Finally…here it is. Took me long enough.
Don't own the people or the places. Leave me alone you bastards!
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Angel Memories: Chapter 8
shuDDer and sOunD
Behind me, the world exploded. The white tiles tore from the ground and detonated into fine white powder. My feet stopped touching the ground. Masamune growled pitifully in protest to my unbearably harsh grip. Distance was nothing, time only existed next to me; it didn't hold any constraints on my movements. I didn't cross the hall in seconds, not in milliseconds; I was on the other side in no time at all. There were no measurements for my speed and strength. Limits broke and fell easily before me, expanding my ability far beyond anything I had felt before.
But I didn't register any of it.
I was in front of Vexen. I was behind Vexen. I was inside Vexen. Everything was the past tense. Everything had just happened. Nothing was happening. Everything was over.
And then…Vexen grew cold again.
Laughter was cut short as the man looked downwards at my fist. It entered into his backside at the bottom half near his spine and exited through the heart cavity. All around my arm, I felt ice. Vexen's skin began to fade away into the pale blue of ice. His movements stopped and the false body began to melt slowly.
"Dammit…" I whispered quietly. My rage slowly faded away as the second fake Vexen began to liquefy slowly around my hand. The cold water began to fall slowly down my arm in tiny rivulets, coursing slowly along the veins of my arm. Tears formed slowly at the corners of my eyes and one silently made its way to the bottom of my chin where it detached and joined with the sluggishly forming puddle at my feet. "Dammit!" Clenching my fist, I tore it out of the dripping doppelganger. Ice shards flew to the side and exploded against the wall to my right.
"You never do cease to amaze…do you?" The now familiar voice resonated through the white hallway. For the third time, Vexen appeared from behind a large white column and stood, looking with interest at the sizeable puddle at my feet. "You move even faster than Larxene…quite the feat. Hojo really outdid himself."
"Hojo?" I'd had enough. "Hojo outdid himself? Hojo made me what I am and is responsible for everything I do? Even in death he holds my strings like some kind of meat puppet?" I clenched my hand, sending small drops of water spurting outwards to fall to the ground. "Are you so naïve to believe that I have no control over my own actions? That I couldn't possibly have trained myself? That everything I fucking do is some kind of predetermined statistic by a bunch of men in white lab coats standing over a computer somewhere?" I began to laugh wryly in spite of my tears.
Vexen remained silent for a time. He stared cautiously at me with a guarded expression. Finally he smiled widely and said, "Fascinating."
"What are you talking about now?"
Vexen spread his arms wide and his blue eyes glinted dangerously. "Hojo created a self-improving and even sentient being."
"SHUT UP!" I stood, shaking with anger at this man's outrageous statements. "Dammit…I was born just like everyone else. I wasn't put together in some test tube. I came out of a beautiful woman who died to bring me into my world."
"Ah yes…Lucre-" Vexen began with an air of confidence.
"Do not speak her name!" Silence settled in the hallway and Vexen looked at me with surprise. "You have no right to talk about her like you know all about her. I don't care how much research you did. I don't give a damn if you know every word that was exchanged in that mansion," I looked him in the eye and sneered widely. "A dog like you has no right to speak of good people."
Vexen raised an eyebrow and smiled with interest. He looked as though he planned to anger me further but thought better of it and said instead, "Alright…we'll have it your way. Do as you wish. As I said, I only want to study you. I have no real interest in a failed experiment such as yourself. I am far more interested in the other boy."
"What are you going to do with Riku?"
Vexen smiled dangerously. "I am going to clone him."
"And what will you do with that…'clone'?"
Vexen's smile widened and he rubbed his hands together earnestly. "You won't like it."
"Tell me."
"Oh you won't like it at all."
"Tell me, you bastard."
Vexen let loose an enormous peal of laughter that bounced off the white tiles and made the puddles of water ripple slightly. His body shook with the continuous laughter and he bent over double before leaning against the wall for support. Tears of laughter formed at the corners of his eyes. With a careless hand he reached up to wipe them away. When he had finally finished, he raised his head and smiled again toward me.
