What can I do for you?"
"We're...um, well we were looking for you," Riku replied. "Leon, he told us you were behind the Burning Door. But apparently-"
"I'm not," Merlin finished. "I wish it was just my house on fire. Then again, it's made mostly out of stone so it wouldn't be on fire in the first place."
"What happened?" Pooh asked curiously.
"Very interesting," Merlin answered. "Very interesting indeed. See, I was having tea with the Fairy Godmother when, all of a sudden, Heartless appeared. Everywhere. From the roof, the underground passageway, from underneath the table, behind all my books, even from the little teapot where the tea was. So, to make a long story short, we had to go."
For a long time-in their opinions-Riku, Tarzan, and Pooh stared at the wizard.
"Ah well, all my stuff is here in this bag," Merlin said resignedly, gesturing to the carpetbag in his hand. "No problem. Oh and by the way, which one of you is Pooh?"
Raising his yellow arm into the air, Pooh asked curiously, "How did you know my name?"
"If I didn't," Merlin answered smoothly, "I wouldn't be classified as a wizard and life would've gone downhill from there."
"Ah, good point," Riku replied. He was a bit startled himself.
"Anyways, I know Leon sent you three here because you three would like to know of Pooh's potential," Merlin stated. "Apparently Cid, a good friend of mine, somehow discovered that Pooh, the little bear in my book, can utilize magic. Anyways, if you'd like to know of Pooh's potential, I can only say this: he has more than just magic if you can see very well, for within his heart, more than magic there dwells. Use that magic carefully and with wisdom, for someday we may all save a kingdom."
Merlin finished his poetic statement, only to be met by flabbergasted looks from Riku, Tarzan, and Pooh. Merlin sighed. Not again.
"This is what I meant to say," Merlin grumbled. "Each of you has your own potentials. This bit of information is for Tarzan: you're strength lies in what you have learned deep into your life. Use your strength to you're best advantage and you will recover your own light. And Riku, I believe you must know this: Do not despair though you have for long been in the dark, your destiny still awaits you. Follow your heart, your soul, your faith; do not shy from the light for only if you knew."
Merlin immediately gave himself a mental slap in the face. The three had already been confused by his little poem for Pooh and when he tried to translate it for them, he went off and rattled to Tarzan and Riku their own little prophecies. Well...if your brain's a bit waggled by the event of being chased out of your home by the Heartless, things can happen.
"I apologize," Merlin gave a hesitant, apologetic grin to the bewildered faces of Riku, Tarzan, and Pooh. "Sometimes, my mind rattles off what I try not to say. Sometimes, things come out a bit...poetic. I hope you don't mind."
"If you don't mind," Riku said politely. "Can you tell us what they mean? Those little poems you decided to say to us?"
"I can tell you that," Merlin answered. "What I've been trying to say was- "
"I suggest you step away from those three, Merlin," a sinister, hissing voice suddenly spoke.
A glistening sword rested on Merlin's left shoulder, pressed firmly and steadily against the wizard's neck.
"You..." Merlin's face was suddenly set, grim, and rather with a hint of hatred scribbled in.
"Yes, me..." the voice hissed. Riku looked over Merlin's shoulder to see a cloaked and hooded figure with glowing blue eyes.
"Who are you?" Tarzan demanded fiercely, his spear out before him in defense.
"My business is not with you, ape-man, but with this fool wizard," the figure snapped angrily. "You, Merlin, you told me he was at Agrabah but surprise, Agrabah's gone! I was there just as the Nobodies were finishing up the business-"
"The what?" Riku demanded.
"Well, well," the voice mused. "So Cloud has not told you about the Nobodies?"
The figure spat out the name like it was mud.
"What about Cloud?" Tarzan demanded.
"Oh, its only something very personal," the figure replied. "But to think that you have not heard of the Nobodies...they've only become the second large force of darkness. The Heartless have seemed to take Agrabah but, in truth, the Nobodies have taken that world and killed the Heartless in the process."
"What is Nobody?" Pooh wondered.
"None of your business, teddy bear," the figure snapped. "Now, Merlin, you know you've tried to rid this universe of me. Tell me, did you? Or was it an innocent mistake?"
Merlin's face was beyond grim. His eyes flashed with a hateful fire.
"I did try to rid you," Merlin said with surprising softness. "A good riddance if I had been successful. But fate plays very oddly, doesn't it? Well, I ask that you only deal with me and not these three. I have heard of your recent habit of taking out everyone in a certain vicinity of your target."
"Is that so?" the cold voice said. The blue eyes seemed to flame with a terrible fury. "If I am to keep with my habit, I may as well destroy these three as well as you-"
The jolting roll of the ground beneath their feet sent everyone toppling to the floor. Riku turned his head about wildly, trying to figure out what was going on.
"What's going on?" Pooh whimpered as he sat on the floor, completely helpless in the face of this restless turmoil of the ground.
"Its-" Tarzan began to say.
It fell from the sky. White like the Heartless, if was tall and floating, like the Darkside. A strange ensign was scribbled on the chest armor and the facial armor of this strange, knightly creature. A dark, nightmarish blue cloak flowed behind it; it had the hugest shoulder blades, the slimmest hourglass body, and its hands were long, very suspiciously looking lances.
"What in the name of Arthur..." Merlin's voice faded.
"A Noknight," the cloaked person hissed. "It is coming for you four and so I must take my leave. Farewell, Merlin. We shall meet again, if you can survive the Noknight."
With that, the person turned to go and, to the amazement of Tarzan and Pooh, for this was something Riku could not see, one black, feathered wing sprouted from the person's back and helped the person lift into the air.
"He can fly?" Tarzan wondered in surprise.
