Kingdom Hearts II – The Untold Chronicles
Chapter Eight – The Descent
"To The Grand Maw." Ashley said to herself as Bahamut was being very obedient. She rode at a slow pace, in no hurry to seal her fate. She felt as if the whole world had turned against her. Ashley didn't know what she did to deserve the cruel hand dealt to her.
Ashley was dressed in a suspicious manner. She wore a black Muslim hijahb and she wrapped it tight around her face only exposing her maroon and aqua eyes. Ashley also wore a long black cloak of cotton. She was wandering in a desert terrain. The brown of the desert started to meld into lavender, with tall lavender tinted lime stone cliffs. Bahamut gave a wail. He was uncomfortable with continuing. Ashley nodded and climbed down Bahamut's side. She let the summon go and Bahamut slid back into the ground. Bahamut even looked worried. Ashley sighed.
She walked up the cliffs with a hunch to where Sephiroth could be. The cliff path became narrower and narrower. She pressed her back against the cliff to walk to rest of the narrow path. Ashley was shaky, afraid she'd fall to her death. Her one wing couldn't save her from the fall. She looked down a bit just to be sure how far she'd fall. It was quite a drop. She slammed her back against the wall, her breathing becoming labored. She was terrified and alone. Why did she have to do it alone? She sucked it up and moved onward. But there was a slip. She fell vertically, she managed to turn herself around. Her right hand grabbed the ledge. Her fingers could not support all of her weight. Ashley watched her fingers slowly slipping.
There was a ripping through her side. Strong arms snatched her from the cliff. Her hijahb went flying. She tried to look at who had grabbed her. All she had to go on was blonde hair. They went down the cliff, landing back where Ashley had started.
"Damn it!" Ashley cursed. "I needed to go up there! I needed to see if he was there!"
"You're welcome." He said, turning his back exposing a large sword.
"I didn't thank you!" Ashley shouted.
"You would have when he had ripped you from your mouth to your ass." He walked down a path, opposite of The Grand Maw. Ashley looked back then forward. She followed the man keeping her distance.
Ashley followed him all the way into town, Hollow Bastion. He led her to the court yard. He stopped.
"Stop following me." He warned.
"My name is Ashley and I need to talk to the one called Sephiroth." Cloud's ears rang with spite.
"No, you don't." He responded.
"Help me up the summit to The Grand Maw." Ashley ordered.
"Why do you need to see him so badly?" Cloud, turned and made eye contact. He gasped unaware that Ashley looked the way she did. "Your eye…"
"Don't look at it. Just, take me to him!" Ashley covered her eye with her hand.
"Your eye looks lust like his…" Cloud murmured. Cloud grabbed her hand pulling her down a flight of stairs. "You're coming with me."
"I need to see The One Winged Angel!" Ashley shouted, allowing him to pull her anyways.
"He's not an angel. He is a demon. And you'll end up the same if I don't do something about it." Cloud said. A total stranger, but he was bent on turning Ashley back to her former glory. Maybe she wouldn't have to face this alone. But she shut her left eye just in case we were to be shown like cattle. Her left eye brought her great shame and her one wing reminded her of the defects she possessed.
"Go on. Show Aerith." Cloud commanded. Ashley shook her head no. Cloud raised his hand as if he were to back hand her. Ashley flinched and Cloud wanted that. "Show her!" They were at Merlin's house. Tifa threw a punch at Cloud, landing right upside his head. "OW!"
"She's scared, Cloud. That's not how you treat some one who is scared." Tifa instructed.
"Is that your name?" Ashley said, with her left eye still closed tight.
"Yeah…" He said.
"Well 'Cloud'… You suck!" Ashley said. Cloud made a grab at her. She ducked away. Cloud sighed.
"Could you please, open your eye?" Cloud asked kindly. Ashley thought it over.
She cracked her left eye then opened it slowly. Her eyes went over the room, looking around at the strange things on the walls. "See?"
"Oh dear." Aerith said. "Looks just like his…" Cloud, Tifa, and Aerith began talking amongst themselves.
"I already know I look like him. Now, Cloud, take me to him so I can see if it really is my destiny." Ashley said.
"We agree that this could be a discoloration of your eye, but since you insist on seeing him, there is something else we most see." Cloud said. "Take off your cloak."
"No! Why should I?" Ashley was nervous.
"You got something to hide?" Cloud asked, taking a step towards her.
"N-No." She lied, taking a step away.
"Then take off the cloak." Cloud said again. Ashley tried to make a break for the door, but she felt Cloud grab the bottom of her cloak. He whipped it off with no effort. "Holy shit! Tifa, detain her before she gets away!" It was an easy task. Tifa put Ashley's hands behind her back and turned her towards Cloud. "Did you think I'd let you win that easily, Sephiroth?"
"You fool… You're blinded by hate. All I want to know is why I'm becoming like this. I am no spawn or seed of Sephiroth's. But as one who has one wing, he would know what is wrong with me…" Ashley tried to reason.