"I'm going to use him," Vexen's voice rang softly through the hallway, expelling all other noise. My breathing slowed to a halt before he finished his sentence. Quietly, almost in a whisper, Vexen said, "As my weapon."
A mist settled over my eyes, veiling my sight in a layer of red. My blood came to a quick boil. Those words struck a place in my heart deeper than anything I had ever experienced. I had never felt this way before, this resentment, this undying hatred. Even my hatred of Hojo had faded away after I had left Shinra while I was a boy. Dropping Masamune, lest I crush the hilt in my grip, it fell to the ground with an unheard clatter.
Vexen's words hovered in the air and were joined by his raucous laughter. His whole body shook and small tears of perverse joy fell from his eyes and down his cheek where they turned quickly into ice. This Vexen was undoubtedly another doppelganger but it didn't matter to me anymore. I wanted to get him out of my sight, even if it didn't kill him.
Again, Masamune tore through Vexen's torso. The force of the blow caused his upper half to fly into the air and then fall to the ground several feet away from the legs of the doppelganger. In a flurry of hacks and slashes I whipped Masamune around and tore the doppelganger to pieces. The hall was silent once again.
By now, only small shards of ice littered the ground and large puddles of water extended from wall to wall, covering half the ground. The puddles caught the light and caused a violent glare to jump upwards into my eyes. With a deep sigh I sheathed Masamune and walked slowly to the large platform with the door. The hall was dead silent, only the soft rippling waters could be heard lapping against cold white stone.
And then a solitary note rang through the hall.
A deep bass echo resonated through the hallway. I heard water shift and part, flowing in odd fashions behind my back. The note held for several seconds and then died away. After a moments pause, another note sounded, nearly an octave above the previous and was joined by two more of slightly higher pitch. They held for a time and then the first note began to sound deeper in contrast to the others. A movement registered over my right shoulder.
Diving to the side, I barely dodged a lancing stream of water as it flashed in the air where my head had been moments ago. The spout of water withdrew but remained suspended in the air. I watched it for a moment as it swayed back and forth like a snake. As each new note echoed through the damp hallway, it changed direction, darting back and forth. Finally a deep note sounded from across the hall and the shoot of water burst forward, lancing toward my head. In a flash I ducked under the approaching water and flicked Masamune outwards, severing the base of the waterspout. For a moment, the water paused and seemed to consider disintegrating but instead it flipped upwards with a high-pitched note and stood erect in the middle of the hall. For a long moment, I watched the spout carefully and then when a particularly deep note resonated from the opposite doorway, it splashed back to the floor to join the puddle that awaited it.
"Axel was right…you are fun!"
The voice sounded from the doorway I had entered from. My eyes flicked towards it to find a new man standing carelessly by the doorframe. His blonde hair was pulled upwards in an oddly vertical fashion. He was wearing the same traditional black leather that Vexen and Axel wore and he leaned haphazardly against a large instrument. It was colored blue and white and had three large strings that ran down the length of it. The top was adorned with three large spikes and the bottom was rounded out in an odd heart shape. On his face, a wide childish grin fell into place and his eyes squinted cheerfully.
"You're another one of Axel's companions?" I asked him carefully. I kept an eye on his instrument; that sitar had something to do with the water that had come after me just then.
"Yea," the blonde haired man sniffed contemptuously and rubbed a gloved hand against his hip. "Me an' him work together," the man scowled slightly and added, "One position above me too…so I'm sort of the First Lieutenant to his Captain, so to speak. Just one rank below. " He paused for a moment to stick a finger in his ear and wiggle it around. "The name's Demyx." He glanced down at his plunders and then wiped it on his chest. With a look of feigned disinterest he pulled a finger across the strings of his sitar.
The puddles on the floor rippled and then burst upwards. The water splashed against my clothes and the walls, some of it even reaching the ceiling. For several seconds, there was a light rain and Demyx let loose a wide friendly grin. His foot lashed out and kicked the bottom of his sitar, causing it to flip upwards into the air. The instrument spun twice over itself and then his gloved hand lashed outwards and took hold of one of the top three spikes. The sitar flashed around his body in a wide arc and halted against an outset thigh. With a crazy smile, Demyx raised his right arm high into the air and brought it down violently against the strings of his instrument.
