Well here it is, the explanations you have been waiting for. Everything seems to have come together nicely. This is the second to last chapter. Meaning that Chapter 25 will be the last chapter. Isn't that nostalgic.
Er…for those of you who haven't played kingdom hearts 2…this chapter has some heavy reference to spoilers. So…watch out.
See other chapters for disclaimers.
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Angel Memories: Chapter 24
Cracks
(enigma Deux)
Within moments, the cocoon of light that surrounded Namine and I dissipated and I stumbled forward slightly, as though we had been moving very fast. My whole body ached from the fight with Keter and the others. With a shaky hand, I wiped a trickle of blood from the corner of my mouth and turned around. Namine was standing several feet away, watching me carefully.
"It's nice to finally meet you," she said shyly. Her pale cheeks were slightly red, almost like she was embarrassed.
"It's…"
I was shocked. It was nice? She had put me through hell over and over
again, and now she was pleased to meet me? What am I supposed to say
to that? With a wince, I placed my hand against my spine and closed
my eyes. "Curaga," I whispered. The green glow lit the outside of
my eyelids and made colors dance inside my mind. I felt the warmth of
the magic course through my body and heal my various fractures and
cuts.
The
spell provided to be a very good distraction from the murderous
feelings that I was harboring for this young girl. When I opened my
eyes again, she was still standing there quietly with her hands
crossed behind her back. It looked like she was expecting something
of me, but what was I supposed to say. Where can I even begin? Should
I scream for the pain she made me go through? Should I thank her for
saving me just then? I also had so many questions for her. How am I
expected to even say anything when there was just so much?
"Who…were they?" I asked dumbly. It was better to begin with something that had just happened. Yes…better to deal with the immediate than the past.
"Them?" Namine's head lowered slightly. She sounded disappointed in herself. "I'm…we're…still not sure yet." She twisted her foot against the ground uncomfortably. "They're like me…no…they're more like Roxas I guess."
"Roxas? And…what do you mean by 'like you'?" Just my luck for a question to spawn more questions. I really wasn't in the mood for this.
Namine gave me a curious stare. "You…don't know what I am? Or…what we are?"
And who is this "we." Why was this girl such an enigma? It was infuriating really. "No," I sighed. "No I don't. Please…just assume I know nothing." Namine smiled a small smile and motioned for a chair by a table. She quietly walked toward it and took a seat. I paused and then followed silently.
"We are 'Nobodies.'"
There was that term again. That first man had said the same thing, and then Zexion as well. What does that even mean?
"Nobodies are what happen when Heartless are formed. The Heart is taken from the body but the soul and body are left behind. What happens to them? They turn into Nobodies, beings with no Heart." Namine absently raised a pale hand to her chest and pressed silently on her breast. "Normally, the Nobody is a mindless creature that attacks indiscriminately, searching for its heart, which is of course, already gone."
Searching for something you can never obtain. I new that activity well enough. It was sad really.
"But sometimes, the person who has lost their Heart has a strong enough will to remain conscious. The body and soul split off and recreate the mind. That is how Nobodies like Axel and Zexion are formed."
Axel is one as well? Well they all wear the same uniform. I suppose it's required to be a Nobody to be in this organization.
"But so far, there have been three exceptions to the Nobody formula." She leaned forward and picked up a small notebook and flipped to a blank page. For a few seconds, she drew quickly but calmly. When she finished, she handed me the book. On the page was now a rough sketch of Sora and another boy about his age. The other boy had blonde spiky hair and wore the same leather coat as Axel and the others.
"Sora had his Heart taken from him. His Nobody was formed. Roxas." She smiled fondly for a moment and blushed slightly. I was slightly taken aback. When did Sora loose his Heart? I remember that he didn't seem any different when I was fighting him. "But after Sora was changed into a Heartless, he regained his Heart through his own inner light. Roxas had already been created though, so now there were two souls and bodies of Sora." She motioned with her hand and took her notebook back. "He is the first exception."
Again, her pencil met the paper and she drew for a minute or so, quietly sketching what I assumed to be the next exception. For the second time, she stopped drawing and offered me the book. This time, there was a picture of her and another girl that looked familiar to me.
"Kairi lost her Heart for a long time. She, however, is a Princess of Heart and doesn't contain an ounce of Darkness in her Heart. Her Heart took refuge with Sora. I was formed, but there was never any Heartless. Kairi regained her Heart as well. We are the second exception."
She pulled her book from my hands once again and put pen to paper. After perhaps two minutes, she handed me the book. There was a crude image of me with my three wings, and to my right were the three figures of Keter, Binah, and Chokhmah.
"Me?" I asked quietly.
Namine nodded. "Yes. You lost your Heart once, in the world switch. It never left your sight though and you pulled it back through sheer force of will, do you remember?"
"I do…but…how would you know that?"
Namine tapped her head with her index finger. "I can look into your memories, it's a gift of mine." She smiled a painful smile, and then continued. "Do you remember how you did it? How you took your Heart back from the Heartless that stole it from you?"
My mind flashed back to the moment I had retrieved my Heart. "I used the last of my strength to stand up again…and then…I just…had it." Why was it so hard to think of how I had done it? "I had…a burst of strength…and a…hunger to get my Heart back."
"That burst of strength," Namine said quietly. "That burst of strength was not your own. That strength and that hunger, as you called it, to get your Heart back came from Keter. His consciousness was formed as soon as the Heart left the body and before he could leave you completely, he saw an opportunity to get what all Nobodies search for, their original Hearts.
