And I was saying the interval between The One who had Nothing and Past and Present was long. Now, I could give many, many reasons for that, but that woud only be wasting space and time as you surely don´t want to read about that--and most of them would be a façade anyway. One of them, one of the true ones I might add, is that a heavy rain here rendered both the internet and the T.V. useless. Then we have that the day I finished the document manager didn´t let me upload it.
But I haven´t been all lazy, y´know? As part of my apology for the long, long time to this chapter, I have corrected a few things on chapters 1-3 and added something to every one of them. But they´re not really big, and are not worthy of making anyone reread the chapter just for them, so the only ones who take advantage of this are the ones who haven´t read them before, and therefore haven´t had to wait for this chapter, making a pretty self-defeating bonus/apology. The only one who is sved from this label is chapter 3, in which the edits are actually worth reading and have an impact on the story (and this chapter itself), even if little. And before you go and read them, remember I did those changes a few weeks ago, so if you´re relatively new to the story you read them as their latest forms
But who actually cares enough for this story to worry about the gaps between chapters? Me, obviously.
Man, I had so many titles for this. The Final Farewell, Prelude to Bloodshed, Prelude to Pain, to name the ones that were in the title some time. The list of the ones I didn´t choose to put as title is soo long.
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spazwriter14:What a deception... alright, not really, but as I have said the Final Fantasy franchise really lives up for its name.
Ranma Higurashi:Err...yeah, sorry for taking this small eternity to actually write this... deepest apologies.
DemonSurfer:You´ll have to wait and see... my brain has been poppig up with some gruesome deaths here and there, actually.
Raiveen:Well, thanks to my last summary I got many more reviews than the ones I had before. Although as all my summaries it is adapted from the chapter itself, meaning my last chapter was really good(my current best, probably). Just hoping my current one will have such impact.
RaeDragongirl:As I have told Ranma Higurashi, I am sorry for the long time to update. My hopes are, this chapter will make up for it. Let the story be my apologies, and let your review be your acceptance of them.
Midnight Falls:Now continuing, Midnight Falls.
Mokoshi-chan:The irony of you congratulating my grammar while misspelling the word grammar itself. Anyway, I would not think of leaving the story there, without solving anything at all. Here is my proof.
Flamer and Chaos:Well, then you obviously haven´t read many fanfictions lately. But thanks for the good publicity.
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Disclaimers:I do not own by any means any of the characters, locations, or objects that may appear in this fanfiction.
Notes:"Review, or rot in hell!" for talking, "Review or rot in hell!" for thinking.
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Rebirth Again Chapter Six:Behind Their Masks
"You?" Shouted the silver-haired boy, half in disbelief and half in laughter, much to his friend´s embarrasement.
But that wasn´t the worst of it. Far from it, in fact. Sora could only panic and feel butterflies in his stomach when thinking what would be Riku´s reaction, when he told him whom had he fallen in love with.
"So, who´s the fortunate one?" The day had started out perfectly for Sora. A warm, sunny day with birds singing and his smile even wider than usual... and now it was his own personal hell with flames growing bigger and him falling and falling towards his own end "Mmm?"
"Err... no one... forget it," said the younger boy, with his voice cracking and his eyes escaping the older ones.
"Come on Sora, tell me who," as Sora saw it, he had three options; running away and escaping his friend until Riku forgot, telling the truth, or lying. Riku was faster than him, and there weren´t much places to hide from him, and telling the truth simply wasn´t an option.
"Kairi," he hurried to say, and his eyes fixed on the silver-haired boy to see his reaction, "She´s the one," Kairi was the best choice, thought Sora. He did like her to some point. "She is kind of pretty, after all."
Then he caught something in Riku´s eyes. At first glance he thought it was... dissapointment? But he quickly convinced that´s only what he wanted to believe. That it was his escape from reality. Because that would only happen in his dream world.
"Really?" Riku quickly faked his usual grin. His mask, "Me too."
Sora woke up, in the middle of the night. It had been definitely his personal hell, and even now thinking of it made his smile break. It was now his abstract hell of memory.
That´s how it had begun. Since that day they had fought for Kairi´s love. Sora had convinced himself that he loved her. It had come to the point of him not knowing where fantasy started and truth ended many times. That was now his truth.
He had lost sense of reality. Yet even his fantasy hurt as much as the truth just by knowing it was merely that. Sora wanted to escape; had to run away. But how can you run from reality AND fantasy? Escaping from everything. Fighting and smiling were his ways of escaping both, but then what did he have left?
Nothing.
Sora let out a small sigh. What was he fighting for, anyway? His hands were trembling. He had killed countless creatures--even if they were heartless and nobodies. And for what? For nothing.
His hands had been the end of the Organization XIII, and why? Because he was told to by a wizard, who was told by a mouse, who was told to by an old man who made them and all his troubles in his time of a keyblader. "They were almost humans!" He thought, "...And I am a puppet."
He always pondered how he had been able to pull their deaths while remaining smiling and "happy". Being so cold... he many times thought he was the evil one.
To do it, he demonized them. But most of all, he hated them. A hatred born from the thought that they could not feel, and were therefore immune to all the pain he knew so well.
But now he had witnessed that they could feel, in some way or another. Then why did he fought them again, even when having no reasons to do so, and knowing they could feel?
The question was the answer; he still had no reason. With no reasons or purposes, he could only press on to find them.
He had, after all, been given the opportunity to search for what he had lacked for so long now; a resolution.
And now, all that was going to be reborn again. The rebirth of his darkest moments. Again.
He noticed he was panicking over holding his weapon up again, when a few days earlier he was dying to do it. He had noticed he was but a confused child for a good deal of time, but this was the first time his any of his wishes was fully turned upside-down.
