Hello. It is indeed the second chapter. Glad you're reading. Thanks.
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Chapter 2 – Shadowed
It was completely dark at first. But then, as he felt himself rising from the dark depths, light filtered from above. He turned his head slowly to the right and saw nothing but the darkness. A small shaft of light cut through the dark, and he stared back up. His red hair flowed behind him as he felt himself drift upwards. The light got brighter as he moved slowly upwards, until he suddenly felt himself jerk upwards.
There was a splash, and the cold air hit him.
Water. Was his first thought. His next instinct was to get out, but he found himself being carried by the waves. Then he felt himself hit hard ground, and saw brown particles of sand.
A beach. Then he felt a small shadow move over him. He tried to look up, but he was too tired to do so, and fell into a sleep.
"I think he's waking up." A blurry voice ran through his head.
"Are you sure it was a good idea to do this?" another asked. "I mean, he is a pyromaniac."
"…Will you guys shut up, please?"
Axel struggled to open his eyes, but when he did, he only saw black.
Oh god, am I going blind? He screeched in his mind.
But he found it was only a cold towel covering his eyes. Giving a sigh of relief, he moved his hand to take the towel off, but found it off in a second. He turned around and looked upwards to see an extremely concerned Namine.
"There, he's up. I told you so." She said, turning around to stick her tongue out at Kairi, who only frowned.
Putting his hand to his head, he groaned slightly.
"Where the heck…what…" he moaned groggily.
"No, no, you're in no condition to move. Get back down and sleep." She ordered, and pressed his head down on the floor, or in this case, the soft but slightly stiff pillow.
"No, I want answers. I don't need to sleep, ok?" he nearly shouted, but earned a glare from Riku, who was eating something.
"Hey, stop making such a ruckus, I'm trying to drive here." Sora shouted from all the way across wherever they were.
"Drive?" Axel mumbled confusedly.
"This darn Gummi Ship Cid gave us. It's terrible! How long has he had it?" Sora yelled back as the ship suddenly started rattling.
"You hungry?" Namine asked, turning her attention back to Axel, who had now sat up, in a slight daze.
Shaking his head, Namine left him alone again, just to return with a first aid kit. Axel turned around and saw his hand, which was now bleeding once more.
"What?" he muttered in shock.
Namine pulled the injured hand over and began patting it with some cool liquid. Several minutes later, the liquid seeped in and began the recovery process, and Namine lay it down.
"Yeah, while you were unconscious, Sora was an idiot and accidentally dropped you on the floor." She laughed momentarily before growing serious again. "Your wound from something reopened, so we didn't have time to heal it at the time. Earlier I applied some of that Elixir on you, but it wasn't very effective. So yeah, we stole Cid's Mega Elixir."
"You know, you didn't have to go through all that trouble for a nobody like me." Axel said, surprised that he was easily carrying conversation with the girl who had once been their captive in Castle Oblivion.
"No, no, Kairi wouldn't allow it because you saved my life." She laughed. "She figured it was a very bad fever. If you hadn't decided to come along and barge in, she probably would have been…"
Namine suddenly stopped and bit her lip. "Well I get the point." Axel said quickly.
A funny silence fell upon the area, until Riku turned around in his chair.
"Sora, do you even know where the heck you're going?" he asked skeptically to his brother.
Sora turned around and made a funny face. "Uh…"
Riku slapped his hand to his head.
"Sora, are you trying to be – I mean, Sora, stop being an idiot." He groaned and slid his hand down. "Please don't land us in the middle of nowhere."
"Well technically we can never be nowhere! There's always somewhere to nowhere! I mean, you can't spell somewhere without a bit of nowhere…" Sora continued babbling until Riku hit his head and told him to concentrate.
The two suddenly bent closer and began whispering. Sora nodded, and began to steer with confidence.
"I say Disney Castle isn't such a bad idea…" Sora sang to himself.
And I don't. Axel thought. If they still remember me, which they probably don't…then I'm screwed. Wait, do they even know me?
"Hey look, I didn't know we were that close to the castle!" Sora said happily, but suddenly frowned. "That does NOT look like Disney Castle."
Instead, they found themselves flying closer and closer to a black towering castle, completely dark and devoid of…well, happiness.
"I think I…" Sora said quietly, and then shook his head. "No way, I never get lost."
"Only in a box you would get lost." Riku added sagely before staring out the window anxiously. "Can't you steer away?"
"Nope. I don't get why, but I can't seem to move the ship anymore. We can only wait now." Sora frowned. "Where's Roxas? Is he still sleeping?"
"Actually yes." Kairi said, coming from out a door. Nobody had noticed she had left, but her entrance had shocked them all. "He's still sleeping in the back. Should I wake him up, now that we're close to landing in unfamiliar territory?"
Sora nodded as they drifted even closer.