"Tifa, take her to the Restoration Site and keep her held in that area." Cloud said. Ashley couldn't believe it. This would be a task she would have to do alone…
The Gummi was quiet. Everyone was gathered around the break room table. It was an awkward moment of silence. The silence felt that some one was supposed to say something encouraging but nothing came to anyone's mouth. Sora would be the first to break the silence.
"Riku… You okay?" Sora asked. He was always worried about Riku. Riku turned his head away from Sora.
"I'm fine."
"I'm not!" Shuku ranted. "We all know whose fault this is!" She glared at Riku.
"Here we go…" Tidus sighed.
"What do you mean, 'Here we go'? This was coming! This has happened one other time. And that one other time was when I kissed Xehanort. Her wings turned black with spite and malice!" Shuku said.
"So? Doesn't that pretty much pin the blame on you?" Riku snarled.
"Ashley wouldn't like it if you talked to me that way." Shuku reminded. Riku's nasty face left but his anger remained. "Her black feathers show the spite she's harboring for you, Riku. The one wing, I don't even know what that's about."
"Maybe, she's angry at you for a change?" Riku suggested.
"She could never be angry at me. We've been though too much." Shuku countered.
"Maybe she remembered you making out with her lover. And she is suddenly uncomfortable with the notion!" Riku said. Shuku glared.
"How can you say that with a straight face, Riku? Her lover—not being you—how can you bring yourself to say it with out crying like a CHILD!" Shuku yelled.
"That's enough, you two!" Sora refereed. "This is getting us no where. Let's sum up the facts." Sora suggested. Tidus instantly threw down a large piece of white paper and a thick black marker. "Alright, Shuku. You start first."
"Um, Ashley loves Xehanort." Shuku said. Sora shook his head no.
"Love is intangible and to prove that her love for Xehanort still exists is hard." Sora said. "But Tidus put that under something like, 'Possibilities.'" Sora said.
"You saw how she acted at Styx! You can't deny that she's doesn't love him anymore." Shuku reasoned.
"True…" Tidus stepped in. "But we were all watching her. Maybe there was something she wasn't doing, or something she was hiding—other than the fact that she was defective."
"Don't call her defective! She's just confused!" Riku defended. Sora snapped his fingers.
"That is a fact! Ashley is very confused and she would have been at the sight of her one wing. That's why she chose to hide it. She didn't know how we would react." Sora said.
"Wait! Confusion would mean inner turmoil, right?" Shuku said. Sora nodded his head. "Oh dear god."
"What is it?" Riku was concerned.
"Oh my god." Shuku held her head. She took the marker from Tidus and wrote it out quickly while explaining. "It's fact that Ashley loves Xehanort. It is also fact that she loves Riku—as much as I'd hate to say. In her confusion, she did something similar to what we're doing. But when she wrote it out in her mind she used symbols. I know she would. She's so simple she wouldn't want to make it harder on her self… Are you guys following me?" Shuku had written Riku and Xehanort on the paper, after scribbling out the diagrams of Sora and Tidus.
"Yes, I understand." Sora said. Riku and Tidus nodded.
"Ashley did a process of association at some pointed between the cruise ship and a few days ago. It was probably after she learned of Xehanort's death—thank you Riku."
"Shut up." Riku said.
"Chances are, she associated Xehanort with the light and Riku with the darkness. Since she yearned to be in both the light and the darkness, she didn't know how to compromise—so the Kingdom Millennia Crystal did it for her. It started to become concentrated in one side of her body—the side that appears normal, leaving her left side vulnerable to be submitted to the darkness." Shuku drew the half of the crystal on the paper. "She was able to be in both worlds."
"Why did she cough out the crystal?"
"Why else would you throw something up? It was making her left half sick with its purity. That's not a good sign either. That means the darkness in her is growing stronger and she can't control it anymore." Riku covered his mouth.
"What have I done? I've condemned her!" Riku was taken by guilt.
"What are you talking about?" Shuku capped the marker.
"She cried to me the day before. She took off her eye patch and cried so hard. I thought it was because she put on weight when it was her wing I was feeling." Riku ran his fingers through his locks..
"So you admit it was your fault?" Shuku wanted sweet justice.
"…Yes, Shuku. It's my fault." Riku said. She jumped up and pointed in his face.
"I TOLD YOU SO!" Shuku sat back down. "Since that's finished, I can forgive you , Riku. But what you just told me, she might have known she was losing the battle of light and dark."
"That poor girl is tittering in the middle. And if we don't do something, she'll submit to Sephiroth and become like him." Sora said. Shuku stopped writing and looked at what she had done. All arrows pointed to the name Sephiroth.
Ashley was kept in a small cage. It was barely enough room for her wing. She watched Tifa pace back and forth.
"Miss Tifa, are you okay…?" Ashley asked.