He let out another sigh, and cuddled in his bed to sleep again.
Leon looked towards the ceiling, and then he thought, "This wasn´t the brightest idea."
Due to the long way from where they met and decided how to pass the night, they had taken a long time to reach the gunblader´s house, and the moon was already sailing in the skies.
Both of them entered the house and simply stayed there, a few steps after the wooden, half-open door. After several minutes of silence, one of them broke the silence.
"I am going to prepare a snack. Would you like anything?" Asked the host, mostly feeling it as his "duty", as he started to move to his kitchen.
The blonde guest considered it. Though he didn´t like talking, less to say depending on people, he didn´t quite enjoy feeling hungry either.
"Yes," he finally answered relunctantly.
"What?"
"Whatever."
"Perfect. Come to the table."
Without any words, Cloud found his way through the house and took the seat opposite seat to that of leon. The first thing he noticed was the poor quality of the kitchen. The table had obviously been the prey of bugs, with all the holes it displayed. His chair was missing a leg, so it tilted back and forth. The place in general was a mess; holes and dust everywhere.
Not that he complained, either. It was much better than where and how he had been eating lately. Hell, he hadn´t eaten real food not stolen in months, and almost a year had passed since the last time he had been treated.
After finishing his small inspection on the place, his sight shifted towards thier food. His was a colorful cereal, much to his disgrace, and Leon´s was instant soup. "I guess I won´t be eating real food any time soon..." wihtout noticing, he let a sigh out. The brunnette´s eyes changed from closed to looking at his freeloader for an instant.
When they had both finished eating, Leon went upstairs leaving Cloud alone. Cloud waited there, not doing anything at all, for half an hour before Leon appeared again.
"Follow me," without even bothering changing his expression, he followed.
"That´s your room," Cloud hardly hided his amazement. The room he was going to sleep in was radically different from the rest of the house. The room itself held the gloomy, badly painted, and torn walls, yet the illumination was much better. The bed had sky-colored blankets, which were greatly arranged. As he entered, he also noticed it was warmer.
He turned to his host, who was in his own room. Adding to his surprise, the room was in the worst condition compared to the rest of the house, specially the guest´s room (that he refused to call "his"). It had the most salvaged walls he had seen thus far; the bed had only a white dirty blanket, that was more on the floor than on the bed; and no lights.
"I thought you had bought a new bulb on your way here."
Bad-moodedly, Leon answered "what do you think is lighting your room, imbecile?" the blonde man answered with a harsh look. "I don´t like light anyway."
"And do look like I do?"
"Certainly not, emo boy."
"Bastard."
"By the way, this are your pajamas," Leon tossed the black silk clothes
"Thanks, mom," teased Cloud. Leon ignored him and lay on the bed, not bothering to enter it, "What? You´re not going to change?"
Leon looked at Cloud and a grin crossed his face "Those are my only other clothes, spoiled brat."
"Whatever. Take them, I don´t need them."
"Neither do I."
Cloud threw the clothes aside, turned off the lights and lay on the bed just as Leon, without entering.
From that point onwards, both of them stared at each other, as some kind of unspoken challenge. For Leon, it was a replace to his painful thinking, and a small escape from his mental self-attacking. For Cloud, it was a replace to his fear of not waking up, and a small escape from him cutting himself.
For both, it was a relief.
Leon looked once again on the direction of his host and found he was gone.
Cloud look down to the abyss. He looked up at the skies, letting the heavy rain fall on his face. It was cold, freezing... just like his soul.
"Fitting..."
A shooting star. A small smile drew on his face.
"I wish it... to end quickly."
"This... it´s the final farewell."
He closed his eyes, and took a step forward. This was the end.
Suddenly, he felt pain on his chest.
He opened his eyes and he was floating. His head turned to see he was being hold through a sword of sorts incrusted on his chest.
His blood dripped as raindrops, and he wished to die out of blood loss.
"Why?"
"You are my responsibility. You can die any other night, but not tonight."
"Let me die. You don´t care anyway."
"You are right. I couldn´t care less, but I can´t let you die."
"You know nothing about me, so don´t intrude."
"You are so selfish. And I know enough; you are pathetic."
"What?"
"Even if you weren´t my responsibility, I would not let you die. I can´t stand people like you, people who take the easy path. You think you are the only one who suffers?"
"..."
"I don´t know eactly what you´re going through, but I know that you are a loser. Reality is too much for you, it defeated you, loser."
"Shut up."
"You are not good at living."
"Shut up!"
"As long as you have something you have or wish to do, life is worth it."
"I... have nothing..."
"Weren´t you bidding a farewell? A farewell is not a farewell if you don´t give something or someone a good-bye. Therefore, you have at least one thing you still find precious. If you can hold onto that thing, you might be able to withstand life, and find more precious things and people and ultimately find something not to withstand life; to live it."
"..."
"Die other time. Or are you too weak to stand one day?"
"I... I..."
"I, I, I," sarcastically said Leon, "is that all you can say? You are too selfish. All you do is think about yourself and your own pain; about your past and the things you´ve lost. Never did you stop to think of the present and of the ones around you. The ones who actually care about you are here, trying to help you, but all you can do is isolate yourself and deny their existance!"
"And... isn´t that what you´ve been doing?" Leon´s calm face instantly swifted to a perplexed one. "I´ve been watching you. After you met those cloaked men, you ignored everyone´s help. You denied them and hated them over being there with you. You isolated yourself in your past. You, Leon, are a hypocrite to blame me for that."
"..."
