Whew…took a while to get this one out but we are finally in Castle Oblivion. And it's about damn time to.

I don't own any of the characters of places below. mutterfucking Nomuramutter

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Angel Memories: Chapter 5

Card Cost

Voices echoed all around me. Bright lights flashed and dissipated against a constantly shifting backdrop or dark grey. Unintelligible sentences were exchanged as I spiraled upward toward a sickly green sky. Silver flashed brightly and a boy appeared in the distance. He lacked eyes and a nose and was left with a completely blank space between his forehead and his mouth. His lips parted slightly and he said something. The surrounding noises swallowed up his voice and tore it from my ears.

"Wait!" I cried. The noises grew louder as the boy continued to speak. His words were just beyond my hearing. Instead my ears were filled with smashing and someone screaming. A crash echoed from my left and a train whistle gave a loud screech in the distance.

"SHUT UP!"

The world went black. My back exploded into darkness and shadow. The form of a wing made itself apparent before distorting and curling around to infect the green sky. The creeping shadows leeched over my shoulders and down my chest. The nearly featureless boy floated forward and smiled kindly at me.

I felt the darkness begin to constrict my movements. My arms slowly froze up under the suffocating shadows. It began to crawl slowly up my neck and over my chin. The darkness circled around my mouth and eyes and I felt it avoid my ears as well. Everything was silent except for the sounds of my struggling.

"What did you say?" I fell forward onto my knees, nearly motionless from the binding darkness. "Please! I need to know! What did you say?"

The smiling boy leaned down to me and small fangs grew apparent in his wide grin. His hand reached past me and beyond my view. The skin above between his mouth and forehead began to bubble. Quietly he brought his hand back into view. In it he held a glittering heart shaped object. Suddenly it was harder to breath. His bubbling skin melted away to reveal two bright orange eyes.

The dark world suddenly shuddered as the boy clenched his hand. The glittering object sent out spasms of light and then exploded into silver confetti. A myriad of sounds exploded all around me. My chest felt as though it were being pounded on with a mallet. The boy with orange eyes smiled wider and wider. His teeth parted slightly and everything went silent again.

"You couldn't protect me."

Air exploded into my lungs and I wrenched myself from the ground. My eyes opened to see sweat fly out in tiny droplets from my forehead to fall with tiny sounds on the white tiled floor. I clutched violently at my own chest. My eyes darted around the bright white hallway, searching for the boy with the orange eyes.

"NO!"

"Oh be quiet."

A deep voice resonated from behind me. I whipped myself around, silver hair splaying out in all directions. Against a large white pillar perhaps ten feet away, stood a tall black robed man. He stood with his arms crossed and a large hood covering his face. How long had he been standing there? I scrambled to my feet and reached for Masamune. My hand passed through open air.

"Your sword?" The man pushed away from his place on the wall. His arms fell limply to his side. I couldn't see his hands; his sleeves seemed to be too long. His hooded head tilted to one side and he raised one of his arms in a wide gesture. "You have no need for that right now."

"Where is it!" As soon as I spoke I chided myself for letting my voice betray how panicked I was at the moment. I needed to calm down. Taking a moment, I stood up straight and smoothed my unruly silver locks. After they fell into order, I paused to wipe away the beads of sweat slowly coursing down my face. After blinking several times and then hardening my gaze I looked at the cloaked man and repeated my question. "Where is Masamune?"

The figure raised an arm and reached inside his leather cloak. From within it he drew Masamune. The blade was in its sheathe and the man gripped it firmly with hands that didn't appear to be there at all. He hefted Masamune and then threw it in the air. The sword flipped in mid air. The cloaked man issued a black gloved hand from the depths of his sleeves and reached out with a single swift movement.

"No! You'll die!" I made for the man but I was moving far too slow. His gloved fingers wrapped roughly around Masamune's hilt while his remaining hand gripped the scabbard. Moving at an incredible speed he tore Masamune from it's sheathe and held it horizontal to the floor on which he stood.

I halted in my charge and clenched my fist tightly. The man's cloak began to move slightly, as if being pushed by some unseen wind. The leather flapped wildly and the man began to glow a deep brick red. The red energy enveloped him and surrounded him in a powerful aura. As the aura expanded it became laced with purple veins of energy. The purple flashed and danced wildly in the glowing orb of power that surrounded his body. Masamune began to rattle loudly.

I turned away from the sight and closed my eyes. A sigh escaped my lips and mixed with the wild rattling that came from behind me. It had been so long since the last time anyone had tried to draw Masamune. Visions of Hojo's laboratory began to flash in my mind. I recalled the first time Masamune had been set before me. Hojo had been so excited with his little laptop computer sitting on his lap, fingers poised and ready to take down anything he observed.

Shinra had discovered it in the North, buried under an enormous snow drift. They had spent several days excavating and when they retrieved it, they brought it back to Midgar. Five people died along the trip. The first was the man who finally removed Masamune from its icy cage. He got overzealous and tried to draw the blade immediately. He was immediately devoured by the same power that was exploding behind me. Two more men died when they tried to pry it from his dying fingers. After that the members of the expedition decided not to touch the sword until they returned it. Unfortunately, a member of the military got it into his head that only a warrior could wield it and tried to draw it himself. He died along with a friend who attempted to pull it away before his comrade was killed.

Masamune is a dangerous object not to be taken lightly. There was a loud bang and a bright red flash issued from the opposite end of the hall. For a moment I did not turn around, I only looked at the floor and shook my head. Masamue clattered to the floor. The metal rang loudly against the tiles.

"Masamune can only be wielded by one person," I said aloud. "Its power will kill anybody else."

