$Note: When I first wrote this story I thought it was Zexion that had the lightsabers, since Kingdom Hearts 2 had yet to be released for another half a year, as of now, Zexion has lightsabers .. sorry$
Despite the threat before him Vexen could barely move. The blow from Axels fireball had zapped him of his strength and he could only watch helplessly as the end seemed insight for him. He wouldn't shut his eyes though, he would accept death.
His acceptance never came.
Before Axel cast the Fire Tooth the ground shook from beneath them. Axel canceled the spell as he jumped to the air. Marluxia following suite.
"What's going on here?"
There was a crunch of marble as a fissure erupted through the room. Vexens eyes lit up as he saw a familiar tomahawk rise from the darkness, soon followed by two unknowns.
"Lexaeus! Zexion!"
Vexen was overcome with relief at seeing his old friends. Zexion quickly took out his energy swords as Lexaeus helped Vexen to his feet.
"It's not like you to keep us uninformed. We knew something was up."
Axel and Marluxia were speechless. What had once been a battle they were winning now had its tables turned. They stared down the trio with acidic hatred.
"God Vexen, why can't you do the fighting by yourself? You always have to call your little buddies for back up!"
Axel flung one of his shurikens at Zexion. Zexion swiftly brought one of his sabers up and deflected the weapon back at Axel. Axel ducked and watched the shuriken continue to go sailing before it embedded itself in the marble wall. Marluxia took the scene in and laughed.
"Looks like you've actually got some fight in you! And here I thought you always sent in your muscle head of a friend to do your dirty work!"
Lexaeus almost snapped at the comment. He lunged forward, nearly knocking Vexen over. The unknowns force was not one to be reckoned with. And Axel found that out the hard way.
Axels only means of shielding himself was by bringing up his other shuriken. It gave way like paper under Lexaeuses tomahawk. Axel was blown back by the force and slammed hard against the floor. Seeing his comrade in trouble Marluxia intervened and parried the tomahawk with his scythe.
"You against me Lexaeus!" He shouted, trying to get through the warrior's rage.
"Fine then!" Lexaeus bellowed and brought his tomahawk backward for another swing at his enemy.
Although Marluxias scythe seemed flimsy it managed to block all of Lexaeuses attacks. While the two were busy and Axel at bay Zexion took the opportunity to help Vexen up once more.
"One of these days you're going to get yourself killed…"
"Trust me, if I die the rest of us will as well."
Ignoring Vexens pessimistic comment Zexion began to drag Vexen towards the fissure, having to deal with not getting in the crossfire of the other Unknowns attacks. He shoved Vexen down into the hole before jumping in himself. Seeing his comrades retreat Lexaeus let loose a quake spell. Immediately large rocks began to tumble around the room. Axel grabbed his walled in shuriken and struck back with a fire wall spell. The intense heat vaporized the rocks and fueled by the rock the flames increased in temperature and shot even higher. But when the flames died down Lexaeus had vanished. Marluxia dropped his guard and surveyed the charred mess.
"Do you think he perished in the fire?"
Axel was silent as he walked to the fissure and peered in. A second later he kicked a piece of rubble into the floor below. What followed later was a stream of colorful language from Axel.
"Highly doubtful, chances are that they just fled with their tails between their legs."
"Susceptible of them." Marluxia stated, willing his scythe away, "Do you believe they will retort?"
"Who knows."
Axel's attitude towards the situation made Marluxia uneasy. Axel seemed to be taking his side way too quick.
"Axel, why are you helping me and not them? I am going against the Organization."
Axel only folded his arms and kicked another pebble.
"Hey, you were put in charge of this dumb castle. If it's your decision to use Sora as your own little weapon then so be it. Going against you is certain death, for it would be defying the Organization as well. So incase you're wondering, no, I'm not going to flip a coin and decide to kill you." Axel chuckled, "Besides, I'd worry more if I were in Vexens shoes right now, after all, he went against you, and treason is the number one thing that ensures a death sentence. So I don't think you'll have to worry about anything Marluxia."