"The only reason why you defeated that feeling of loneliness and hopelessness, is that your dreams actually came true. You found your old friends almost immedaitely after starting to experience that pain. I have coped with this same pain for years, and fought to get back what I lost, and what have I won? Nothing! It´s always me giving to the nothingness. You instead, recovered what you had lost without fighting for it, without facing that pain; merely escaping for years, taking another name and running from your past and your pain! And then the pain caught up to you, and you isolated like me, but unlike me, you did nothing else! You simply... simply..." Cloud at this point, was choking and needed to take a small break from talking. Tears were mixing with the rain. "Did nothing and got everything!"
Leon reflected for a moment; all of Cloud points were true; he, not Cloud, was the spoiled brat, yet he was treating him like garbage. Even more, Leon had noticed Cloud knew him and his pain better than he did. A small smile crept across his face "That´s true."
"I hate you."
"I know. Yet, if I did regain what I had lost, how do you know know you can´t? Most people have precious things that are not truly precious to them. You posess one of the strongest reasons to live; to find somthing truly important to you. The pain it causes you is only a sign of how much you want it," he concluded. "In other words, while many people do not have strong reasons to live, or can´t find them or maybe just cannot recognize them. You however, have something you want. Searching for it, that is your reason to be, your wish to live on. If there is something you desire, then you can live with the hopes that you will someday find it. As long as you can fuel that wish, life is worth it."
"..." Cloud´s rage vanished, and his face now only showed pain and regret. Perhaps the best way to express it, is the face of a man that has made the realization that everything he had believed in was false. Yet perhaps, it only was that Cloud had seen he was a coward.
"Heh. What a way to break the ice. Come, you´ll need the other clothes now, soaked loser."
Leon´s hand grabbed Cloud by his clothes, and his other hand removed the gunblade. He dragged the seemingly dead to the world blonde to the guest´s room. He inserted him on his bed and proceeded to seat on the doorway.
The minutes passed, and the blonde´s eyes finally moved to meet the brunnette´s one.
"Are you going to stay there all night?" asked in a low voice Cloud.
"Yeah."
Cloud didn´t bother to ask why. It was obviously to keep him from suiciding. But the idea had abandoned him moments ago. He turned the other way and closed his eyes.
Zexion looked up to the skies and started to think about the Melodious Nocturne.
At first sight, he was just like any ordinary person from his age--if too smiling. Blonde, stylized hair, and average complexity. Hell, his weapon was the only one not to be looked at skeptically by normal people. Not for melee, not for shooting, not even for fighting. Not a sword or a gun, but a Sitar.
Then there was his attitude. Cheerful, carefree, and bizarre. Yet, these traits, were nothing really special, at least definitely not of a one of a kind.
But then there was his life. Zexion did not know much about his past, but from what he did knew it definitely as not a dream life. Afterwards, he had become a nobody, one that did keep his human form and memories, something no one from what meets the eye from Demyx could have ever accomplished. He was forced--due to circumstances--to join the Organization XIII, an Organization rotten to the core. Additionally, he was the target of the cruelness of many of his fellow members. Torture decoy for Larxene, moving target for Xigbar, subject for punishment for Saïx, and a sacrifice for Xenmas.
The latter was the most persistent. He was the one sent to the misty missions, on which many data on the briefing was obviously lacking, and therefore there was little more than a small peer of what he´d actually be waiting for. A wide array of exploration missions were assigned to him. And when he did not have missions in which there were no clues of his chance survival, he had the most tribial, unepic assigments--many members complained that he spent much time in the castle and too little time in missions, but actually most of the time he was of missions that involved being in the castle, not his fault but Xenmas´s. And Zexion had even seen a chart hidden in the Organization´s main server--which was about the only important thing without a nothing-themed named, as Vexen did not like a creation of his being named by other--, which gave the "real" position of the members, importance-wise. Demyx being the last one--an scapegoat.
A member of the Organization had uncommon appearances. A member´s weapon was for fighting. A member´s attitude was rather stoic, or at least bittersweet.
Truly an enigma.
"Thank you, you´re a great public!" screamed the blonde musician, as he took an old and worn out hat from the floor, and held it in the faces of the few people hearing his late-night performance. "And remember, more munny, more songs."
"You´re going to play music all night? We´re starting the mission officially at 7:00 A.M.," The cloaked Schemer said, before he came out of the shadows.
"But of course not! Only ´till four A.M.," stated Demyx, "it´s the first time I actually have someone who listens to my songs in months."
"There´s not much difference between "all the night" and "until four A.M."," pointed out number six.
"Gee, just because you don´t sleep you think you rule the night, nightcrawler, and besides, there´s only a few minutes left until the four hits the clock, and there is about three years" Demyx told Zexion, and a thought came to his mind, "Nightcrawler... you definitely are Nightcrawler! You are of the night, and you teleport!"
Zexion didn´t even bother asking, and simply answered with a serious look.
"Right... what about this? If you promise to listen one complete song of my choice when we get back at the castle, I´ll go and sleep."
"Fine," answered Zexion, having in mind that having to listen to Demyx after the mission was better than having not having an after the mission. Their success rate was already low, so anything that could made them lower was better avoided.
"Great," said Demyx, as he turned to see his public."You´ve been a great public, this is all for the night," he thanked, and then added, "you never saw or heard any of us."
The two nobodies left, leaving the audience more than confused, with one exception. A man, wearing a hooded coat and a mask, smiled and murmured, "A rather simpathecic duo. Too bad." The man turned and left removing his mask and leaving it for the street as he exitted the alley.
Eventually the people left, leaving the alley wihtout nothing more than a soul. The young man had orange hair, short except for a part that covered his right eye. He wore wird clothes; a sleeveless shirt, and shorts, both of them white and blue. He stayed there until he noticed the sun would already be showing there if it was not for the rain. "Damn," he said, making a small glimpse of his vampire-like teeth and long tongue with a ring possible, and ran away.
