Inverted Sky: KH 358/2 Days
Chapter 9: Twilight Town part I
Xion's Log: Day 131
I'm a little surprised.
After Riku realized my intentions, he became a lot nicer than I expected. He even went as far as to apologize for attacking me in the first place. Though, that might be due to Merlin rushing over just after our fight came to an end. I kinda felt bad for the old guy, since he definitely didn't look like he was used to running...at least not for long.
Now that everything is cleared up, and the dust has settled, Riku is taking me to see Sora. I'm a little nervous, but he did mention that I should 'temper my expectations'. That is a bit worrying, but I'm sure it'll be fine.
"Why have you brought her here?" DiZ demanded, his hands remaining behind his back while looking between Riku and Xion.
The pair standing just outside the mansion in Twilight Town, while the masked man remained steadfast in the doorway. Though Xion simply gave a curious tilt of her head, Riku narrowed his eyes slowly. "So you know her?" he questioned, the tension and mistrust between the two being on full display.
"I know of her, yes. She was the fourteenth member of the Organization." DiZ stated as his single visible eye remained locked on the teen girl.
"So she's told me...but she also mentioned that she's left the Organization in order to come meet Sora." Riku claimed back in a firm manner.
Despite a silent breath escaping the man's lips, he slowly stepped to the side. "If you wish for her to see the state Sora is in, then go ahead. But I will not be responsible for the explanation." he asserted in a strangely mysterious tone.
Noticing this, Xion raised a brow as her curiosity simply increased. Her moving together with Riku as they headed inside the mansion, being careful to avoid the uncleaned rubble laying around the floor. 'Smart...by not cleaning up, they've maintained the appearance of this place truly being abandoned. Which makes it a perfect place to hide.' the raven-haired girl mused to herself with a thoughtful expression.
'Although...if this place belongs to that 'DiZ' fellow, then just who or what is he hiding from? He seems to be wary of the Organization, so is he an enemy of the Superior? I was never informed of the more intricate missions the others went on, so it's entirely possible this guy is actually a big deal. I should probably keep my guard up around him...just in case.' she continued inwardly, heading up a set of stairs.
While doing so however, Xion suddenly felt like she was being watched from behind. Without even turning around, the teen had the image of a blond-haired girl with a white dress flash through her mind. But as she turned quickly to see this individual, no one was visible. 'There was definitely someone there...someone...familiar...I think.' she thought as her gaze became a bit of a suspicious one, yet she still followed after Riku as they entered into a large library.
This place seeming to be far more clean than everything else she's seen so far, making her a bit curious as to why. But she wouldn't need to wait long as Riku seemed to cast a quick spell, waving a hand through the air as he did. Then, with a bright flash of magical light that filled much of the room's floor, it revealed to be an illusion. Of which had been cloaking the stairs leading into a subterranean area. "Whoa...now that's impressive." Xion muttered silently with a small smirk.
"DiZ is a bit rude...but he's definitely very intelligent." the silver-haired boy commented with a shrug, leading the girl down the stairs.
'So I gathered.' the girl ponder quickly, just as they entered into another room.
Which held one main computer with multiple displays being shown, none of which were recognizable to the raven-haired teen. But Riku continued further on, until they reached a narrow hallway. This corridor having strange capsules lining the walls, each one being just the right size to comfortably hold an adult human inside. After looking these over, and considering their most likely use, Xion quickly began piecing things together.
'I can hazard a guess and assume that these pods are used to simulate a state of suspended animation on a person inside. It seems like the most likely explanation for what they could do, which means that Sora is...' Xion began, yet didn't finish.
With a deep breath, the girl just moved together with Riku. Said boy using a key card from his pocket to open the door at the end of the hallway, which slid open instantly. Xion winced briefly from the bright light coming through the other side, yet her eyes swiftly adjusted. This new room was pure white with a large pod directly in the center, which was noticeably bigger than the ones in the corridor. And floating within this capsule, was a teen girl who looked a lot like Xion herself...yet also not.
Though she heard Sora had brown hair, this girl's hair was jet black. And while she was told that Sora's skin was lightly tanned, this girl had nearly black flesh with dark wisps radiating off her body. But the most striking feature about this girl, was that she had two horns protruding from her head. Sora looking for all the world, like a devil, or a certain dark witch. "Is...Is that really Sora?" Xion uttered out silently in surprise, this being the complete opposite of what she had expected.
"Yeah...though, she doesn't normally look like this." Riku stated in a sigh, looking down briefly.
"Let me start from the beginning..." the boy continued, clearing his throat as he did.
-Three days after Sora fell into her slumber-
"How can she have more than one?" Riku questioned as his eyes were somewhat wide in surprise.
"I'm actually not sure myself. There should be no way that a single body can contain more than one heart...and yet she has three others, besides her own." DiZ answered with a shake of his head, simply being at a loss.