"Keter took control of your body and retrieved your Heart, but when it entered your body again, you became strong enough to overwhelm his weak existence. He faded back into a low level of consciousness that rested inside you, clutching desperately to a part of your Heart.
"The bond between you and him was so fragile, it wouldn't take much to tear him from you. When that Heartless left a little scratch on your right shoulder when you were traveling with Hades, that was enough to allow Keter to break free of you and take that little scrap of Heart with him. He formed far away on the World that Never Was with no idea where, or who he was.
"When Keter tore that scrap of Heart from you, it left marks, tiny invisible cracks in what remains of your Heart. Each crack resonated with the others, forming bonds and ties without any sentience to call their own. It was when Xehanort pierced your Heart and turned you fully into a Heartless that those cracks evolved into something more. They all gained a consciousness of their own, much like Keter did.
"When King Mickey restored your Heart, those various consciousnesses were bound to you once again. However, that binding will not hold forever. All of the awarenesses inside you are working to tear down the wall and break free of you like Keter did. When I took that gamble and used my power to send you to the World that Never Was, the sudden proximity with the first one to break free, Keter, paved the way for others. Chokhmah and Binah were the ones that escaped at that time. They too, stole small pieces of your Heart from you.
"I can't yet tell how many of these things are still inside you waiting to get out. Keter made it sound as though there were others. We can safely assume that there are at least two more. Even so, the Organization is threatened by these new Nobodies in such close proximity to their base. Keter was an issue all by himself. When he stormed the Organization castle, Xemnas couldn't keep him out by himself and had to summon Saix, Lexaeus, and Marluxia to subdue him. Even with all four of them, the best they could do was to banish him from the castle.
"When Xemnas learned that there could eventually be more like him, he wanted to destroy you, but Vexen convinced him to let you live in order to see what could be done. He wanted to use you to destroy Keter and then kill you as well. When they found out that you had appeared in Castle Oblivion, Xemnas decided to use this time to train you, eradicating your weaknesses and returning you to a state more capable of defeating Keter. Unfortunately for him, things did not go entirely as planned and he lost control of both the Castle, and me."
Namine looked at me carefully. Her eyes were young but hard and pierced further into me than I cared for. "I sense something threatening lurking inside you and I don't know what it is. I want you to meet Ansem. I think he might be able to tell us all a little more about this rogue Heart of yours."
She fell into silence. I sat for a long time, looking thoughtfully down at the paper in front of me. The things she said, as farfetched as they seemed, did make sense. If all this talk of Hearts and Nobodies was real, then all she stated could very well be true. Before I asked her anything new, I wanted to straighten some things out first.
"I've never met anyone named Xehanort before. It was Ansem who turned me into a Heartl-" My voice trailed off as I remembered the words that Mickey had said as we parted ways. "It was a Heartless who called himself Ansem…that turned me into a Heartless." I thought for a moment. "Yes…as a matter of fact I would be very interested in meeting the real Ansem. But tell me, who are Xemnas and Xehanort?"
Namine cocked her head to the side. "You don't know yet?" I shook my head. "Well…Xemnas is the leader of Organization XIII. He is, of course, a Nobody. Xehanort, as King Mickey said, is Heartless. As it so happens, Xemnas is Xehanort's Nobody. Xehanort was an assistant to the real Ansem. Ansem the Wise. Ansem spent his life studying Hearts, I think that even if he can't tell you anything about yours, he'll at least get a kick out of it."
Get a kick out of it? "I'm not sure I'm willing to let this guy, no matter how qualified he is, play around with my heart 'for kicks.'"
Namine smiled slightly and took her drawing pad from me before placing it under her chair. "I can assure you that Ansem will work with the utmost of care. He's the best there is, and it really is necessary. We never know when the next Nobody will pop out of you."
I nodded reluctantly at her statement. I was not fond of the idea of losing pieces of my heart once every year or so. I would like to know how much is left, and how much more I might lose at this point.
"Alright, he can inspect it, but…no tricks. If this turns out to be another ruse…I will not hesitate to kill you."
Namine nodded and her eyes flicked up over my shoulder, looking at something I couldn't see. From behind me, I heard a very strange noise. There was a whir of energy and some beeps. I whirled around in my chair to see a very low resolution man sharpen and then become clear against the bright white walls.
He was wearing odd clothes and his head was wrapped almost entirely in red bandages. Only his mouth and one eye showed between the red cloths. He looked wise, but sad. His one eye was deep set and looked very tired. He took a step forward and leaned in close to me. I felt his stare pull me in half to get a better look at me. He let out an interested sigh and then straightened up.
He held out a gloved hand and smiled a small smile.
"My name is DiZ, it is nice to meet you."
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Shitty ending to a chapter I know. Long time to wait for a short chapter as well. However, I'm hoping that the content makes up for it.
Sorry it took so long but I kinda lacked motivation. There are a serious lack of reviews in chapter 23, not because you didn't write them, I think, but because you all submitted them while fanfiction dot net was down. So I didn't get them In any case, I would really appreciate you dropping some by chapter 23 if you have nothing better to do, but honestly? Don't worry to much about it. It's not a demand or anything. But please! Mention your opinion on the OCs in this review, its really important to me to know what you think.
Oh! And thank you to Raging Phoenix, Zimma Smith, Unita, Shadows in the Light, and xsaturnine as well as anyone who I didn't get yours from for reviewing. You are all very cool people.
Hope you like the exposition and get ready for the final chapter of Angel memories.