"Hey, Zexion," Zexion ignored him, so he went on, "don´t you think this mission is boring?" lazyly asked Demyx.
"The mission has not started yet. But I do have to admit we were dispatched too early," Zexion admitted.
"Well, it´s better to have some free time here than having to stand Xenmas´s god complex," the musician told the other nobody. "The worst of it is everyone just feeds it. They do whatever he says and beleive what he tell them to believe."
"True. However, you are using them while you yourself do that as well."
"Wrong. I do obbey his orders, I do not believe in his lies. I know we all have hearts and can feel emotions," corrected Demyx. "But you do believe him, right Zexy?
"Yes."
"But we do have them! For example, when I talk and talk Xigbar gets annoyed. Or when I am congratualted I feel proud. Or when Xenmas loses he feels furious."
"You contradict yourself."
"Huh?" Demyx confused replied.
"That day, you said you valued me more than your non-existent life. Yet, if you do believe we have hearts, then you believe we do exist."
"Um... well."
"You were substracting the value of your own life. You always do it," accused Zexion.
"Not true!" Demyx defended himself.
"It is," Zexion persisted, "you always claim you´re the weakest member of the Organization, and you always claim that "they send the wrong guy" yet in most of those missions you volunteered."
"Er..."
"Demyx, the value of oneself is determined by those around one, not by oneself. However, there exists the truth and your truth, which is whatever you want to believe. You may find it easier to accomplish tasks if you lower your own value, or if you take what others believe of you as the truth. But the truth is, your existance is worth more than mine."
Demyx thought of it for some time, and his bewildered face soon turned into a smile. "And how do I know that is not your truth?"
"Exactly. You can´t. Your worth, for you, is what you want it to believe. However, the closest truth to the true one is the one found comparing yourself with others, and not what they say. Remember, your own value is as existent as us. The true value is what you want it to be; how you accept yourself and others; how you see reality." Thinking of it, this WAS the longest thing Zexion had ever told anyone.
"Whoa... that is some speech." Demyx thought of it, and found it was true. Yet finding his own value was not the only thing he had to do, and for some time in the future, he would still need his current truth; his sub-esteemed value. "BUT, we were talking about my emotions--I mean, our emotions-- I mean, the nobodies´ emotions. Yeah tat´s it. Not about my value or the true value or that crap.
"Right. Machines."
"What?"
"We are like machine. We´re "programmed" to react as if we still had emotions. Our emotions are like the artificial intlligence; they are made to resemble emotions and intelligence, but they are false and work only the way they´re made to work. Unlike people with true emotions, we can only feel what we´re supposed to feel."
"But we do feel! There, you´ve just said we feel. Really, there should be more people who rebel the superior and his god complex. More like Marluxia," Demyx resumed.
"But you feel it too, right? The "emotions" we feel, they´re different from the emotions other feel. They are not emotions."
"Yeah, but-"
"Enough," Zexion silenced him, "you are supposed to sleep."
"Right. Just one detail: The. Streets. Have. No. Beds!"
"So?"
The only female member of the Organization woke up in the middle of her slumber, feeling in the mood for having snack almost as much as she was for torturing number nine--which, unfortunately for her wasn´t close. Either way, she made her way to the kitchen to find another member already preying on the food.
"Hey there," saluted the nobody.
"Weren´t you assigned on a mission?" Inquired the oblivious Larxene. "You know, taking those new breeds to Pinky and the Brain."
"That, I already did," snapped Axel.
"So quickly?"
"Well, you know what they say," Axel mocked, "nobody´s perfect."
"Hey, you´re not the only one who´s not existent here, y´know?" a voice cut in. "And you´re too emotional to be THE nobody to take that phrase. You could get away with that when talking to those creepy creatures across the universe, but that ain´t the case."
"Xigbar, my old friend. Good to see my bad sleeping habits are not the only ones around."
"Axel, lookin´ good, dude," Xigbar entered the room. "Gotta have some speed to be here already."
"What is all this about?" yet another voice entered the conversation. The blonde bearded nobody entered the room slowly. "A club of sorts?"
"Nah, we´re just here ´cause we´re all hungry!" cried the red-haired nobody. "But seriously, is this some kind of "Organization XIII Night Life"? Remind me of demanding Xenmas a sleep medicine one of these days."
The blonde nobody made a small sound, and proceeded to his room.
"If not for a late-night snack, why g´ttin´ outta bed this late?"
"Restroom," answered quickly number VIII. "Now, reassuming our left conversation interrupted by greetings and the casino man, what was that about I being emotional?
"Y´know, the boy. The kiddo Roxas."
"Oh yeah, Roxas my darling," sarcastically said Axel.
"Laugh it off, pedophile," Xigbar said, making sure to add emphasis on the word pedophile. He left the room, laughing a little. His voice could be heard saying "heh, pedophile."
The savage nymph left the room, also laughing a little. "Later, Axy." Axel was left alone.
"Is there anybody who came here for a snack?" dramatically exclaimed Axel, and remained silent as if waiting for an answer. "On a second thought, I take that back. Is there nobody who came here for a snack?"
The Cloaked Schemer reached the dark, humid alley where he and the Flurry of Dancing Flames were supposed to meet. The place held no existance besides himself, though that really meant there was no existence there. It did not surprise him however, Axel was not a trustworthy person. Axel being where he was supposed to when he was supposed to was by far too much to expect.
Zexion quickly noticed a small note floating on a small puddle. He took it up and anlyzed it; it was still legible, to his perception skills at least.
"Hey! What does that note say?" The Melodious Nocturne peered through his fellow nobody´s shoulder.