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Axel stared quietly after the five siblings as they exited the Gummi Ship. Riku had told him to stay inside, as he was still in no condition for any fighting just in case.
Well sheesh, I'm sure THEY aren't in much of a condition for fighting either… he thought almost furiously.
For some strange reason, there had been an aching in his back for a while now, where the Neo Shadow had sliced him.
Now, since when did Neo Shadows cut people?
The five had now vanished, and the door had closed.
I'm sure there's not much to do now… he groaned to himself.
That is, until he saw a brown book sitting on a table near him.
Picking it up, he examined the title: Namine's Journal. Below the gold words were scratched in red marker: DON'T YOU DARE READ IT!
"Heh…under her kind exterior lays the heart of a demon…" he laughed quietly.
Without heeding the front cover's warning, he opened the journal. Staring at the awful spelling and grammatical errors, he instantly assumed this was when she was very, very, young.
Twoday I saw big bro agian. He look sleepy and got mad when Sora try give him water. I am sad. Why he get mad?
Flipping to the last journal entry, he read:
I'm beginning to forget! I don't get why! But every time I try remembering my oldest brother, his image fades away? Why? I read the past entries, and I remember a bit, but I suddenly forget! I remember few things though, like the time we went to the park, and Roxas tripped him on accident…I mean, it's easy to remember the funny things, but I can't remember anything about him, his eyes, his hair, his face, or anything…I wonder why?
Assuming by the dusty cover, it would seem as if she had just moved it into the Gummi Ship that day. Her handprint was imprinted on the dust.
He flipped the next page, and saw only one hastily written word:
"Moving." He muttered. "So they're moving."
Suddenly he felt something pierce through his mind. A warmth seeped through him, and instantly he knew something was up.
He ran to the door and found it conveniently locked.
"Oh, so they don't trust the pyromaniac huh?" he summoned his chakrams and slashed right through. "Now I wonder why they didn't think I would-"
He stopped as he saw a very panicked Kairi.
"OH MY GOD!" She screamed. "THE OTHERS!"
Axel was out in a flash, racing across the barren ground. The area was like a floating island in the middle of space, the castle being the only thing on it. The footprints from Sora, Riku, Roxas, and Namine were still there.
Obviously they left Kairi to guard me. Wonder what she would have done to me anyways…
He found Kairi running after, looking like a madwoman, her hair flung in multiple directions.
"Get moving!" he shouted as he vanished into the dark door.
Kairi growled, but obliged as she followed.
Wonder what happened -!
The area looked very familiar. As in familiar, VERY familiar.
"What the…" he growled. "This looks just like the Castle that Never Was."
But it wasn't. It seemed almost to be the exact. Everything was reverted. The whole area was raven black, and a large heartless symbol was carved onto the ground of the large room. Two stairs led upwards to a door, and a hall was between the two.
Kairi shuddered.
"Maybe I should stay in the Gummi Ship…" she squeaked, but found herself being pushed by Axel.
"It would be pointless if we kept on being knocked down, one by one. We should stick together, and nothing bad will happen." He said calmly.
Now where did all that energy I felt come from?
He closed his eyes momentarily, and felt a pulse from above in the room overhead where the stairs lead to.
"Up there." He said quietly, and glided up with ease, Kairi chasing behind.
By the time Kairi arrived, Axel had opened the door to see Sora on the ground.
"What…"
"Get out!" he suddenly shouted.
There was a sudden slash through the air, like it was being torn apart. It was followed by a swirl of…
"Petals?" Axel muttered in sudden remembrance. "Marluxia!"
Kairi had raced into the room just to see Axel and his chakrams, blazing and ready for battle.
"Oh, another?" an all-too familiar voice for Axel called out in the dark.
"Axel?" Riku called from where he stood, which was a good length away. With him, stood Roxas, prepared for battle.
There it was. The pink scythe came rushing down on Riku and Roxas, who both jumped out of the way to safety.
"Oh man…" Axel groaned, as Marluxia stepped out of the shadows, his pink scythe looking even…well, pink than usual. Everything looked the same about him.
Same smirk, same pinkish brown hair, same…well, flowers.
"Out of all the people I had to meet…it had to be YOU, Marluxia?" Axel moaned. Roxas turned from where he stood.
"You know this guy?" he asked in amusement.
"You must have it all wrong." 'Marluxia' said, gliding over to Axel and swinging his scythe down. "I have no idea who this guy is."
"Same flower power," Axel sighed as thousands of petals came flying out from Marluxia's fist.
"Ow, ow, ow!" Sora yelled from the floor as multiple flower petals whacked him.
Namine was far across the room, pressed against something, a look of pain on her face. She turned to look at Axel and shook her head while making a zipping motion across her lips.
"Ok then…" he mumbled as he dodged several of the petals that were zooming around. Kairi was hiding behind a black pillar that was slowly breaking on the pressure of the flowers.