Upon hearing Axel state his belief Marluxia decided to set the Unknowns words in stone. After all, he was right, anyone who would go against him would face death, by either him or the Superior.
Either way, he would win.
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Sora and his friends were enjoying the bit of food that they could summon successively. Although Goofy poked at his entrée with a questionable look on his face.
"Is this a Moogle pom pom?"
Sora put the rather weird image out of his mind. Being famished from fighting the Heartless, the shadow, and climbing the castle was wearing his mind to bits. He continued eating voraciously until the last scrap of food was gone. Not long after his friends finished as well. Donald hopped up to his feet and smiled.
"Well, now that we've got our R and R, lets get going to the next floor!"
All of a sudden Sora felt like stopping. Like there was something he was leaving behind. And he knew what it was.
"Guys… I'm not sure why, but I think we should go back to the world downstairs. Something tells me we should."
"Sora! Be reasonable!" Jiminy counseled him, "That monster could still be there! And we're not strong enough to stop it yet!"
Donald looked concerned at his friend's situation. He was the only one who knew why he wanted to go back. He was worried about the girl, Vanessa. He decided to help out his old buddy.
"What if we just take a peek and check to see if the monster's gone? It wouldn't hurt."
"You too Donald?"
"Well…" Goofy commented, "I suppose if Donald and Sora want to check then it shouldn't be too bad."
Soras face brightened at his friends approval and beamed.
"Alright then, lets go."
Taking the necessary precautions the three took out their weapons and approached the door. Gingerly Sora took his free hand and slowly pushed the door open.
Once again they were looking into the water world. The air seemed cooler on the other side. The three surveyed their surroundings. It was quiet. Not a single thing moved. There was nothing.
And then a huge gust of wind blasted into their faces. The three gave out a yell of surprise and shock as the blast knocked them off their feet and sent them sliding across the floor.
"Sora! Sora!"
Sora looked up to see Jiminy jumping in an alarmed manner and pointing behind him.
"Huh?"
"Sora! It's getting away!"
Sora scrambled to his feet and looked at the stairway. And all four of them gave out another round of shocked yells.
They saw the shadow scrambling up the stairway, its crimson claws cut into the marble and left an assortment of scrapes.
"Come back here!"
Sora struggled up the maimed stairs, trying to grab at the monsters tails, hoping to send it cascading back and loosing its fighting spirit. However, the thing was too fast and Sora found himself falling behind the beast. He watched as the thing gradually ran out of view and into the next room. The scraping became fainter. The door above let out a tremendous noise as it was shattered open.
It was gone.
Sora stood on the stairs for a moment. He did not know why, but the escape of the shadow greatly worried him. Now they were always in constant danger. He kicked the ground and mumbled a curse to the monster. The only way to get anywhere now was to get to the top floor. Looking over his shoulder Sora waved a hand to his concerned companions.
"Come on guys, I guess we'll have to let our friend wait… "
Sora was glum at the decision, as well as his friends. They began to make their way across the hallway when they heard footsteps coming down from the above floor. On instinct the trio drew their weapons. What if the monster was coming back? What if another Organization member was coming to challenge them? Sora stepped to the front and held his keyblade out.
"Come on! Show yourself already!"
And he was thrown for a loop. Two people were walking down the stairway. And they were definitely not a part of the Organization. Sora caught his breath.
"Na-Namine?"
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Lorenzos eyes drifted open as Larxene teleported into the room. Upon seeing the distressed look upon the blonde's face Lorenzo lit up with a dry concern.
"What's wrong with you?"
Larxene shot a glare at the downed Unknown and retorted.
"What's wrong! Your creators in danger of becoming a crispy critter! THAT'S WHAT'S WRONG!"
"Heh… why aren't you helping him then?"
"Why… you…."