Zexion finished deciphering the stained ink on the note, and read it aloud. "Sorry for not being--here to meet you that is. I had important stuff on my agenda, so I left the new breeds and left. As my apology, I left an special gift along the way. With "all due respect", Axel."
"Liar. I stole his Agenda just before leaving, and he had nothing to do for a good time," stated Demyx, mildly angered.
"I suppose he´s more of an improvisation person. But there are more important things to take care of right now. The new breeds are roaming free," noticed Zexion, and teleported to get a better view.
"Hey, wait!" Demyx followed.
Number nine reached Number six, at the top of the abandoned castle, from where the whole town could be seen. "Holy shit."
The town was being salvaged--a few corpses could be seen, many houses were ignited, and thousands of heartless and nobodies rampaged. Even from the castle, a few screams could be heard.
"They may not be under our command, but they are doing what they´re meant to anyway... as puppets tied by the strings of their destinies."
"Where did all those heartless come from?"
"Look more closely. The new breed is calling them," the Cloaked Schemer pointed, and he pointed at the white floating cloaks, whose only physical trace was the eyes glimmering purple in the darkness of the cloak. "How opportune."
"Yeah, not your everyday nobody. I mean, not even I can summon heartless!"
Zexion looked Demyx coldly, and uttered "not only that--and you should learn to summon them, you´re the only one of the Organization not able to. But the fortunate thing is..." The cloak nobodies evaporized out of the town from one second to another.
"Hey, where´d they go? Any idea?" Demyx turned to see his companion, and found a pair of purple eyes looking at him coldly. Demyx jumped backwards by reaction, and souted, "what the hell?"
"As I thougth," proclaimed number 6, a purple lust emanating from his unseen eye, "this are my liege."
"Well," started Demyx, "I may not be able to summon heartless, or summon nobodies that can summon heartless, but I can summon these!" His hand raised and called forth his blue sitar, and then he made a single loud note, to which many dozens nobodies answered.
"I already knew that."
"Whatever," dismissed the melodious nocturne. "Dancers! Let´s join the party!" As he finished his order, he approached the edge of the building running and jumped from the several-stories high castle, an action all his Dancer nobodies imitated. "Later Zexy!"
His fall was eased by his own water spell, and soon he found himself playing stand-alone notes, each one forming and exploding huge bubbles, adding to the riot. "Woohoo! This is fun!"
Zexion watched closely, and finally told himself, "simply watching him is not an option. The time has come, to test my liege." He teleported along with his nobodies, to the town, or rather, to the battlefield.
The young keyblader thrusted his trustworthy key in the back of the huge and fat heartless, action that resulted in the bane of the creature, and then he decapitated a pair of Neoshadows that jumped onto him. He made his way past a few dozens of Shadows and Soldiers, into the house of the leader of the Radiant Garden Restoration Committee. Just as he crossed the doorway a huge something pushed him backwards violently. There was a loud sound, and the house´s roof was cracked, making the top of a towering tree stand high over the house. Sora took a second to examine himself, finding that he still was virtually unharmed. He examined whatever was that had hit him, just to find out it was a root. Sora carefully made his way past the root and into the destructed house.
-
Sora had had some time trying to sleep. He still had some chance to, as the room still was pitch dark. He still could not stop thinking, when he heard something. Distant at first, the sounds became louder and louder until he was sure it was not just imagination, or the rain starting to fall heavier. A final sound, a prolonged silence--not counting the rain--, and then finally the wall behind him fell apart. Many pieces of wood landed over the brunnette, though he was quick to break them with his Keyblade. He looked at the missing wall, as the rained bathed him. "The hell with that?"
"Gwash, Sora, this house is falling apart," noticed the royal knight.
"Hey!" Yuffie complained, "when you are invited somewhere, you don´t go there and complain about the place!"
"Let me sleep," ordered the royal wizard.
"Hey, is everyone but him fully awake?"
"Yeah," answered both Sora and Goofy. "And it´s not like I´m going to sleep with crumbling walls and the rain falling in my bed crushed by the wood," added Sora
"Great," said the ninja, as she took out a small ball from her pocket, and threw it to the ground. An intense light dispersed the darkness of the room for an instance.
"TURN OFF THE LIGHTS!" Donald jolted out of his bed. Everyone would have laughed, normally, but they did not.
"I-I-I´m blind!" Exclaimed Sora, as he tried to find his hands. "My eyes hurt!"
"First of all, how do you know, if the place is too dark to see?"
"I could watch my hands before," Calmly said Sora, trying not to concentrate on the irritation in his eyes.
"Right, right. That´s why I call em flash greneades. Don´t worry, it wears off after awhile--but shut up and listen! I know why the wall broke."
"Because you´re poor, right?" figured Goofy, who despite being blind was as easygoing as ever.
"No! Shadows!"
"Shadows? You´re now blaming a bodyless thing," Donald told her, innerly laughing of all of them for being blind.
"No, idiots! Not shadows, Shadows," corrected Yuffie, not noticing the capitalization was impossible to distinguish by mere speech. After a few seconds, se noticed and made herself clear. "As in, you know, heartless. They´re eating the house. MY house."
"Impossible. I would have seen their shiny yellow eyes."
"They have no eyes."
"Riiiiight... You want me to believe that some eyeless versions of Shadows are eating wood instead of going for our hearts," Sora made his point, taking note of the conduct of the heartless.
"Exactly. Look, if you don´t believe me, Sora, let´s do this. Donald will be looking to the ceiling, and then I´ll throw another flash in the mix, and the result will be proving my point. And a blind Donald."
"What?"
"I accept."
"What?"
"Donald, look at the celing." Mumbling a few words, the duck moved his head upwards. The beam of light exploded and filled the room for the second time.