"Coward!" Merlin shouted in a sudden fury. "Willing to kill me before three innocent people yet fleeing when a Noknight comes back. Cloud had thought you were a worthy opponent but all I can see is a coward, Sephiroth!"
The hooded being turned its head to the enraged wizard.
"I'd rather flee than face a Noknight," Sephiroth responded. "Since I do not fight for your cause, I can go whenever I want to. And why do I not want to face a Noknight? They never stop fighting until one gives oneself up and distract the Noknight so that others can flee. Either that...or you destroy the Noknight."
With that, the hooded person, Sephiroth, flew into the night sky, leaving Riku, Tarzan, Pooh, and Merlin alone to face the Noknight.
"Might as well fight," Tarzan muttered as he readied his spear. "Never stop fighting until then...what are these mad beings?"
"They are as Sephiroth says," Merlin sighed as he pulled out his wand. "I don't know who created these Noknights but they must've been very clever to turn them into such killing machines."
"Killing machines or no, I say we fight right now!" Riku exclaimed as he whipped out his dark keyblade. Merlin watched that dark keyblade with a critical eye.
"If I were you, I'd advice you to put that away!" Merlin exclaimed.
"Why?" Riku asked in confusion.
"It cannot affect Noknights," Merlin answered. "As it is associated with the Heartless, the damage caused by the dark keyblade would hardly affect the Noknight."
"Then what am I supposed to do!" Riku shouted, willing his keyblade to vanish. "It's the only one I have!"
"No, it is not," Merlin responded, shaking his head. "No, there is another keyblade, waiting for you-"
"Watch out!" Tarzan shouted and shoved Riku away as the Noknight slammed a lance-like hand down where Riku was standing. The ground cracked and bent by the force of the lance-like hand. Dust billowed up as the Noknight withdrew its hand from the earth and made another stab, again at Riku, who managed to scramble out of the way.
"Why is it going after Riku?" Tarzan wondered.
"F-fire!" Pooh yelped and fired a fireball at the Noknight. It exploded harmlessly against its white armor and didn't even leave behind a scorch mark.
"Hm...let me try something," Merlin muttered. He aimed his wand at the Noknight's face and muttered some incoherent words. Immediately, a storm kicked up, a fiery snowstorm.
"Merlin, what the hell did you just do?!" Riku yelled into the wind.
"Trying to freeze the Noknight!" Merlin shouted, then jumped backwards to dodge the Noknight's sweeping lance-like hand as it attempted to wipe out Merlin. "Close one!"
"I don't think its working!" Tarzan shouted. He then leaped upward as the Noknight attempted a sweep again, landed on the Noknight's arm, and quickly scrambled upward to the Noknight's shoulder. He settled himself on the shoulder and proceeded to hack away at the Noknight's head.
"F-f-f-f-f-fire!" Pooh stuttered and a sizzling, dying fireball barely hit the cape. While it didn't seem to do any damage, he did succeed in getting the Noknight's cape on fire.
The Noknight, taking no notice of that, proceeded to quickly destroy the ground the four people were on with vicious stabs with its lance-like hands. The explosions of rock showered downward, injuring all who didn't have armor like the Noknight.
"This is painful..." Riku moaned. "Especially when you can't do anything!"
"Shouting will not help," Tarzan answered as he picked himself up from the piling snow; the Noknight had managed to throw Tarzan to the ground to keep him from slicing and dicing at his head. "How do you stop this creature?"
"We can't," Merlin replied, panting heavily from the amount of magic he had used to no avail to try and stop the Noknight. He jumped aside as the Noknight stabbed down at him and was injured as the shower of rocks fell on him. "I'll have to hold him off; you three get out of here."
"What?" Riku shouted. "We're not going without you! You seem to know what we don't know!"
"Groan...I knew I shouldn't have said so much," Merlin groaned. "Just get out of here, you'll find out yourselves. Now go!"
"No, you've got to tell us more!" Riku yelled as Tarzan and Pooh proceeded to drag him away. "No, let me go!"
"Good luck," Merlin muttered under his beard and faced the Noknight. " Now, what can stop a Noknight..."
~*~
"Oh there you are, Kairi!" Selphie exclaimed as she ran up to her friend, who was standing on a hill looking to the Destiny Islands. "Come on, Kairi! Dinner's almost ready at the inn!"
"Hmmm? Oh," Kairi sighed. "Okay."
Selphie looked into her friend's purplish blue eyes worriedly. "It's gone, Kairi. There's nothing you can do about it."
"I know," Kairi looked down, then turned to face the islands that were once their home. "But, it's so strange. It's like the islands, they are calling me."
"I know," Selphie replied. "They're calling me back home but we can't go back Kairi; you saw what happened."
"No, it's not that," Kairi answered. "There's something more to it. I think the islands are calling me back home, for a different reason."
"What other reason can there be?" Selphie asked, in obvious confusion.
"I don't know," Kairi replied. "But we have to go back; I'm certain of it."
"There is a dark radiance from our home, Kairi; I don't like it," Selphie retorted.
"What choice do we have?" Kairi replied with a sad smile.
Selphie shrugged. "Simple. We stay here and just wait until they come back."
By they, she meant the guys who had vanished.
Kairi shook her head. "No, there's something more to it, something more."
"Something more?" Selphie asked curiously. "Like...oh!"
The small exclamation of surprise prompted Kairi to look up to her friend's face. "What is it? What's wrong?"
A strangely dreamy look settled over Selphie's face. "Its like...something's calling to me. A voice, it's calling to me."
"What do you think its saying?" Kairi asked.
"Like...it's telling me to go back...go back to the islands and find this...place," Selphie's eyes were narrowed in concentration. "Some place on the islands; the voice says that the place is a secret, because it has a dangerous purpose to hide...or something like that. Or is that what the voice said? Hm..."
