So here are some more hints to what's to come. My guess is that you can already start piecing stuff together if you really wanted to but I can assure you that you will not, in a thousand years be able to guess the full extent of my plan.
ERm…this is the real chapter 16, sorry for any confusion with the accidental copy.
Oh go see the previous disclaimers, you lazy bureaucratic bastards.
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Angel Memories: Chapter 16
Revelation Confrontation
The light coalesced and drifted all around me, swirling and pulling gently at my hair. All at once I could see the next hallway stretching before me. I took the necessary steps toward it and then the last lingering element of my past mind fell away. Strange how similar it felt, the switch was not nearly as great as it had once been. Perhaps that was due to the nature of the last memory.
Again I recalled the number of events that I had just watched. All of them focused on Zack. The more I thought about him, the warmer I became. Thinking of his smile and how he had never tried to take advantage of me for his own means. If I had been a better person, perhaps we could have been friends once. Alas, that time was past and memories are not the force that should rule the present.
I cast aside my thoughts to the best of my ability and raised my head to gaze out of the doorway. As usual it stretched forward with bright white tiles and the walls were lined with large stone columns. At the end, the stairs rose up and the familiar door stood closed and ominous. My eyes swept downward and paused upon a figure waiting at the bottom step, hand upon his chin and eyes knowledgeable and calculating.
"Zexion…" I said quietly. He glanced quietly at the doorway and squinted. I could see the light reflecting sharply off of his eyes and I knew he could only just make out my shape in the light. Out of habit, I loosened Masamune and prepared for anything that would come once I was out of the safety of the doorway. As my heels clacked softly against the white tiles, Zexion let out a deep breath and turned to me. Behind me, the enormous door shut quietly, cutting off the light that permeated the glowing hall.
We stood in silence for a long time, watching each other. I contemplated his motives and whether he was here to fight or to discuss something inane.
"So are you another doppelganger? Or have you decided to step out of the shadows for real this time?" I asked him coldly.
Zexion shook his head with a defensive smile on his face. "No no…I'm the real me this time." He looked me in the eye for a moment and then turned his gaze to my hand, tensely laid upon Masmune. "Please…I don't aim to fight you, I would only end up dead." He carefully leaned back and sat down on the second step that led to the raised platform. Nervously, he placed his chin on one fist, the elbow resting on his knee. "I only want to talk to you about something of deathly importance."
I hesitated for a moment, hand still clasping loosely at Masamune's hilt. Finally, after a moment's thought, I let go and let my hands fall to my sides where they would rest. "What makes you think I'll listen to you? You've been treating me like a puppet ever since Riku gained his powers in Hollow Bastion."
Zexion sighed deeply and looked me in the eye, one orb of midnight blue shining through his mess of silver strands; the other was covered and lost completely behind it all. "That's just it. Because I've been using you like a puppet all this time." His words were confusing but I let him continue, remaining silent and staring back at him. "We saw your potential early on, we wanted you as an ally, but the problem was that you weren't like us."
"You mean that I'm not human? That I was just created?" I interjected with a snarl.
Zexion's eye widened momentarily but soon shrunk to it's regular size. He shook his head, spikes of bright chrome lancing first to the left, and then to the right. Why did he look so nervous? "Being human has nothing to do with it." He paused for a moment and sighed. "It's because you are someone."
His words seemed familiar. Someone? Somebody? "If I said that I am not anybody…" The words of the cloaked man resonated inside my head. "Then it stands to reason that I am nobody," I whispered softly.
Zexion looked at me with a confused glare in his eyes. "Where did you hear that?"
I glanced up at him, he seemed…frightened…terrified even. "From one of your Organization cronies."
Zexion stood up in alarm. "What did he look like?"
"I don't know…he had his hood up the entire time."
Zexion clenched his fists and looked like he was about to scream at me but he calmed himself and then looked me in the eye again. "Well…there's no use in getting angry over it I suppose. You have no way of telling me who it is, and I can't force it out of you." He shook his head again and leaned back to sit down once again. He looked at me inquisitively. "But you are completely right."
What was this man getting at? Why was he speaking so cryptically? I don't need to listen to this man tell me who I am and what's to come. What will come will come and until then I just need to move forward. After a moments pause I began to walk slowly toward the steps.
"Please…listen to me," Zexion said pleadingly. I looked down at him, he had fear in is eyes and his gloved hands were shaking violently. "This is more important than you can begin to comprehend."