"So? Are there heartless or not?" Goofy was quick to ask.
"Y-yeah," answered Donald trying to hide his scared face--not that anyone could see it.
"Told ya!" Yuffie remarked, ignoring the fact that they were surrounded by a mutant form of heartless, and blind.
"What should we do now?"
"Well, since we´re blind, it´s still to dark to see ´em, and they´re only eatin´, we should wait ´till we can see and ´till the ight comes on." While never seeing or talking in a way that made it notorious, Goofy was one of the best in proposing ideas.
"Good idea." Everyone nodded thought nobody saw it. But before any of the three could regain a healthy eyesight, the ceiling broke and fell on them. Sora backed off and erraticaly swinged his keyblade over him, action that in fact prevented a few heavy wood pieced broke his head.
"Yuffie! Don-" Sora was interrupted by a shadow, which jumped on him and made him fall to the ground. The perfectly round face of the heartless "broke" on the front, to become a mouth. The cold breath of the creature crashed in the keyblader´s face. Soon, more breaths joined. Sora gathered is strenght and shaked all of them off, at time to have nothing more than thorn clothes. "Go away!"
The boy ran frantically through the hole on the wall, only to find another building´s wall. His nose made a cracking sound and blood came out of it, but it was quickly wiped away by the rain. He stood up again and continued his way. Before long another thing got in his way, but this time it was more soft.
He examined the curved surface of whatever it was with his hand, and realized what it was. "Crap!" he sputtered, and moved out of the way. The atmosphere got warmer, as the fire came out of the Fat Bandit. Sora connected a hit on it, and quickly moved away. He kept on moving around to evade the creature, but this proved inneffective as in no time he had lost his sense of direction. The Fat Bandit somehow felt Sora´s lost of direction, and took in as much air as it could, preparing for an infernal flame. Meanwhile, Sora thrusted randomly, hoping to get damage on the heartless.
the Fat Bandit, prepared to exhale, and death infected the lonely street. The heartless fell on the cold, humid floor, and faded the away. A new shadow approached the confused boy, and the helid feel of steel soon reached his throat. Sora froze, and soon the cold sweat joined the raindrops falling slowly down his face. The shadowy figure smiled, and then said "Boo."
"Say what?" Escaped the frightened keyblader´s lips. The shadow began to laugh, and pulled its kunai away from Sora´s neck. It took up its main weapon and accomodated it on its back.
"You should have seen your face," it said in-between laughs, "you were like, almost crying."
"Shut up. You couldn´t see my face ´cause you´re blinded, too," Sora said, and a smile of relief twitched in his face, "Yuffie."
"Well, yeah, but I can imagine it. But seriously, you were doomed. Someone as important as you should learn to use other senses, as me, the great ninja."
"Where´s Donald, and Goofy?"
"Dunno. We got separated."
"I´m looking for them." Sora leapt forward, his face turning solemn, but was interruputed by the ninja´s arm. "Yuffie, what are you doing?"
"What are YOU doing? Are you crazy?" The ninja closed on the keyblader, and made eye-to-eye contact--though once again, it was pointless, for both were blind. "You were about to die to a Fat Bandit. The whole town is infested with heartless-
"More reason to look for them!" interrupted Sora, who was growing desperate.
"Let me finish. And you want to look for them? You´re going to get killed."
"So are they!"
"I´m not sure about them dying out there, but I´m sure you are if you insist. You´re going to stay here until you remember--I mean, recover your vision."
"I don´t care."
"Look, if you die, then they lose one reason to live. And they´d be happier knowing you lived on than knowing you died because of them," reasoned Yuffie.
Sora looked´ away, as a scolded boy, and finally agreed, "fine."
"Great. Finally. Now, while you wait there, I´ll take care of nearby heartless. Just tell me when you recover your vision," Yuffie explained, and she swiftly was eliminating the Shadows--both with and without eyes--and Neoshadows from the walls.
After some twenty minutes, Sora finally did as he was told to. "That´s it. I can see. Can I go now?"
The giant shuriken flew to him, yet Sora made a split-second reaction and blocked it. He was moved a few centimeters back, and the weapon fell to the ground with heavily. "What was that for?"
"I wanted to check if you were telling the truth," was fast to respond Yuffie.
"And what if I wasn´t ?"
"Mmm... didn´t think of it that way..." Yuffie said innocently, and concluded, "...but it didn´t happen, so there´s no point worrying about that."
"Now what?" wondered the keyblader aloud.
"Now, we´re going to gather everyone, and drive these monsters out of here! Luckyly, we have the fact that everyone is in town."
"Not Cloud and Leon," pointed out Sora.
"Dammit. Well, guess you´ll have to go for them."
"ME? Why me?"
"Well, you owe me one. Please Sora! I swear I´ll look for the duck and the other animal."
"I guess I don´t have much option. Alright, I´ll do the boring job."
"What? Boring? look at that." The young ninja carried Sora over a wall, and then she showed him the direction towards Leon´s house--a road plagued with heartless of all sorts. Heartless marching like soldiers on a war. "Soldiers marching to their death," Sora assured himself.
"Alright, we´ve wasted enough time, let´s get goin´!" Sora leapt forward as Yuffie leapt backwards, and each took a separate way.
Sora dashed through the now slightly less dark and rainy streets, mostly ignoring the heartless except the ones that were on his way.
Eventually he saw a round heartless blocking the allyway. "Perfect," he murmured excited. He threw the keyblade, which spin many times and finally was thrust into his enemy´s chest. Sora moved towards him furiously; each step splashed the walls with the water on the floor. He reached his enemy and jumped. His feel landed on his own keyblade, and he immediately impulsed himself up. He grabbed his keyblade by the keychain which was moved upwards by the force of the air as he jumped. He assured his weapon firmly in his hands and fell. The creature could do nothing more than looking at his own death. The keyblade tresspassed the face of the heartless and sticked out on the other side, and the Fat Bandit was no more. Sora made a confident and show-off smirk, and reassumed his way.
