Phew…after some serious motivation, I finally have another chapter out. I like my schpeel about spells in this chapter it might not be relevant…but its pretty cool, in my opinion…which is what really matters. I also like writing Axel…even if he doesn't like…do all that much. You know who I miss writing? Squall. I feel like he and Sephiroth bonded in Shadow Feather. I wanna rekindle that…it's a shame that the worlds kind of…don't mix. But whatever.

You want a disclaimer? Huh? Punk? Why don't you get Walt Disney to come over here and ask me for one himself? Yea. That's what I thought. Why not have Nomura come over here and maybe I can…treat him to a nice dinner and ask for his autograph…and then…refuse to disclaim?

I don't own any of the characters or places below…or your mom.

But she owned me last night.

What?

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Angel Memories: Chapter 14

The Learning Curve

(no thunder for you)

The silence was comforting.

Alone in the hallway, I took a moment to lean against a large white pillar and rest myself. My legs felt like stone and my arms didn't feel like they were attached at all. My body felt foreign to me, as though I was slipping into a new skin entirely. With a grimace, I glanced briefly at my left had, scarred and puffy from my encounter with Demyx. The skin was a bright shade of pink.

Looking over the wound, I remembered my encounter with the musician. My spell hadn't worked. Why was that? I didn't need Materia anymore, I hadn't since I had fallen into the Lifestream all those years ago. Vexen had said that the effects of LIfestream as well as Mother had been eradicated in the world shift. That might account for my inability to cast magic, but on the other hand, I never saw anyone else carrying Materia around, and I did cast Cure on Riku a long time ago.

Undoubtedly, the use of magic would help strengthen me against those who would seek my life. As things are, they have an advantage over me with my lack of knowledge in magic. What had Demyx said? Suffixes. But what did he mean by that? I briefly ran through my memories of encounters with those who cast magic. When I had first left the Planet, where had I been? In the Nexus…I met Ansem there.

Then it came to me. What had Ansem said when I had destroyed his guardian? I remembered the man weeping and kneeling in a pool of black blood and casting the same spell over and over again. What had he said? What was the word he used?

Biting my lower lip, I placed the index finger of my right hand on the swollen palm of my left. It was risky…I still remembered the pain it had caused his guardian…but perhaps Heartless don't take well to healing.

"Curaga."

Some of my MP drained away and flushed through my right arm, making it glow a sickly green color. When the glow reached my finger, it disappeared. Suddenly, directly in front of my face, large golden bells appeared and rang twice. Leaves that shined gold and green materialized and floated downward to fall gently on the calloused skin of my left hand. Upon contact, the leaves disintegrated and faded to nothing. I looked carefully through the bright glow of the bells at my hand.

The dried blood evaporated and vanished. Pink puffy skin retreated and shrunk to the correct size and color. The scar from the cut that I had made faded and nearly disappeared. The dull throb that had been consistent for the past hour or so left without a trace and the whole limb felt flexible and new. I raised the pal to my face and clenched my fingers. Completely healed. Come to think of it, the sensation of healing felt almost exactly like Cure3.

"Suffixes…" I mumbled. Slowly I stood up on shaky legs and pointed at the pillar across the hall from myself. Being careful not to let my MP flow freely, I focused on the white stone in front of me. "Boltaga," I whispered quietly. My MP draine toward the outstretched hand but something felt different. It wasn't the same as when I had used Curaga. Gritting my teeth fiercely I canceled the spell and retracted the energy pouring into my arm. It left a small ache but nothing permanent.

"Now…why wouldn't that work?" I pondered my own question and tried to think back to what people had said about spells. Demyx had scoffed at Bolt, and mentioned Ice as well. He said I needed the right spell. Clearly "aga" was the correct suffix…but what was the word that would go before it? Come to think of it, I hadn't seen anyone use any lightning based attacks since I left the Planet.

Ice on the other hand…

Raising my hand once again and pointing at the pillar in front of me I focused myself and thought carefully about the spell. I had seen Sora use spells with ice when he fought Hades. What had he been shouting? Quietly, I summoned my MP and directed it into my arm. Quietly, I whispered what I hoped was the spell.

"Blizzaga."

My MP poured forward and leapt from my pointer finger, freeing into shards of ice that flew forward and splashed against the wall, freezing it and coating it with a layer of thick ice. Staring down at my hand, I smiled slightly. All I needed to do now was figure out how to use bolt spells in this place and I would be on equal footing with the people here as well.

With a sigh, I pushed myself away from the wall and stretched, loosening my aching joints. Before walking to the large white door, I cast Curaga one last time to eradicate any lingering pains that would hinder me later on. Once I felt limber and well off, I walked slowly toward the bright doorway. I ascended up the steps and then stood, looking at the portal carefully. Which memory was I going to face this time?

"Try and keep yourself limited in your rebellions, if you would be so kind." A light hearted voice that I easily recognized spoke from behind me.

"Hello again Axel. What do you want this time?"

I turned around slowly to discover the red haired man idly spinning a chakram around his middle finger. With a smile, he flipped it upward, giving me the finger in the process and then caught it as it descended. His grin widened to show gleaming white teeth and he rubbed his wrist against his neck.

"Just what I said, you need to keep your little…memory rebellions to a bit more of a minimum, if you wouldn't mind." Although he smiled convincingly, there was a hint of danger in his voice and in his eyes.