The petals receded, and Riku hopped over quickly to strike, only to have his blow deflected by the scythe. Following him was Roxas, who managed to make a blow as Marluxia swung his scythe upward to block Riku.
Stumbling backwards momentarily, Marluxia only got back up and slashed his weapon downward, creating an air current that ripped towards them.
Roxas screamed in pain as the air ripped through him. Riku quickly moved into the way and rolled them out of danger's path.
"You ok Roxas?" he asked, shaking."
"Yeah…but…"
"Look out!" Sora shouted, trying to get back up as Marluxia flew over to the two brothers and slammed his scythe into the floor, making strong shock waves.
Axel moved over quickly and knocked Marluxia over with a chakram, only to get a blow in the face by the scythe.
"Ow…" he mumbled. Whoever this Marluxia was, he still had his old moves. That was one good thing…
A glow suddenly emanated from Marluxia's scythe, before he thrust it forwards. The scythe ricocheted around the room, nearly chopping off a good portion of Riku's hair, nicking Roxas on the shoulder, completely missing Sora, hit the pillar where Kairi was hiding, and finally deflected by Axel. The scythe then flew back to Marluxia.
"I stand corrected." Axel said, then turning around to see the pillar toppling over.
Of course, the next thing he said was not 'Oh dearie me', but instead he ran over to where Sora lay, picked him up, and glided off, where several seconds later, the pillar hit where Sora had been.
"Wheee…" Sora mumbled, and began to sleep.
"What! This is no time for taking little naps!" he shouted in frustration.
Impatience?
In his sudden state of shock that he was feeling again, Marluxia appeared behind him and clipped him good on the shoulder.
The red liquids returned, falling onto the black floor, bit by bit.
Screaming as the scythe sunk deeper, he fell slowly onto the floor. Sora suddenly snapped awake, and jumped over to Marluxia, hitting him on the jaw.
"Come on guys!" he shouted to Roxas and Riku.
Namine was still on the other side of the room, while Kairi was hiding behind the remains of the black pillar.
The three ran up to Marluxia, who had just pulled his scythe out from Axel, who was now lying on the floor in pain.
The feelings…they've never felt so strong…
I don't want to exist. It's too painful…
The blood was slowly receding. The three siblings were putting up their best fight, but it seemed to not be enough.
Axel slowly stood up, and tried to move, before stumbling onto the floor. He looked onto the floor and gasped in surprise. A most familiar symbol was appearing. His blood that had gotten onto the floor was changing into a crystalline form, glowing bright blue instead of red.
A sudden pain rushed through his back. The wound from the battle with the Neo Shadow obviously had taken its effect.
The battle with Marluxia wasn't going as well either. Roxas was now on the floor, a deep cut bleeding slowly onto the floor. Riku and Sora were trying their hardest, and had weakened Marluxia a lot, but it wasn't enough. As Riku continued to fight with his Soul Eater, now in Dark Mode, he fired a blast of dark flames at the other man, who gave a yell.
Sora had run over to Roxas, tried to reawaken him to no avail.
"No time Sora! Just fight!" Riku shouted as he thrust the Soul Eater forward just to have it blocked by the scythe.
Sora took that moment to dash over and thrust his Keyblade into Marluxia.
There was a gagging sound, and Marluxia fell to the ground before fading.
The others were gasping now in exhaust, panting on the floor with heavy breath.
"He…faded…?" Riku growled. "He…probably still…lives then…whoever he is…"
"I don't…like the sounds of him…" Sora panted before collapsing onto the floor.
Kairi ran over to tend to her brothers, and Namine suddenly came running back.
"You guys will never know what happened." She gasped, seeming twice as exhausted as they did for an odd reason.
Axel got up slowly and looked down at the floor in wonder.
The glowing symbol of a Nobody pulsed weakly on the ground where he had fallen.
"What's this?" Sora wondered when he looked over where Axel stood, staring down at the symbol.
"Hey are you paying attention?" Namine shouted furiously at Sora. "I was just saying I found a weird room when you guys were fighting. Well, I found a weird door to be precise, so I tried opening it. But it didn't open…but when that guy faded away, this weird light formed on the door, and these words appeared…"
The group headed over to the 'door', and examined it.
"I don't understand this at all." Riku sighed.
"I don't either." Sora whined.
"Join the club. Neither do I." Axel said.
"I have no idea." Roxas added.
"Nor do we." Namine and Kairi said in unison. "However, I do understand one part of it…something about 'hearts' and 'lights returning to darkness'…" Namine said quickly. She stared guiltily at the floor as if there had been something she had not said.
Sounds familiar. Axel thought to himself.
Then he realized something he could read on the door.
"My name?"
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Not much of a cliffy…but I hope you review…I guess…
Oh, thank you for the kind review…I feel so much inspiration…