It hit her. Kairi knew there really was only one secret place. Only one secret place. It was...the Secret Place.
"Could it be...the Secret Place?" Kairi breathed. Why the Secret Place? Did it have a secret to hide, something dangerous?
"The Secret Place? Oh, that Secret Place," Selphie agreed. "Wonder why we have to go there..."
Kairi grabbed Selphie's hand and pulled her to the inn where they had been staying. "Come on. Let's get our stuff. We need to go back."
"Now?" Selphie questioned. Kairi nodded and continued to drag her to the inn.
"It's cold, Kairi; did we have to go now?" Selphie complained as she shrank back from a splash of frigid seawater. Her shivering hands grippe the oar hard.
"Its calling to us; we had to go now," Kairi answered, shivering all the while. A cold wind was blowing furiously in their faces, trying to push their wooden boat back. Destiny Islands stood alone, in the middle of the sea, ominous, as if something dangerous resided on the islands.
"It looks really scary," Selphie commented as she looked to the islands. The full moon, shrouded by clouds, barely lit the islands and Kairi and Selphie could see no more than a dark silhouette against a strangely starless sky. Then, a light blazed across the horizon and Selphie exclaimed, "A shooting star!"
Another one, Kairi thought. Have the world borders come down? Are the Heartless going to attack again?
The bump of the ship against the shore jolted her out of her thoughts.
They had landed on the shore of Destiny Islands. And the darkness of the former home certainly did not welcome them.
"So...who wants to take the first step?" Selphie whispered. The dark air weighed heavily on them.
"Are you that scared?" Kairi demanded. Trust me, I've been involved in worse things than this.
"No, I'm not," Selphie retorted but her voice shook.
Kairi sighed, shook her head, then stood up and, grabbing her meager belongings, jumped onto the sandy shore.
Nothing happened.
"It's safe!" Kairi exclaimed to Selphie as she inched forward from the still-warm sands to the inner areas of the islands.
Selphie, with her belongings, nimbly jumped out of the boat and onto wet, compact sand. She jogged up to Kairi and asked, "Can you find the Secret Place, even in this darkness?"
Kairi nodded; she had literally memorized the way to the Secret Place. Turning right, she went forward a couple of steps and found her footing on a wooden ramp. She walked her way up to the second level of the islands and, upon stepping onto the second level, she became increasingly wary of the sudden chill in the air. Something was not right.
"Selphie," she whispered. "Something's not right."
"What?" Selphie demanded as she groped about in the darkness, unable to see as well as Kairi.
"Can you feel it?" Kairi whispered, her face towards the Secret Place. " There's a heaviness in the air, something dark, something evil..."
"K-Kairi?" Selphie began to stutter. "T-th-look over t-there-there..."
"Where?" Kairi looked about her, before noticing a strange, glowing pair of yellow eyes watching them.
"W-wh-what is-is that-t?" Selphie stammered. A slap was heard against the floor and Kairi knew that Selphie had slapped her nunchaku against the ground, hoping to scare away the owner of the pair of glowing eyes.
Much to their dismay, more eyes began to appear. The way to the Secret Place, Kairi noted, remained clear but everywhere else, glowing eyes appeared.
"Kairi," Selphie said nervously, backing into her friend. "What are they?"
Why did those glowing eyes look so familiar? As if Kairi had seen the eyes before, long ago.
"Where is the source?" a voice hissed, cold as the metal of a knife slicing through flesh.
"It talked!" Selphie exclaimed.
"What source?" Kairi demanded in a firm voice, though her heart and soul shrank away from the voice.
"Our source, kin of our liege," the voice whispered menacingly. "Where is our source?"
"I don't 'know what you're talking about," Kairi replied.
"Who are you?" Selphie wondered.
At that very moment, the clouds shrouding the moon faded away and a powerful blast of moonlight hit Destiny Islands, illuminating everything.
"Selphie!" Kairi exclaimed. "They're-they're the Heartless!"
The Heartless, huge, humanoid, bulging with muscle, long nails grappling into the air, surrounded them. Kairi had never seen these types of Heartless before but she knew one thing: they were Heartless.
"Where is our source, our liege, kin of the liege?" the voice rose to a high shrill.
"Are you referring to me as 'kin'?" Kairi demanded.
"You are kin," the voice replied. "Related to our liege and the only one who had entered our realms and came back with a whole heart."
Kairi concluded that the voice came from the largest, buffest Heartless in the menacing crowd.
"I'm sorry, I don't' know where your liege is," Kairi answered as she and Selphie began to back away. "I suggest that you look elsewhere. Goodbye."
With that, she and Selphie turned and made for the Secret Place.
"Stop them!" the large Heartless hissed to the other Heartless. "We cannot let them get away!"
The Heartless began a mad dash after to the two teenage girls.
~
"Kin to their liege eh?" Selphie asked Kairi as they bolted through the twisting tunnel of the Secret Place. "That was interesting-"
They spilled out into the room, the Secret Place, and froze.
Heartless, Heartless everywhere, swarming all over the place. They all froze, though, when Kairi and Selphie charged into the room and watched them darkly, their long crooked ears twitching.
"This does not look good," Selphie whispered to Kairi.
"It never did," Kairi replied and her heart suddenly began to tug hard in her. Kairi looked to the brown door at the far end of the Secret Place. The golden outline of the key on that brown door was glowing, beckoning, calling to them.
"We have to get to that door," Kairi decided.
"And how, may I ask?" Selphie replied, her hand gripping her nunchaku tightly.
"There's only one answer," Kairi sighed as she pulled out Sora's wooden sword. "We fight."
Selphie opened her mouth to protest but then they heard a surge of activity behind them. That could only come from...the Heartless.