Lorenzos eyes lit up when she saw the anger within Larxenes eyes. She cracked a smiled before speaking softly.
"You're afraid of going against Vexens wishes aren't you? Hmm… well… I guess there's no helping it."
Larxene was on the point of bursting. She brought her knifes down and was about to slash Lorenzo to ribbons when…
A sudden noise, repetitive noise. Larxene gripped her knives tightly before slowly looking over her shoulder. She could sense that there was something within the lab. It wasn't Vexen however. Without saying a word Lorenzo craned her neck upon the pillow to see what the source of the noise was. They both saw a dark figure sitting down in one of the chairs. It drummed its fingers slightly on the cold marble table. Larxene was the first to speak.
"What're you doing here?"
The figure stopped and looked up. Within the faint light the two could see that it was a girl. Her ebony hair blended so well with the darkness Larxene first thought that they were looking at some disgusting mask. The girl smiled.
"I'm waiting for Sora…"
"You know Sora!"
The girl fell silent and continued to drum her fingers against the table. She then sighed and looked back.
"What are we waiting for?"
"Hey! You're not supposed to be the one asking questions!"
"Vanessa" ignored Larxenes yapping and continued with her rambling.
"I mean, I don't know. What are any of us waiting for? As a Nobody you should ask yourself everyday. What are you waiting for? Why are you waiting for it? And will it ever come? … … … Sora said he's trying to find his friends. What would that be considered as?"
"I'll gladly tell you the moment you start making sense you dolt!" Larxene screeched.
"…I guess I shouldn't be here… I'm not surprised… at all… why… Larxene, what will you do?"
"I'll start by tanning your hide you little intruder!"
Larxenes knifes crackled with the familiar power of electricity. She raised them to strike the girl but was thrown off balance as a grip as hard as stone clamped to her leg and sent her sprawling on the ground. She flipped over to see Lorenzo still grabbing hold of her.
"LORENZO! GET OFF!"
Despite Larxenes hollering Lorenzo didn't move. She only retorted.
"Don't fight her Larxene, there's something amiss about her, don't fight her…"
"Like Hell you're going to tell me what to do!" Larxene snapped as she wriggled out of Lorenzos hold and looked back to her target.
Gone.
Larxene dropped her knives and scrambled to her feet. A deep anger began to creep through her. Although she didn't know why. Perhaps it was the situation with Vexen, or the fact that the mysterious thing that Namine mentioned could have been that girl they just met. But… what to take her anger out upon?
She swung around and glared down upon Lorenzo, her green eyes gleaming with a sense of maliciousness. She grabbed one of her knives…
"Tell me… Why did you stop me from hurting that girl?"
Seeing the danger she was in Lorenzo thought it in her best interest to reply.
"Because, something's not right with her."
"You mean the way she talks!" Larxene roared, "Of course there's something wrong with her!"
"N-no… I can not tell… why exactly. But something inside me told me that if you were to fight her right now… Well, lets just say you wouldn't have much of a future." Lorenzo gasped for a breath before speaking once more, "And if you want to slash me to ribbons I won't stop you… That energy that Vexen gave me, that upgrade, it has made me weak beyond reason. So… go ahead and kill me if that's what you want…"
Larxene was all too happy to carry out what Lorenzo said. But looking down she started to become uneasy. Upgrade? What had Vexen done to the twisted toy? What if, he wanted to … upgrade the rest of them? Larxene brushed the thought out of her head; she had something greater to worry about.
"I won't kill you… but…"
She yanked Lorenzo out of the cot and stood her up.
"You better help Vexen."
"I have ever intention too… you said that he was in trouble?"
"Yes you dolt," Larxene snapped once more, "So go help your creator and get going!"
"….. Are you sure that you're just afraid of taking the credit?" Lorenzo popped a smile as she began to limp to the door, "Lets go then if that's what you indeed want…"
Larxene muttered a curse as she followed Lorenzo. Before they left Larxene took one last glance at the lab.
"Who were you?"