Yuffie, on the other hand, eliminated as many heartless as possible--it was her town we´re talking about after all--on her way.
-
"Are you sure we should be doing this?" asked the cloaked figure.
A rather high-pitched voice anwered, "The real enemy will reveal itself soon enough. The best thing we can do now is protect the Gummi Ship and eliminate what heartless we can."
"Hey," another figure wearing a cloak entered their sight range, "we nobodies don´t like being referred to as it regardless of how you use it." The nobody smiled cockyly and his nobodies appeared behind him.
"Yo! Nice to see you again!" Yuffie exclaimed enthusiasthically, and the nobody screamed nervously. "Demyx!"
Demyx calmed down and began his "cool attitude". His voice, now notably deeper, could be heard saying "How very convenient, I can take down so many enemies at once."
"We´re three against one," said the other cloaked man, taking off his hood, "and two of us are stronger than you."
"Hey!" immediately reacted the ninja.
Demyx shaked his finger from side to side. "You are wrong." The melodious nocturne´s eyes harshed into a menaceful look. "The three of you are stronger than myself. I think..."
"You´re a moron," said the unhooded man.
"No. I´m a Demyx. It´s basicly the same but... oh well, nevrmind. I still have my small army of dancers. And..." number nine raised his hand high in the air and gave another confident smirk. His hand went down in a split-second and a single harsh note was made. The Gummi Ship´s pieces were blown away, as a water explosion synched with the note. "...You´ve got no ship!"
"You bastard!" Riku summoned Way to Oblivion, and prepared to kill Demyx. Yet before he could advance, three individual notes were played by the musician, and three explosions made him fall to the ground.
"Oh yeah, did I mention that this rain gives me like, an awesome advantage? Well it does. And I still have my nobodies. And you´re oh so screwed up," Demyx laughed. Yet as he was about to touch another note, a thunder fell right next to him. "Ahhh!"
"Now surrender or die." the anthropomorphic duck threatened and held his staff menacingly.
"I... don´t think you are in position to say that," started Demyx nervously, and continued proudly. "I have the upper hand! You are no match for my art."
"Individual notes? Your art is of bad taste," mocked Riku.
"Wrong. This art," Demyx said, "is a bang!"
"Cloud! Leon!" Sora yelled as soon as he entered the house.
"Sora!" The deep voice from the second room anwered. Sora smiled and made his way to the second floor, which was plagued by heartless and... plants?
"Leon, the heartless are invading the town!" Sora announced, just as he saw Leon fighting off the heartless of the floor. "Huh? Where´s Cloud?
"I killed him."
"Wha-what?" Sora cried out in disbelief.
"Idiot," Leon said and gave a smirk. He then pointed to a balcony on a room.
"Over there?" Leon nodded and Sora went over to the balcony, which had a small stairway to the roof. He climbed it and when reached the roof, which had the top of the true that had grown in an instant under the house, more plants, Creeper Plant heartless, Cloud, and a cloaked man.
Cloud and the cloaked man were fighting, or at least Cloud was. The cloaked person was simply evading the attacks and waiting for the heartless to fight for him--and every plant and every leaf fallen from the tree was becoming one as the blonde exmercenary passed near it.
"Finally," the cloaked nobody muttered as soon as he saw Sora, and he took out a small round and black object from his sleeve. He threw it to the ground and the smoke formed a dark portal. The cloaked man then stepped into the portal. The heartless teleported away.
"You´re not getting away," Cloud said determined, and he threw himself into the portal. Sora wondered what he should do, following them or not.
"Sora." Leon calmly walked towards him. "Where´s Cloud, and the heartless?" Sora pointed to the portal.
"Should we enter?"
"The heartless have dissappeared here, but we don´t know of the town. Will this portal last until we can come back?" asked Leon. Sora shaked his head. "Then let´s go to the town."
"What about Cloud?"
Leon coldly replied, "he was not with us. He had only agreed to help us, but whatever his decisions are they do not concern us. He´s more of the lonely type anyway."
"But we can´t let him just go away!"
"Sora, he was not your responsibility," Leon said, and just before Sora could argue, he said, "he was mine. You´re not going to be able to concentrate in fighting if I leave that loser, right?" Before Sora could answer, he went on, "then go and save the world in peace. I´ll go for the spoiled-brat." Leon entered the dark portal.
"Wait-Leon wait a sec!" Sora grabbed the back of Leon´s jacket as he jumped in the portal, unfortunately pulling him in as well.
"Dude, is it just me or are these lamers endless?"
"y´er complaining too much, kiddo," said the man as he spinned his lance. It´s been years since I´d do this much xercise."
"Instead of talking, it´d be better to concentrate on figthing."
The six of them were surrounded by the heartless. The Cloaked Schemer was simply watching them, taking notions on his liege. When he decided it was enough, he simply raised both of his arms. The Dragoon and Dusk nobodies added to the army of creatures assaulting the somebodies. The other hand made a dark passage appear, and he stepped in.
Auron took a sip of his sake (A.N. I know he doesn´t have it in KH. Now he does.) and spit fire to the nobodies and heartless. The creatures rolled on the floor hopelessly and scorched. He took the chance before more came to take their place, and hurried to the recently-opned portal.
"What are you doing?" asked indignated Seifer, as he saw Auron running.
"ESCAPING," answered his fellow comrade Fuuijin.
"I know."