I stopped. My feet slid to a gentle stop on the white tiles. With one finger I reached up and flicked a stray hair from the front of my face. Why was he so frightened? Could he really be just pulling my strings again? If that was the case, he was one of the best actors I had ever seen in my life.
"Go on, I'll listen."
Zexion looked up at me with his visible eye. It shone dark like the night sky and it whirled with an overwhelming sense of relief. "Alright," he said, taking a deep breath. "It's a difficult story though…you'd better listen carefully." I nodded quietly and Zexion reached up to rub at his temples slowly.
"We wanted you to be our ally. You were strong, impossibly strong. Strong enough to beat Ansem. So we began to watch you ever since you arrived in Hollow Bastion. I believe you met Axel first, in the library once you had figured out where Riku was from. He told you about Hojo and his attempts to create another you and bring him to another world to save him." Zexion looked up at me and smiled gravely. "That was the first step.
"Too be honest, I'm not sure where we went wrong. Our actual plans focused much more on Sora and his part in everything. Our next objective was always watching over Riku in case Sora fell through. You were always more of a side project, 'let's get him to join us and we'll have more power, wouldn't that be useful?' But it never came to any more than that. You kept interfering, or trying to interfere with our plans that revolved around Riku that finally, you two wove together and we could simply use one stone to take you both out at once.
"Maleficent unlocked the boy's powers to their fullest and we shielded her from your wrath until her part was done. Then when Ansem had his chance to take the boy for himself, we made sure you wouldn't stop him. Finally, you were turned into a Heartless."
I shuddered slightly at his mention of that experience. Even now, I couldn't quite remember any of the events that transpired from that time, but Squall and Aerith had done a god job describing the terrible things that I had done.
"You're plan was to use me as a Heartless?"
Zexion looked to the ground in silence and slowly traced an invisible ornate cross with his finger on the white tile at his feet. "I'm not sure how much I am supposed to show you at this time. Let me just say that you have quite an interesting heart, the most interesting heart that we've ever seen before, I think."
All of a sudden, his head snapped upright and he stood up in a flash. My hand whipped Masamune from it's sheathe and my feet fell back into place, ready to strike forward at the startled man. Zexion whirled around to face the doorway behind him, pulling his spiky silver threads from his eyes. For a long time, he looked at the doorway in surprise before letting out a deep sigh and cursed softly.
He turned to me, chuckling scornfully. "So he was taken down by the Keybearer. I suppose there was never any real doubt, but nevertheless, it is a relief to be rid of the traitor."
What was he talking about? He mentioned the Keybearer, how did he know Sora? That didn't matter though, it sounded as though the boy was handling himself rather well. Nothing for me to concern myself over.
Zexion looked up at me and shook his head slightly. "I know I made our meeting sound as though it were of dire importance, and believe me, it most certainly is…but it will need to wait until another time. I have an appointment with Riku now." He turned toward the steps and began to walk slowly toward the doorway.
"Wait!" I cried, stepping forward. "You know where Riku is?"
Zexion paused and turned to me with a slight smile on his face. "Yes, all you need to do is come through this final floor and you'll see him soon enough." He reached out to the doorway but paused before his fingers touched the wood. Slowly he spun on his heel and looked at me. "You must find a balance. It is too late to request you to be emotionless now. We can only ask that you find the middle ground and learn to look out only for yourself every so often. We know that you're already heading down that path, but if you don't work faster…you will not survive." He produced a card from his sleeve which he then tossed lightly to me before turning to face the doorway. "None of us will."
Then the door opened wide and Zexion stepped through into the shining white light. As he disappeared into the brightness, his words echoed in my head. What was he talking about? Why…was it so important that I find a balance? I shook my head to clear it of thought and settled against a pillar to my left to think about the recent developments.
After several minutes of simply thinking as hard as I could, nothing came to mind. Instead I was left confused and bewildered. Frustrated, I ran my fingers through my hair and let out a deep sigh. This was getting me no where. I had no reason to believe anything that Zexion had said, he was my enemy after all. For now, all that mattered was continuing my journey through this place to reach whatever lay at the end of it all. To reach that little girl who toyed with my memories and…
And what?
What was I planning to do once I reached the little witch? Axel had said already that she was doing this against her own will. It isn't really her fault at all for doing any of this is it? She's just being used to someone else's selfish ends. Then what…what was I going to do when I saw her?
Free her? That seems reasonable. If I can rid her of the people who are pulling her strings and making her hurt me then she won't have any reason to use my memories against me anymore. I shifted my weight from one foot to the other and my shoulder left the cold white stone. Once more I shook my head, silver flashing as light fell against the strands, and began a slow walk toward the door in front of me.