"And why would my reactions to my own memories concern you?"

Axel laughed for a moment and then slumped slightly, leaning against a white pillar. "Well it's really rather embarrassing." He paused and looked at me as though asking if that was enough of an explanation. I stared coldly at the man and he simply sighed and continued. "Every time you do something that goes against the nature of this place…you hurt someone that I care about. So far it's just been a headache or a burnt up page in her book…but if you really gave it your all…" he stopped smiling and glared dangerously at me. "You could really hurt her."

Images of the blonde girl in the white room came flashing back to. The page that burst into flames and her wincing as I combated history. So it was my fault that she was in pain. If that was the case…she must be the girl that Vexen had mentioned…the one in charge of this place.

"If she's the one making me relive all those painful memories…then I am not going to stop."

Axel looked at me sharply for a moment and then lowered his head. His fingers clenched around his chakrams and spat angrily onto the cold white tiles. "Tch…in that case I'll need to stop you right here."

In a flash, one of his chakram had left his hand and flew swiftly toward my face. Before it could reach me, my hand flashed up and grabbed the weapon out of the air. It shuddered violently in my hands but I gripped it tightly and smiled politely at Axel. The read headed man bared his teeth and snapped his fingers. The weapon in my hand shuddered and grew hot.

All of a sudden, it exploded into bright red flames that burned my skin. I dropped the chakram which dropped several feet and then flew back to Axel's waiting hand. He caught the flaming object and twirled it around his fingers with ease, seemingly unaffected by the fire that surrounded his hand.

"It's not her choice. Do you know that?" Axel said angrily. "She's not hurting you because she wants too.

"That doesn't matter. The point is that she is tearing me apart and I have no intention of letting her continue to do that." I pulled Masamune from it's sheathe and pointed toward Axel. "If you care about her so much and she is being controlled, then why not do something about it?"

The whirling ball of flame in Axel's hand flared and then went out quickly. His hands fell limply to his sides and he hung his head, seemingly in shame. One of the chakram fell from his fingers and clanged against the floor. With his hand now free, he dug into a pocket and pulled out a small white piece of paper. Another card. Without looking up, he flung it toward me and I caught it without hesitation.

"You're right," he said. And then he turned with his leather flapping in his wake. The chakram on the floor shivered and then flew into his hand which he held out half heartedly. Without glancing back, he pushed open the door at the opposite end of the hall and let it close behind him. I watched the light fade and sharpen as it disappeared and then turned to my own door, holding the card in my hand.

I held the small piece of paper up which shimmered in the brightness of the hall. In a moment, the door had opened wide to reveal the flaring white light behind it. I took a step forward and prepared myself for what was to come. With each new step it became harder to keep my eyes open and I felt myself slip slowly out of my consciousness. This time I barely kept my eyes open, straining to see myself as my body drifted away on the tides of light.

The last thing I saw before I fell into darkness was a young girl with blonde hair drawing carefully along the outlines of my body as it fell away from me. She looked me in the eye with dark rimmed lids that lacked sleep and shook her head slowly. She said something that I couldn't hear, but instead of listening, I read the movements of her lips as my lids finally closed over.

"Sorry."

The sound of woodpecker drove me to my senses. In a flash, I grabbed Masamune and unsheathed it, taking in my surroundings with precision and ease. The camp was quiet, above me, the stars shone through a covering of leaves and clouds that stretched as far as the eye could see.

After several seconds, I sheathed the great blade and went about the camp, inspecting the members of the company carefully. All of them were completely asleep in their respective tents, dozing after the hard 22 hours of travel they had all endured. I had the urge to scoff at their lax security and inability to wake as I approached. After looking over the first seven of eight tents, I came to the last. I peered inside to find one member of the military sleeping soundly but the other bedding was strangely absent. I retracted my head from the tent flap and addressed the man on the branch above me.

"SOLDIER, First Class, and you still don't understand the importance of rest?"

A snicker echoed from above and I heard the man shift his weight and fall from above to land nimbly on his feet. "You're one to talk. I don't think I've ever seen you sleep more than an hour at a time."

The brash tone and simplistic speech irked me to no end. I turned on the man and glared into his blue grey-eyes. They held their color for a moment and then swirled with briefly with a deep turquoise. The soldier crossed his arms and then reached upwards to flick a stray strand of jet black hair from his face.

"I would advise you to speak with more respect to your superiors, Zack."

The man just smiled playfully and ducked back into his tent.

"Try and get some sleep, general."

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Oh holy crap! I came up with the best idea while failing at restaining myself from reading all about Kingdom Hearts tow…and none of you are gonna know about it yet. Let's just say that if I don't die, you can expect me to carry this whole thing into Kingdom Hearts 2 with gusto. I am excited. HAHA! What luck! Maybe if you ask me super nicely I'll give you a hint sometime.

Ok…so I dedicate this chapter to Chaos009 because he got me mobilized and reminded me (or made me aware of the fact that) that I have some serious fans out there who really like my writing. And I am disappointing them by not updating as often as I could be doing. I should try not to let my social life, however weird it may be, interfere with fanfiction. Don't let your ox into your neighbor's garden or something of the sort.

Also, thank you very much to heartsoblivion (I promise that I will review all of your chapters as well as your other stories at some point) xsaturnine and Unita (x2) for reviewing on chapter 12.