"We won´t be any help if we die. And besides, our main goal is the Organization XIII," explained the legendary guardian, just before he entered the portal.
"He´s right... hey wait!" Seifer followed.
"Please, wait!" The red-haired girl skipped a few heartless that were already taking the position of the dead ones, and she too entered the portal.
Before the other three of them could pass they were already surrounded again by heartless and nobodies. A Dragoon nobody threw its lance to Fuujin, who was looking to the other side. But a few moments before her death, Cid blocked the lance with his own. The portal dissapeared. "I´ll show ya who´s da lance master!"
As if taken up the challenge, all of the Dragoon diverged their attention to him. The lances flew and he blocked them swiftly, the fell down on him on he impaled them. "Look out!" Cid turned but it was too late. The lance pierced through in-between his eyes. The cocky man fell back still with a smirk--though the lance made it impossible for him to reach the ground. And in the next moment more lances from everywhere joined it, making fifteen lances piercing his body in total--yet from the first he was already dead.
The rain was now noticeably lighter, and the battle was remarkably heavier. After several minutes of fighting, Riku, Mickey, Yuffie, Donald and Goofy had vanquished most of the Dancer nobodies, but Demyx was stilled unharmed. On the other hand, they were all losing much blood.
"See? I´m owning you five at once. Am I not just awesome?"
"No," was quickl to respond Riku. "And you´re about to lose. Your advantage is clearing away."
"Oh, you´ll see! I will anhilate every one of you." Demyx smirked and raised his hand, but then said, "well, maybe not you. You´re from those islands, right?"
Confused, Riku answered weakly, "y-yeah?"
"Great! Could you get me some of that star-shaped fruit?" Demyx begged.
"Star shaped fruit? You mean... the Paopu fruit?"
"Well, I don´t know what it´s called like," admitted Demyx, "but it sure is delicious. I guess it´s quite exotic and famous where you come from."
"Gotta be kidding me," Riku whispered. "The Paopu is famous back there, though not because of the its ts flavor. It´s because of its legend."
"Legend, huh? Interesting," Demyx imitated Luxord´s signature stance.
"The legend says that if two persons share a Paopu fruit, their destinies become intertwined forever."
"WH-WHAT?" Demyx looked away in hopes they wouldn´t notice the blush on his face, failing to notice putting on his hood would be much more effective.
He returned his atttention to the fight a few seconds too late. He did not have time to react. Half of his left arm fell to the floor, and of the other half the blood poured out almost as a fountain. He didn´t quite scream, but he did say "fuck!"
"Now that´s an opening, Paopu boy," mocked Riku, as he prepared Way to Oblivion for another strike.
Another emotion came to him. Fear. But it was different... it wasn´t his fear. This fear, he wasn´t making it happen... it was... true fear? "No way," he thought. He had lost that fear even before he became a nobody. He had accepted death, and he had nothing to lose. Then why? Why was cold sweat moisting his face and combining with the rain?
Then it struck him. "But the truth is, your existance is worth more than mine," he remembered, the words impacting him even more than the first time. All what Zexion had told him sounded in his head over and over. Whatever it was, something had made him give him and his life more value to himself. He didn´t bother trying to wonder what; there´d be time for that later.
But he wouldn´t if he died. He vanished his sitar, opened a portal, and took the half of his arm which was surrounded by a small growing pond of blood.
"Oh no you won´t!" Riku yelled, but when he swinged his keyblade he only hit the nothingness of the dark portal. "Come, let´s follow him!"
"This is fun!" thought out loud Yuffie, as she entered the portal first. Then the king followed, but before Donald and Goofy entered, he stopped them."
"Go find Sora," he ordered, "he must be looking for you." Before they could argue, Riku entered the portal.
"Now I fear the death," the melodious nocturne thought. "What has changed?"
End of Chapter Six
Great. Now I killed myself(Yeah, the one who had my name in FFVII was Cid Highwind). But anyway, we´re at an interesting point, right? Demyx has lost his arm, and now really fears death, another character has died, the "good" ones are scattered, Radiant Garden is about to get ruined, and we have a member of the Organization in the operation that we don´t know who he is(well, I do, of course!) acting by himself.
This has to be my favorite chapter as of yet. Half of the chapter the characters were arguing about some sort of deep psychological stuff. It´s true what they say, might I add; Neon Genesis Evangelion does screw up your mind! It is pitiful to have watched such a good series only until recently, I know.
Talking about long chapters! It is credited mostly due to the fact that I have begun to as of this chapter to have the chapters as I envisioned them; no splitting thm into to. Had I done this from the beginning, this´d be chapter 4 I guess. Anyway, I truly hoped you liked this chapter, and I hope it was worth the time it took me--forever...
Oh yeah! I had many references to stuff in here. I´m sure there was fanfic called The Abstract Hell of Memory. Demyx saying he´d only be ´till 4 A.M. when he had to wake up at 7:00 was a reference to myself. It was 3 something A.M. as I wrote that and I had to wake up at 7:00 A.M. But I wanted to advance the story more. Demyx telling Zexion he was Nightcrawler is a reference to X-men. The man that stayed in the alleyway for a long time is in fact a form of foreshadowing(read the preview and you should know from where he is). Larxene calling Z&D Pinky and the Brain, well, that´s self explanatory. Axel´s "Organization XIII Night Life" is a play on Saturday Night Live. Demyx saying his art is a bang is a reference to Deidara, from Naruto part II. And there might be more I didn´t remember or saw while reading it after I had finished.
See you at the next chapter.
Preview of the next chapter:
Three groups, three nobodies. But who is this third nobody? And who´ll be the fourth one? And most of all, what is a Ryoka? Zexion and Demyx get backup, and Demyx wonder what has changed since his last battle with Sora.