Explosively loud sound boomed through the hallway and flashed past me, causing my hair to whip uncontrollably backwards. The light rain that had been falling exploded. For a moment, nothing could be seen through the white foaming water. Waves washed over me, pushing me back and causing me to falter to regain my footing. Just as soon as it had begun, the rush of water and sound halted. Now, only the ordinary amount of water could be seen swirling in the center of the tiles. Demyx stared at me with expectant eyes and strummed furiously at the bottom two strings of the sitar. The high notes rang out in complicated rhythms and echoes. Slowly, the water began to separate and form into definite shapes. With each new layer of sound, the now human shapes of water formed and grew larger. With one last note, the three liquid people stepped forward off of the puddle in my direction.
"Name's Demyx," he repeated proudly. Artist, musician, warrior and master of water!" He smiled widely. "Are you impressed?"
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AAGHH! I need to update more…I need to write more…I'm really sorry. God…I can't get into this like I used to be!
Ok…so…Demyx. For those of you who don't follow Kingdom Hearts 2 news…however many of you there are…spoiler? Demyx will be a member of the organization that shows up in KH2. He's number 9, behind Axel's who's number 8. He controls water using an instrument very much like a guitar but is actually called a sitar.end spoiler? In any case…I'm very afraid of using him because…well…I think I'm afraid of poetic license. I like staying in character as much as I can and how can I do that if I have never seen this guy in action…I don't like it. But I couldn't pass up the opportunity what with Vexen's set up with wetting the hallway like that. Not to mention the fact that Naruto has really messed with my brain and the ensuing battle will be either very good or very much a combination of like three quarter Naruto one quarter Avatar: The Last Airbender which is actually a mad good show. Watch it some time if you haven't. Water bending is cool.
I have a question…do you guys think that the lengths of my chapters are good or should I split them up and make them shorter. I don't leave making them longer as an option because that would be torture for me. I usually try and make the story, without authors notes, hit at least the three and a half page mark or so but do you think that's too much or what? Gimme your opinions because I could probably start dishing out chapters faster if I could shorten them but as for right now I kinda have a self set standard that I can't break unless you tell me that I can.
Now that I have that off of my chest…I want to apologize for my comments on Christian music last time. I don't really mind it at all. I had just been in a lousy mood and listening it brought out my angry atheist qualities and I felt like someone was trying to subliminally convert me. Which was not what was happening. I actually love that kind of music even if I don't embrace the meaning behind it. So…sorry I was insensitive and a dick…maybe.
Speaking of which…or the entire opposite of actually…Huge huge huge thank you for Unita who served in helping me get my act together and write this chapter. Any of you who remember my rant about Xsaturnine…pretty much the same thing for Unita because I was in a slump and she reviewed when I needed it…even if I didn't update right away. Thank you very much!
As for everyone else. Double the thank you for xsaturnine who reviewed(?) twice…kinda. And a big thank you for heartsoblivion for being a very faithful reviewer. (don't worry, I'll try and rant about you soon too.)
Til next time…please send reviews…because if you don't…I probably will take like…a really long time to write the next chapter.
P.s: (This post script is meant for people who have played final fantasy X-2. You can read it if you haven't but you won't be much help.) I've been replaying Final Fantasy X-2 recently and have come up with an idea for a fanfiction that I think is entirely original although I'm not sure. I'll research that later. But I wanna run the idea past you guys and see if any of you think I should follow up on it.
Ok…so some of you more hardcore players may have gotten the accessories down in Bevelle Wring and Bloodlust. Or maybe you used the strategy guide like me. But either way you notice that their abilities are Majo's soul, which makes your character a spellcasting monster, and Kijo's sould, which transforms you into a berserk fighting beast, respectively. Kijo and Majo. Interesting…to me anyway.
So I was thinking. Who are Kijo and Majo? What's their story? Why are their souls connected to these accessories? Why not write a fic about it? So I think it would set in back in the Machina war sometime around when Shuyin and Lenne die. Whaddya think? Gimme your opinions if you care. Or even if you don't.