"Okay, we do have no choice," Selphie decided and quickly lashed her nunchaku forward.
A Heartless fell.
Kairi stared. "Are the Heartless becoming weaker? It just fell, just like that."
Selphie shrugged, then said, "It still took a lot to bring him down."
So the Heartless aren't weaker; Selphie's just gotten too good with her nunchaku. Note to thyself: don't' get on her bad side.
With that Kairi gave a shout, swung out Sora's sword, and dragged Selphie into a rising melee in an attempt to reach the door.
~
Kairi had never been in combat before. She had never wielded a weapon against anybody other than a friend and she had never used the weapon in any way other than to practice with. But now she was locked in combat, was to slice and dice a path through the new Heartless in order to get to the door. And the door seemed very far away.
"Are we any closer?" Selphie demanded as she whipped another Heartless to the floor, beheading it in the process.
"I don't know!" Kairi shouted as she swung her wooden sword forward and sliced off an arm. "Okay, now that's gross."
Kairi sliced at a Heartless' torso. The attack got the Heartless away from her path and Kairi ran forward, only to nearly crash into the wooden door. She had made it, she had reached the door.
"Selphie!" she shouted. "I've reached the door!"
"I'm coming!" Kairi saw the end of the nunchaku fly in the air and come down hard, leaving a Heartless falling apart, in half. Selphie ran forward; she had made it, too.
"And this is the door?" Selphie wondered at the golden outline of the keyhole but shrank back when a Heartless' hand slammed onto the door only inches above her head.
Kairi reacted quickly, whirling around and slicing at the Heartless. It quickly shrank back, disintegrating into nothingness gradually and, from how the Heartless was acting, painfully.
"That was close," Kairi sighed, then swung the sword as another Heartless came forward. "That was even closer."
"Kairi, how do we open this door?" Selphie demanded as she tried to push the door. "It's not budging..."
Acting on instinct, rather than thought, Kairi whirled around and stabbed at the very center of the keyhole with Sora's sword.
The door glowed in an odd myriad of gray colors. The Heartless began to shrink away from the glowing door, watching the door warily. Selphie shrank away from the glowing door as well but Kairi stood firm. She knew it had happened. The door had called to them, obviously to do something, and she had done it. She had, somehow, opened the door and she didn't know why.
But will she?
"The door," Kairi whispered in awe. "It's opening."
"Why is it turning gray?" Selphie whimpered.
"The Heartless are scared of it, that I'm glad of," Kairi replied. It was true; the Heartless were shying away from the door.
The wooden door was creaking open, easing open, to an opening where a gray light pulsed. Kairi didn't know why the gray light was there but no matter, it was scaring away the Heartless.
"Do you think that whatever's in this door will get the Heartless off Destiny Islands?" Selphie whispered.
"Looks like it," Kairi answered, gesturing behind her.
Selphie cast a look over her shoulder, only to see the last of the Heartless leaving the room. They were casting dark looks at Kairi and Selphie as they left.
"Wow, they left really fast-" Selphie began to say.
A howling wind suddenly ripped into the room. Selphie screamed.
"I think that's why they left so fast!" Kairi shouted over the wind as she grabbed onto Sora's wooden sword, which was still embedded into the door. " The wind's coming from what's inside the door!"
"Kairi!" Selphie screamed and began to slide into the pulsing gray light in the door.
"Selphie!" Kairi shouted and grabbed Selphie's hand. Kairi's other hand gripped hard on Sora's wooden sword, not knowing how long she could hold on.
Her answer came. As the wind whipped around them, causing their hair to slap painfully against their faces, Sora's wooden sword snapped in two. Kairi and Selphie screamed in fear as they were sucked into the door.
As their screaming faded, the door silently swung shut. Half the wooden blade was stuck to the gilded keyhole. It would be a long time before a Heartless would ever step into the Secret Place again.
~*~
"The first human I've seen in months!" a voice, suave and full of bravado, exclaimed in a strange gray world. A rather buff, muscular human in simple, very archaic armor was peering at a heap of two girls, a whole dump of supplies, a strange whip, and half a wooden sword.
"Doesn't look like they'll hurt anybody," he muttered and put away his short sword. "Wonder if Father sent them to me..."
Another Author's Note: Was it confusing? I hope not. Guess who the owner of the bravado voice is!
Secrets of Memories
Chapter 7: A Long Shadow
They looked about each other warily. The silence and the emptiness of the Third District was strange, out of place, completely unreal. The Second District was swarming with white Heartless and here, adjacent to that district, was completely devoid of any life. Any life. Or was it?
From the platform they were standing on, Riku could 'see' a strange, crystalline fountain. It was a very pretty fountain, very pretty. To the far right was a strange battery-like structure, with electricity running through the ends, jagged and glowing intensely. He could also 'see' the door that led to First District. And saw that it was boarded up and chained. Why?
"Where's that door of fire?" Tarzan whispered. The silence pressed in on them and Tarzan emphasized the quiet.
"I don't know; I don't see it," Pooh answered, lookin very intently at the vacant house what was once, a year ago, filled with light and life.
"Um, Pooh? Not there. There," Riku pointed out the empty space of the center of the Third District to that forgetful yellow bear.
"Oh, yeah, right," Pooh noted and bounded down the stairs that led to that square.
"Wait!" Tarzan exclaimed. "Pooh, we don't know what might be down there!"
But Pooh was already down the stairs and beyond their view.
"You mean there might be something down there?" Riku demanded. "All I know is that there's a big square of emptiness right there in plain sight."
"Well, I'm only just guessing," Tarzan replied with a shrug. "Who knows what might be down-"
"Oh!" Pooh's voice exclaimed.