"Well it's a good thing then…" As the deep voice sounded from the end of the hallway, my eyes went wide. I whirled around to stare at the speaker. The hooded man stood against the white pillar. Steam rose from his person and sparks of purple lightning coursed up and down his body. In his hand he held Masamune's scabbard which blazed with blood red fire. In a swift hand motion, he ran his gloved fingers along the length of the sheathe and the fire disappeared. "That I'm not an anybody."

At his feet, Masamune shuddered like a wounded animal. It twisted slightly and began to rub slowly against the man's leg. The leather leggings quietly gave way to the sawing motion of Masamune. The man looked down at the naked sword and stepped sharply down on the hilt. His stomp caused Masamune to flip into the air where he once again grabbed the hilt in his gloved fingers. His grasp caused Masamune once again to spark into dark red fire but instead of holding onto the flaming blade, the man hurled both scabbard and sword in my direction.

The scabbard crashed to the floor and slid to a halt at my feet. Masamune flew through the hallway towards me. As it soared through the air it spat tendrils of dark flame and violet lighting back at the hooded man. As they neared the shadowed face of the man he shuddered slightly and then moved out of the way. His dodge was so quick that he left afterimages of himself in his wake. The tongues of energy paused and then pursued the retreating man.

Faster then the eye could see, the man's hands both burst into bright red light. Rods of red energy issued from his sleeves and whipped outwards to cut through the approaching strands of burgundy and violet. Masamune screeched loudly and its energy dissipated and faded away. It fell beside me with the point piercing into the bright white tiles to stand inverted by my side.

The man's bright red energy slowly retreated into his black sleeves and disappeared. After a moment, the hood turned to face me. He crossed his arms and stood facing me. He looked as though he were waiting for me to say something. Next to me, Masamune shuddered slightly, as if whimpering. I placed my hand on the pommel for reassurance.

"Who…what are you?"

The black cloaked figure stood motionless against the white wall. A momentary fear shot through my heart and caused my breath to catch in my throat. In a second, that fear receded and I could breathe again. What was that? What made me feel that way? The man stepped forward and then…disappeared. Before I could even register what to do, he spoke again.

"If I said that I am not anybody…"

Behind me? I whirled around to find the man standing atop a platform. Gleaming white stairs led up to it and further behind the man was a bright white door. To each side of the stairs rose two white pedestals with stone sculptures of blooming flowers. How had I not noticed this before?

"Then it stands to reason that I am nobody."

I gripped Masamune and wrenched it from the ground. "What do you mean by that?"

For a moment the man seemed to look amused. Odd…how could I tell that if I can't see his face? He didn't move in such a way to appear amused…what was going on? He cocked his head to one side and raised one arm. From inside the dark sleeve, his black gloved hand appeared holding a white card. He glanced briefly at the card and then returned his gaze to me.

"Would you like to change it?"

His question made me lower my guard. "What?"

"What would you give if you had the chance to change your past?"

My past? Change it? Everything, anything. I would give everything I had to change things. "But…that's not possible."

"Perhaps…" with a flash of movement, the card flew from the man's black hand. It soared across the platform and down toward me. At the last moment, my hand flew up and snatched it from its flight. I looked down at it. It was completely blank. "But would you like to try?"

"What is this?" I said while holding up the card.

"The key."

"To…my past?"

The hooded man gazed upward at the doorway behind him and then down at me again. "To the future."

We stood for a long time, looking at each other. Finally I nodded quietly and sheathed Masamune. As the hilt guard connected with the opening of the scabbard I looked again at the white card in my hand. A picture began to fade into existence on the card. A picture of a familiar looking planet solidified onto the front of the card. When it shone sharp on the surface of the paper I looked once again at the hooded man. A smile came to my lips.

"You know…you're quite the enigma."

The man cocked his head and crossed his arms. Slowly he began to fade away, losing substance and color as he went. Before I could no longer see him, his voice resonated through the hallway again.

"So I've been told."

With the man gone I walked quietly toward the white door. It was, for the most part, featureless. There didn't appear to be a handle anywhere on the wooden surface. The card in my hand grew warm as I approached the doorway. When I stood in front of it, the card began to shudder slightly. I glanced downward. It was glowing in my palm.

Unsure of what I was doing, I raised the card high above my head. It resonated with a high note. The door began to quake slightly, and then it too began to make noise. The card and the door sang out in harmony and the music filled the hallway. The door suddenly burst open and bright white light filled the hall. Something inside me told me that it was not the time to hesitate and I stepped through the doorway into the bright light, unsure of what I would find.

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Holy crap…that took so long to write. So I figure I owe faithful readers an apology and an explanation. So…I'm sorry, and my explanation is that I just discovered that I can download excellently subbed Bleach episodes off of a site that I can't write here because fanfiction will cut it out. In any case… that has been occupying the majority of my time, not to mention some icebergs were hit between my girlfriend and myself recently. But pity me not! I am thoroughly enjoying my life even with the enormous amount of schoolwork I have allowed to pile up everywhere.

I like this chapter. About the Enigmatic Man though…do I have his power right? I've never played Final Mix so I never fought him. I've seen like…a coupla screenshots though and some commentary about him and I think he has like lightsabers or something. Anyone who knows better, please let me know because I am sure there will be some kind of fight between him and Seph by the end of this story.

Speaking of fights…I should never have so many in a row again. It is mad hard to write normal stuff afterwards. You get into this groove and suddenly it's all you can write. Weird.

Thank yous for Vratix, Unita, someone100001, heartsoblivion, and anime warrior girl. And I hoped you enjoyed the chapter…I hope I don't take this long to get the next one out.