As I mounted the bottom step, I heard a noise from behind me, the sound of yet another door opening. Quietly, I turned around and saw two figures walking quickly out of the pulsing light. As their feet left the doorway and it began to close, they became more apparent against the dying glow.
"Riku?" The name fell from my lips before I could process the thoughts and messages flashing inside my head. Riku, dressed in his more sinister garb looked at me and sneered slightly. Axel, it was now apparent who the other man was, looked down at the boy and then back at me, shrugging apologetically. Beside him, the false Riku pushed a stray clump of hair from his dark eyes and looked directly at me.
"Riku?" He laughed, a cold and harsh sound that emanated from his throat. "Hardly, seems to me like I can never actually match up to that…real person." He scowled and looked directly at me. "Tell me, oh great protector, do you care about me the same way you care about him?"
I stepped backward, thrown off by his audacity. I stuttered slightly, unable to say anything and then, before I could formulate a full thought, the replica laughed again, loud and full to the brim with rage.
"You hadn't even thought about it had you! I must say I'm not really all that surprised. Maybe I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up. I thought that maybe you'd know what it's like to be…fucking created in someone's image…but I guess even with that, you are still so unable to see me as a real person." He smiled derisively at me flung his arms out wide. "Well how about a hug old man! What would I be? Your grandchild? A clone of a clone of a clone? How about a hug pops? Or is the false one not as cuddly as the real thing?"
I looked from the raving child to Axel whose brow was creased with worry. He caught my glance and simply mouthed a small apology in my direction. He looked as though he were as confused as I was.
"What are you looking at him for?" Riku interrupted my thoughts and drew my gaze back to his mocking position. With a scoff, he let his arms fall to his sides and placed one hand against his forehead, rubbing at his temples. "Well I've got another question for you." He stopped rubbing his temples for a moment to look at me through leering eyes. "What would you do if I said that I'm going to kill Riku right now? That I'm off to go kill the real Riku so I can finally be at least considered a real person." He smiled maliciously.
"How does that make you feel…gramps?"
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Hehe…Sephy is a grandpa…sort of. On a different note, if you're as OCD as I am about plot and timing along with the story…you'll have noticed by now that I have a serious issue following the timeline effectively. Chain of Memories isn't quite so memorable to me and as a result I can't put in as many details having to do with events and such. That's kinda why you never get to see Vexen or Lexaeus or Larxene die. I mean…I was kind of iffy on how to interrupt Zexion's little tirade of information…but then I figured out (thanks to a certain someone who sent me the game script, you know who you are) that Zexion really does die after Marluxia does. So fortunately I managed to give him somewhat of a viable reason for not telling all of you the whole story.
I worry that I gave away to much…whatever.
So here's the layout…so you guys know how many more chapters or so I'm going to have. I've got at least four chapters sort of mapped out so I can get cliffies on each one hopefully. After that, I might throw in a teaser of whats to come but don't count on that. Also, once this fic is finished, I'll have to take a break until I get and beat Kingdom Hearts 2…cause I'm a stickler for plot points and stuff that will happen will totally affect the arc that follows it.
Who reviewed…Ah yes! Gracias for Unita, chaos009 (a cool guy who people should hang out with :thumbs up:), heartsoblivion (x2) and a newguy alphablades who I guess is just starting to read Angel Memories. Didja read Shadow Feather yet? If not you probably should.
Speaking of Shadow Feather, Angel Memories is about to surpass it in reviews. I have mixed feelings about that…I mean I'm totally psyched that you guys like Angel Memories so much…but it makes me nostalgic and sad that Shadow Feather has been…put to the side. I suppose you can't exactly…review it again, all those people who did already, but people like Lord Dogma and…Manders1953 and Raging Phoenix…why aren't you guys reviewing? I dunno…I know you don't exactly have any obligation to do so but…I would totally appreciate it and it would help me get through the final chapter push for this story. It's up to you but…you put it on your favorites list…put both of them on…
Hehe…you know what I tend to do while I'm writing? Try and figure out a song or couple songs that goes really well with the feelings or events that I'm writing. I'm not going to do a songfic…but I think it's weird how like…Linkin Park's music is like…a biography of Sephiroth…at least Numb and Breaking the Habbit. I didn't like their music so much until I started making the connection. Weird huh?
Also…I decided just to make the chapter's match the update number…and make the green rain memories thing into separate chapters…just for simplicities sake…which is why this is chapter 16 now.