"Pooh!" Riku and Tarzan shouted and they charged down the stairs. Riku summoned the dark keyblade and Tarzan readied his spear as they reached the bottom of the stairs and turned left to find Pooh.
"What? What is it?" they exclaimed as they settled into fighting stances.
Pooh was standing just a few feet in front of them, staring at the door before him. The door was meters away, snuggled into a short hallway to the left of the Third District. The door had an ensign of fire on it.
"The Burning Door!" Tarzan breathed.
But something was wrong. The door was oddly shadowed in darkness. The emblem was obviously supposed to flicker like real fire but the color was a flat orange-brown. It did not dance like flames, as Riku remembered it a year ago, when he met Sora here in the Third District square.
"Is that smoke I see?" Tarzan wondered, narrowing his green eyes.
It seemed to be wisps of very dark smoke were leaking through the cracks around the perimeter of the door. Very dark smoke.
"Pity it wasn't that my house was on fire," a very elderly but cheerful voice boomed into Riku's ear. "There wouldn't be a problem, eh?"
Riku jumped into the air, whirled around, and swung his keyblade forward. It rested against an old man's neck.
"My, my, twitchy are we?" the old man chuckled. He had a very long, white beard, moustache, and white hair. He was dressed a long blue robe and a tall, pointy blue hat was perched rather precariously on his head. His round spectacles were slid very forward on his nose, and he carried a long, thick wand and a carpetbag. He looked very ruffled.
"Are you Merlin?" Tarzan asked right out.
"Why, yes I am," Merlin answered with a smile. "Hello. What can I do for you?"
"We're...um, well we were looking for you," Riku replied. "Leon, he told us you were behind the Burning Door. But apparently-"
"I'm not," Merlin finished. "I wish it was just my house on fire. Then again, it's made mostly out of stone so it wouldn't be on fire in the first place."
"What happened?" Pooh asked curiously.
"Very interesting," Merlin answered. "Very interesting indeed. See, I was having tea with the Fairy Godmother when, all of a sudden, Heartless appeared. Everywhere. From the roof, the underground passageway, from underneath the table, behind all my books, even from the little teapot where the tea was. So, to make a long story short, we had to go."
For a long time-in their opinions-Riku, Tarzan, and Pooh stared at the wizard.
"Ah well, all my stuff is here in this bag," Merlin said resignedly, gesturing to the carpetbag in his hand. "No problem. Oh and by the way, which one of you is Pooh?"
Raising his yellow arm into the air, Pooh asked curiously, "How did you know my name?"
"If I didn't," Merlin answered smoothly, "I wouldn't be classified as a wizard and life would've gone downhill from there."
"Ah, good point," Riku replied. He was a bit startled himself.
"Anyways, I know Leon sent you three here because you three would like to know of Pooh's potential," Merlin stated. "Apparently Cid, a good friend of mine, somehow discovered that Pooh, the little bear in my book, can utilize magic. Anyways, if you'd like to know of Pooh's potential, I can only say this: he has more than just magic if you can see very well, for within his heart, more than magic there dwells. Use that magic carefully and with wisdom, for someday we may all save a kingdom."
Merlin finished his poetic statement, only to be met by flabbergasted looks from Riku, Tarzan, and Pooh. Merlin sighed. Not again.
"This is what I meant to say," Merlin grumbled. "Each of you has your own potentials. This bit of information is for Tarzan: you're strength lies in what you have learned deep into your life. Use your strength to you're best advantage and you will recover your own light. And Riku, I believe you must know this: Do not despair though you have for long been in the dark, your destiny still awaits you. Follow your heart, your soul, your faith; do not shy from the light for only if you knew."
Merlin immediately gave himself a mental slap in the face. The three had already been confused by his little poem for Pooh and when he tried to translate it for them, he went off and rattled to Tarzan and Riku their own little prophecies. Well...if your brain's a bit waggled by the event of being chased out of your home by the Heartless, things can happen.
"I apologize," Merlin gave a hesitant, apologetic grin to the bewildered faces of Riku, Tarzan, and Pooh. "Sometimes, my mind rattles off what I try not to say. Sometimes, things come out a bit...poetic. I hope you don't mind."
"If you don't mind," Riku said politely. "Can you tell us what they mean? Those little poems you decided to say to us?"
"I can tell you that," Merlin answered. "What I've been trying to say was- "
"I suggest you step away from those three, Merlin," a sinister, hissing voice suddenly spoke.
A glistening sword rested on Merlin's left shoulder, pressed firmly and steadily against the wizard's neck.
"You..." Merlin's face was suddenly set, grim, and rather with a hint of hatred scribbled in.
"Yes, me..." the voice hissed. Riku looked over Merlin's shoulder to see a cloaked and hooded figure with glowing blue eyes.
"Who are you?" Tarzan demanded fiercely, his spear out before him in defense.
"My business is not with you, ape-man, but with this fool wizard," the figure snapped angrily. "You, Merlin, you told me he was at Agrabah but surprise, Agrabah's gone! I was there just as the Nobodies were finishing up the business-"
"The what?" Riku demanded.
"Well, well," the voice mused. "So Cloud has not told you about the Nobodies?"
The figure spat out the name like it was mud.
"What about Cloud?" Tarzan demanded.
"Oh, its only something very personal," the figure replied. "But to think that you have not heard of the Nobodies...they've only become the second large force of darkness. The Heartless have seemed to take Agrabah but, in truth, the Nobodies have taken that world and killed the Heartless in the process."
"What is Nobody?" Pooh wondered.
"None of your business, teddy bear," the figure snapped. "Now, Merlin, you know you've tried to rid this universe of me. Tell me, did you? Or was it an innocent mistake?"
Merlin's face was beyond grim. His eyes flashed with a hateful fire.