"Wait what?" the teen demanded while turning his gaze to the screen beside them, the pair standing in the computer room within the mansion.
Looking at the display though, Riku could only see three hearts. And if one of them was Sora's, then where was this fourth heart the man was mentioning? But before the boy could ask, DiZ pointed a finger to a spot on one of the heart shaped crystals. It was just barely visible, yet there was indeed another heart-like shape protruding from the first. Though, unless you knew what to look for, you would never have noticed and merely assumed the first heart was slightly bigger than the others.
"How did you see that?" Riku whispered silently as he looked at the man, giving a mildly impressed gaze toward him.
"I've studied the heart for many years, I know exactly what to look for when it comes to abnormalities. However...even after all that research, I've never once seen something like this." DiZ claimed in a sigh, gesturing briefly to the screen with a hand.
"It's utterly unheard of, yet there it is...staring me in the face." he added, shaking his head slowly in disbelief.
"Regardless however, I believe I've identified at least one of the hearts so far." the man continued while pointing to one of the hearts on screen.
"This seems to be similar to yours, so I think it's safe to say that it belongs to that replica of you, which the Organization created." he described, shifting both eyes to Riku before arching a brow slightly when noticing the teens brief huff in response.
"The second one is emitting some kind of magical wavelength, which has made it impossible to detect almost anything about it." the man in red stated, shaking his head slowly as he appeared to be the most suspicious of the owner of 'this' heart.
"Then the last one, is actually merged with Sora's...and probably has been for a long time. Which also has made any attempt to view it impractical, as the computer can't differentiate it, from Sora's own." DiZ finished, crossing his arms and looking back to the teen in front of him.
"Will Sora be okay like this? I heard she had Kairi's heart in her for at least a few months, but this has to be way different. Especially if she'll be stuck here like this for potentially even longer." Riku asked in clear worry for his sleeping friend.
"Unfortunately, even I'm uncertain as to the effects this will have on her. All I can say is, it certainly can't be good for her." the man began, his eyes drifting toward the doorway leading to where Sora was being kept.
"A heart is supposed to make the body its own, hence why a body isn't supposed to be able to carry more than one at a time. So if all these hearts remain inside Sora for too long...it stands to reason that they could have a drastic effect on her body." DiZ explained, his tone being very serious as his visible eye narrowed.
-Present Day-
"A few days later..." Riku began in a silent sigh, looking at the sleeping form of Sora.
"...we noticed her body was starting to mutate. DiZ said that it was to compensate for each of the hearts currently inside her, but likely for one in particular." he said while turning his gaze toward Xion.
Whom had quickly caught onto the individual he must be talking about, as she had been told of the one named; Maleficent. She was a powerful user of magic, darkness, and witchcraft. Though not seen for quite some time, it was assumed that she was still alive and labeled as an S-ranked threat. Something that only the Superior himself was capable of handling. But as Xion thought about this while gazing at Sora within the capsule, she simply let out a silent breath and turned back to Riku. "Is there a way to help her?" was all she asked, shifting her body to the side in order to face the boy.
Said silver-haired teen tilted his head down before shaking it in response; "Since this is such a new occurrence, DiZ said that he needed more time to figure out how the effects could be reversed." he answered, his eyes briefly flickering toward the room's exit, where the man in red was currently standing.
"I simply need a few more weeks...and I should have a solution." DiZ himself added, not coming into the room as his visible eye appeared to still be locked onto Xion.
"I know..." Riku uttered out with a nod, obviously being cautiously optimistic about this claim.
After glancing between the two, Xion could tell that despite their differences, the two were determined to work together. Was this the affect Sora had on people? The ability to bring people under one banner to accomplish something greater?
'If it is...it's probably entirely unintentional on her part.' the girl thought, a small smile curling her lips.
'I can see why Riku said the things he did about her...she's definitely a handful.' she continued in a chuckle, before turning to look at the two once more.
"Well, when you do figure out how to help...let me know." Xion started, her taking on an all too familiar signature smile.
"I'll be more than happy to offer my assistance." she finished, making the other two simply stare at her in silence.
Them having the same thought in perfect unison; 'Though she's different...she's still somehow the same.'
At the same time, a figure stood at the forest's edge. Their eyes narrowing slowly on the mansion just up ahead, the slits that made up their pupils thinning ever so slightly. "So 'this' is where she's run off to." they muttered to themselves while glancing toward Donald and Goofy as they were unknowingly coming closer to this individual.
"Strange that there are so many people guarding it...I might have to look into this a bit more." they whispered silently with a faint smirk on their features.
By the time the pair rounded the tree to actually view this person however, there was no one around. Upon which, they simply continued on with their patrol, none the wiser.
Things will be picking up rather quickly now. So I hope you're all ready to see what this part was meant to be. I also hope all of you enjoyed and will let me know what you thought. Until next time.