"Yes I'm fine, but Cloud was acting strange a while ago. I seriously didn't want to do this." Tifa kneeled down eye level with Ashley. "So how did this happen?"
"I suppose it happened because I couldn't make up my mind over light or darkness. Or to be with Riku or Xehanort…"
"Isn't he dead?" Tifa questioned. It seemed like everyone but Ashley already knew what had happened to Xehanort.
"Yes, he is."
"Shouldn't that make the choice easy? I know Riku. He hangs out with Sora, right?" Tifa sat down next to the cage, relaxing.
"Yeah, Riku does." Ashley put her hands on the bars, looking like a jail bird.
"Heh, even though Riku submitted himself to the darkness, it was all for Sora's sake. Riku is the most courageous person I know, other than Cloud." Tifa smiled at Ashley. Ashley believed she had made a mistake to try and be more like Riku's former self.
"I've burdened him so much…" Ashley bowed her head. "You've helped me decide what I'm going to do."
"What are you going to do, huh?"
"Rid Riku of this burden. If I submit to the darkness he'll forget about me." Ashley's reasoning was becoming tainted.
"I don't think that would make Riku fo—Gyaah!" Tifa was broadsided on her neck causing her to fall unconscious. Ashley looked over.
A tall platinum-haired man stood before her. He was dressed in an all black tailored suit. He possessed the legendary Masamune. A fall at his hands would mean death for all eternity. Most importantly, he donned a single black wing. His blue eyes looked at Ashley.
"I knew you'd be some where in this place." His voice was calming. Ashley didn't say anything. "They have my prize locked away. Duck down." He told. Ashley lowered her body and Sephiroth took a graceful swing. He grabbed the top of the cage and threw it off like it was a feather. The steel landed on the ground making a square crater. He held his hand down to her.
Ashley reached up and took it, sliding through the now flimsy bars. Sephiroth sheathed his sword. He grabbed her face with his thumb and forefinger.
"Sephiroth…?" She asked.
"The one and only. I had a feeling you'd come to see me." He said looking her face over. "Say 'Ahhh'" Sephiroth said. Ashley did was she was told and opened her mouth. "You're starting to get your fangs. I'm excited." He smiled. Ashley snapped her head away feeling around in her mouth with her finger.
"I was sent here to see you. I have to know… Am I destined to end up like you…?" Ashley asked.
"Don't flatter yourself. Your other wing will come back in due time. Don't compare your short comings with my own because my short comings by far out weight yours." He said turning towards the Restoration Site's exit.
"So… I'm not falling into the darkness?" Ashley was relieved.
"I didn't say that."
"Oh…" That didn't last long.
"I can see you coughed out the crystal that was supposed to be in your bones." Sephiroth commented.
"Yeah…." Ashley trailed. "Are we going to do this or not?"
"Do what?" Sephiroth wanted her to say it.
"Are you going to take me to the darkness, or what?" Ashley grumbled. Sephiroth put his arm around her leading her out of the Restoration Site.
"I'll do that for you, but first there is some one I want you to meet." Sephiroth smirked about to open a can of trouble.
"She's in Hollow Bastion?" Shuku yelled at the monitor. Cloud nodded.
"Apparently, she's already gone with Sephiroth. They ambushed Tifa." Cloud said.
"Is Tifa okay?" Shuku asked. Shuku didn't know Tifa but she could tell by the way everyone talked about Sephiroth; he had a bad reputation of putting people six feet under.
"Yeah, she's fine. Sephiroth's beef is with me and no one else." Cloud said.
"Did you just say, 'beef'?" Sora questioned.
"You know what I mean. I suggest you guess kick it into over drive and get here as fast as you can. She looked like she had a fighting chance to return to the light." Cloud said and cut off the signal.
"I hate it when he does that." Sora said.
"Tidus, set course for Hollow Bastion!" Shuku commanded.
"Yes ma'am!" Tidus saluted to try and lighten the mood. Shuku smiled.
"Sora, do you know where Riku went?" Shuku asked.
"He's sulking." He said.
"I see. Well go tell him we're going to Hollow Bastion, please." She instructed.
Sora went to a guest quarter that Riku had claimed his own. Sora knocked on the door.
"Yes?" Riku said.
"We found her." Sora said, putting his ear to the door.
"I'll be waiting to arrive. Thanks, Sora."
"Are you crying?" Sora teased.
"…Yes I am." Riku answered. Sora wasn't being serious, but he was shocked that Riku was honest about that. Sora had never seen Riku cry. The thought of Riku crying was just nonsense to him.
"Why?" Sora asked.
"This is all my fault. I did this to her. I should have left her for dead that day."
"Riku, it's not your fault. You did what was right. And you're going to do the right thing again." Sora said, pulling his head away from the door. "Well get some rest, we'll be there soon. And if Sephiroth is really involved you're going to need that energy." Sora walked away. Riku watched space from a window in the room.
"If there is a god, please… Bring her back to me in one piece." He prayed aloud…