"I did try to rid you," Merlin said with surprising softness. "A good riddance if I had been successful. But fate plays very oddly, doesn't it? Well, I ask that you only deal with me and not these three. I have heard of your recent habit of taking out everyone in a certain vicinity of your target."
"Is that so?" the cold voice said. The blue eyes seemed to flame with a terrible fury. "If I am to keep with my habit, I may as well destroy these three as well as you-"
The jolting roll of the ground beneath their feet sent everyone toppling to the floor. Riku turned his head about wildly, trying to figure out what was going on.
"What's going on?" Pooh whimpered as he sat on the floor, completely helpless in the face of this restless turmoil of the ground.
"Its-" Tarzan began to say.
It fell from the sky. White like the Heartless, if was tall and floating, like the Darkside. A strange ensign was scribbled on the chest armor and the facial armor of this strange, knightly creature. A dark, nightmarish blue cloak flowed behind it; it had the hugest shoulder blades, the slimmest hourglass body, and its hands were long, very suspiciously looking lances.
"What in the name of Arthur..." Merlin's voice faded.
"A Noknight," the cloaked person hissed. "It is coming for you four and so I must take my leave. Farewell, Merlin. We shall meet again, if you can survive the Noknight."
With that, the person turned to go and, to the amazement of Tarzan and Pooh, for this was something Riku could not see, one black, feathered wing sprouted from the person's back and helped the person lift into the air.
"He can fly?" Tarzan wondered in surprise.
"Coward!" Merlin shouted in a sudden fury. "Willing to kill me before three innocent people yet fleeing when a Noknight comes back. Cloud had thought you were a worthy opponent but all I can see is a coward, Sephiroth!"
The hooded being turned its head to the enraged wizard.
"I'd rather flee than face a Noknight," Sephiroth responded. "Since I do not fight for your cause, I can go whenever I want to. And why do I not want to face a Noknight? They never stop fighting until one gives oneself up and distract the Noknight so that others can flee. Either that...or you destroy the Noknight."
With that, the hooded person, Sephiroth, flew into the night sky, leaving Riku, Tarzan, Pooh, and Merlin alone to face the Noknight.
"Might as well fight," Tarzan muttered as he readied his spear. "Never stop fighting until then...what are these mad beings?"
"They are as Sephiroth says," Merlin sighed as he pulled out his wand. "I don't know who created these Noknights but they must've been very clever to turn them into such killing machines."
"Killing machines or no, I say we fight right now!" Riku exclaimed as he whipped out his dark keyblade. Merlin watched that dark keyblade with a critical eye.
"If I were you, I'd advice you to put that away!" Merlin exclaimed.
"Why?" Riku asked in confusion.
"It cannot affect Noknights," Merlin answered. "As it is associated with the Heartless, the damage caused by the dark keyblade would hardly affect the Noknight."
"Then what am I supposed to do!" Riku shouted, willing his keyblade to vanish. "It's the only one I have!"
"No, it is not," Merlin responded, shaking his head. "No, there is another keyblade, waiting for you-"
"Watch out!" Tarzan shouted and shoved Riku away as the Noknight slammed a lance-like hand down where Riku was standing. The ground cracked and bent by the force of the lance-like hand. Dust billowed up as the Noknight withdrew its hand from the earth and made another stab, again at Riku, who managed to scramble out of the way.
"Why is it going after Riku?" Tarzan wondered.
"F-fire!" Pooh yelped and fired a fireball at the Noknight. It exploded harmlessly against its white armor and didn't even leave behind a scorch mark.
"Hm...let me try something," Merlin muttered. He aimed his wand at the Noknight's face and muttered some incoherent words. Immediately, a storm kicked up, a fiery snowstorm.
"Merlin, what the hell did you just do?!" Riku yelled into the wind.
"Trying to freeze the Noknight!" Merlin shouted, then jumped backwards to dodge the Noknight's sweeping lance-like hand as it attempted to wipe out Merlin. "Close one!"
"I don't think its working!" Tarzan shouted. He then leaped upward as the Noknight attempted a sweep again, landed on the Noknight's arm, and quickly scrambled upward to the Noknight's shoulder. He settled himself on the shoulder and proceeded to hack away at the Noknight's head.
"F-f-f-f-f-fire!" Pooh stuttered and a sizzling, dying fireball barely hit the cape. While it didn't seem to do any damage, he did succeed in getting the Noknight's cape on fire.
The Noknight, taking no notice of that, proceeded to quickly destroy the ground the four people were on with vicious stabs with its lance-like hands. The explosions of rock showered downward, injuring all who didn't have armor like the Noknight.
"This is painful..." Riku moaned. "Especially when you can't do anything!"
"Shouting will not help," Tarzan answered as he picked himself up from the piling snow; the Noknight had managed to throw Tarzan to the ground to keep him from slicing and dicing at his head. "How do you stop this creature?"
"We can't," Merlin replied, panting heavily from the amount of magic he had used to no avail to try and stop the Noknight. He jumped aside as the Noknight stabbed down at him and was injured as the shower of rocks fell on him. "I'll have to hold him off; you three get out of here."
"What?" Riku shouted. "We're not going without you! You seem to know what we don't know!"
"Groan...I knew I shouldn't have said so much," Merlin groaned. "Just get out of here, you'll find out yourselves. Now go!"
"No, you've got to tell us more!" Riku yelled as Tarzan and Pooh proceeded to drag him away. "No, let me go!"
"Good luck," Merlin muttered under his beard and faced the Noknight. " Now, what can stop a Noknight..."
~*~
"Oh there you are, Kairi!" Selphie exclaimed as she ran up to her friend, who was standing on a hill looking to the Destiny Islands. "Come on, Kairi! Dinner's almost ready at the inn!"
"Hmmm? Oh," Kairi sighed. "Okay."
Selphie looked into her friend's purplish blue eyes worriedly. "It's gone, Kairi. There's nothing you can do about it."
"I know," Kairi looked down, then turned to face the islands that were once their home. "But, it's so strange. It's like the islands, they are calling me."
"I know," Selphie replied. "They're calling me back home but we can't go back Kairi; you saw what happened."
"No, it's not that," Kairi answered. "There's something more to it. I think the islands are calling me back home, for a different reason."
"What other reason can there be?" Selphie asked, in obvious confusion.
"I don't know," Kairi replied. "But we have to go back; I'm certain of it."
"There is a dark radiance from our home, Kairi; I don't like it," Selphie retorted.
"What choice do we have?" Kairi replied with a sad smile.
Selphie shrugged. "Simple. We stay here and just wait until they come back."
By they, she meant the guys who had vanished.
Kairi shook her head. "No, there's something more to it, something more."
"Something more?" Selphie asked curiously. "Like...oh!"
The small exclamation of surprise prompted Kairi to look up to her friend's face. "What is it? What's wrong?"
A strangely dreamy look settled over Selphie's face. "Its like...something's calling to me. A voice, it's calling to me."
"What do you think its saying?" Kairi asked.
"Like...it's telling me to go back...go back to the islands and find this...place," Selphie's eyes were narrowed in concentration. "Some place on the islands; the voice says that the place is a secret, because it has a dangerous purpose to hide...or something like that. Or is that what the voice said? Hm..."
It hit her. Kairi knew there really was only one secret place. Only one secret place. It was...the Secret Place.
"Could it be...the Secret Place?" Kairi breathed. Why the Secret Place? Did it have a secret to hide, something dangerous?
"The Secret Place? Oh, that Secret Place," Selphie agreed. "Wonder why we have to go there..."
Kairi grabbed Selphie's hand and pulled her to the inn where they had been staying. "Come on. Let's get our stuff. We need to go back."
"Now?" Selphie questioned. Kairi nodded and continued to drag her to the inn.
"It's cold, Kairi; did we have to go now?" Selphie complained as she shrank back from a splash of frigid seawater. Her shivering hands grippe the oar hard.
"Its calling to us; we had to go now," Kairi answered, shivering all the while. A cold wind was blowing furiously in their faces, trying to push their wooden boat back. Destiny Islands stood alone, in the middle of the sea, ominous, as if something dangerous resided on the islands.
"It looks really scary," Selphie commented as she looked to the islands. The full moon, shrouded by clouds, barely lit the islands and Kairi and Selphie could see no more than a dark silhouette against a strangely starless sky. Then, a light blazed across the horizon and Selphie exclaimed, "A shooting star!"
Another one, Kairi thought. Have the world borders come down? Are the Heartless going to attack again?
The bump of the ship against the shore jolted her out of her thoughts.
They had landed on the shore of Destiny Islands. And the darkness of the former home certainly did not welcome them.
"So...who wants to take the first step?" Selphie whispered. The dark air weighed heavily on them.
"Are you that scared?" Kairi demanded. Trust me, I've been involved in worse things than this.
"No, I'm not," Selphie retorted but her voice shook.
Kairi sighed, shook her head, then stood up and, grabbing her meager belongings, jumped onto the sandy shore.
Nothing happened.
"It's safe!" Kairi exclaimed to Selphie as she inched forward from the still-warm sands to the inner areas of the islands.
Selphie, with her belongings, nimbly jumped out of the boat and onto wet, compact sand. She jogged up to Kairi and asked, "Can you find the Secret Place, even in this darkness?"
Kairi nodded; she had literally memorized the way to the Secret Place. Turning right, she went forward a couple of steps and found her footing on a wooden ramp. She walked her way up to the second level of the islands and, upon stepping onto the second level, she became increasingly wary of the sudden chill in the air. Something was not right.
"Selphie," she whispered. "Something's not right."
"What?" Selphie demanded as she groped about in the darkness, unable to see as well as Kairi.
"Can you feel it?" Kairi whispered, her face towards the Secret Place. " There's a heaviness in the air, something dark, something evil..."
"K-Kairi?" Selphie began to stutter. "T-th-look over t-there-there..."
"Where?" Kairi looked about her, before noticing a strange, glowing pair of yellow eyes watching them.
"W-wh-what is-is that-t?" Selphie stammered. A slap was heard against the floor and Kairi knew that Selphie had slapped her nunchaku against the ground, hoping to scare away the owner of the pair of glowing eyes.
Much to their dismay, more eyes began to appear. The way to the Secret Place, Kairi noted, remained clear but everywhere else, glowing eyes appeared.
"Kairi," Selphie said nervously, backing into her friend. "What are they?"
Why did those glowing eyes look so familiar? As if Kairi had seen the eyes before, long ago.
"Where is the source?" a voice hissed, cold as the metal of a knife slicing through flesh.
"It talked!" Selphie exclaimed.
"What source?" Kairi demanded in a firm voice, though her heart and soul shrank away from the voice.
"Our source, kin of our liege," the voice whispered menacingly. "Where is our source?"
"I don't 'know what you're talking about," Kairi replied.
"Who are you?" Selphie wondered.
At that very moment, the clouds shrouding the moon faded away and a powerful blast of moonlight hit Destiny Islands, illuminating everything.
"Selphie!" Kairi exclaimed. "They're-they're the Heartless!"
The Heartless, huge, humanoid, bulging with muscle, long nails grappling into the air, surrounded them. Kairi had never seen these types of Heartless before but she knew one thing: they were Heartless.
"Where is our source, our liege, kin of the liege?" the voice rose to a high shrill.
"Are you referring to me as 'kin'?" Kairi demanded.
"You are kin," the voice replied. "Related to our liege and the only one who had entered our realms and came back with a whole heart."
Kairi concluded that the voice came from the largest, buffest Heartless in the menacing crowd.
"I'm sorry, I don't' know where your liege is," Kairi answered as she and Selphie began to back away. "I suggest that you look elsewhere. Goodbye."
With that, she and Selphie turned and made for the Secret Place.
"Stop them!" the large Heartless hissed to the other Heartless. "We cannot let them get away!"
The Heartless began a mad dash after to the two teenage girls.
~
"Kin to their liege eh?" Selphie asked Kairi as they bolted through the twisting tunnel of the Secret Place. "That was interesting-"
They spilled out into the room, the Secret Place, and froze.
Heartless, Heartless everywhere, swarming all over the place. They all froze, though, when Kairi and Selphie charged into the room and watched them darkly, their long crooked ears twitching.
"This does not look good," Selphie whispered to Kairi.
"It never did," Kairi replied and her heart suddenly began to tug hard in her. Kairi looked to the brown door at the far end of the Secret Place. The golden outline of the key on that brown door was glowing, beckoning, calling to them.
"We have to get to that door," Kairi decided.
"And how, may I ask?" Selphie replied, her hand gripping her nunchaku tightly.
"There's only one answer," Kairi sighed as she pulled out Sora's wooden sword. "We fight."
Selphie opened her mouth to protest but then they heard a surge of activity behind them. That could only come from...the Heartless.
"Okay, we do have no choice," Selphie decided and quickly lashed her nunchaku forward.
A Heartless fell.
Kairi stared. "Are the Heartless becoming weaker? It just fell, just like that."
Selphie shrugged, then said, "It still took a lot to bring him down."
So the Heartless aren't weaker; Selphie's just gotten too good with her nunchaku. Note to thyself: don't' get on her bad side.
With that Kairi gave a shout, swung out Sora's sword, and dragged Selphie into a rising melee in an attempt to reach the door.
~
Kairi had never been in combat before. She had never wielded a weapon against anybody other than a friend and she had never used the weapon in any way other than to practice with. But now she was locked in combat, was to slice and dice a path through the new Heartless in order to get to the door. And the door seemed very far away.
"Are we any closer?" Selphie demanded as she whipped another Heartless to the floor, beheading it in the process.
"I don't know!" Kairi shouted as she swung her wooden sword forward and sliced off an arm. "Okay, now that's gross."
Kairi sliced at a Heartless' torso. The attack got the Heartless away from her path and Kairi ran forward, only to nearly crash into the wooden door. She had made it, she had reached the door.
"Selphie!" she shouted. "I've reached the door!"
"I'm coming!" Kairi saw the end of the nunchaku fly in the air and come down hard, leaving a Heartless falling apart, in half. Selphie ran forward; she had made it, too.
"And this is the door?" Selphie wondered at the golden outline of the keyhole but shrank back when a Heartless' hand slammed onto the door only inches above her head.
Kairi reacted quickly, whirling around and slicing at the Heartless. It quickly shrank back, disintegrating into nothingness gradually and, from how the Heartless was acting, painfully.
"That was close," Kairi sighed, then swung the sword as another Heartless came forward. "That was even closer."
"Kairi, how do we open this door?" Selphie demanded as she tried to push the door. "It's not budging..."
Acting on instinct, rather than thought, Kairi whirled around and stabbed at the very center of the keyhole with Sora's sword.
The door glowed in an odd myriad of gray colors. The Heartless began to shrink away from the glowing door, watching the door warily. Selphie shrank away from the glowing door as well but Kairi stood firm. She knew it had happened. The door had called to them, obviously to do something, and she had done it. She had, somehow, opened the door and she didn't know why.
But will she?
"The door," Kairi whispered in awe. "It's opening."
"Why is it turning gray?" Selphie whimpered.
"The Heartless are scared of it, that I'm glad of," Kairi replied. It was true; the Heartless were shying away from the door.
The wooden door was creaking open, easing open, to an opening where a gray light pulsed. Kairi didn't know why the gray light was there but no matter, it was scaring away the Heartless.
"Do you think that whatever's in this door will get the Heartless off Destiny Islands?" Selphie whispered.
"Looks like it," Kairi answered, gesturing behind her.
Selphie cast a look over her shoulder, only to see the last of the Heartless leaving the room. They were casting dark looks at Kairi and Selphie as they left.
"Wow, they left really fast-" Selphie began to say.
A howling wind suddenly ripped into the room. Selphie screamed.
"I think that's why they left so fast!" Kairi shouted over the wind as she grabbed onto Sora's wooden sword, which was still embedded into the door. " The wind's coming from what's inside the door!"
"Kairi!" Selphie screamed and began to slide into the pulsing gray light in the door.
"Selphie!" Kairi shouted and grabbed Selphie's hand. Kairi's other hand gripped hard on Sora's wooden sword, not knowing how long she could hold on.
Her answer came. As the wind whipped around them, causing their hair to slap painfully against their faces, Sora's wooden sword snapped in two. Kairi and Selphie screamed in fear as they were sucked into the door.
As their screaming faded, the door silently swung shut. Half the wooden blade was stuck to the gilded keyhole. It would be a long time before a Heartless would ever step into the Secret Place again.
~*~
"The first human I've seen in months!" a voice, suave and full of bravado, exclaimed in a strange gray world. A rather buff, muscular human in simple, very archaic armor was peering at a heap of two girls, a whole dump of supplies, a strange whip, and half a wooden sword.
"Doesn't look like they'll hurt anybody," he muttered and put away his short sword. "Wonder if Father sent them to me..."
Another Author's Note: Was it confusing? I hope not. Guess who the owner of the bravado voice is!