Chapter 7, The Worsening

Falling…falling…falling…

Not into darkness. Into some new mess, sure. But not into the abyss. Of course, Vexen wouldn't know this. In that moment, one of many over the past 24 hours, he braced himself for death. It was a strange feeling, this lack of control he felt as he fell from the heavens. It was strange and…familiar. As if he had experienced this before.

He let go of the searing hot gummi that sent them to this new world, ready to give up. This wasn't homethey were falling into. At this rate, home was a faraway concept.

That castle isn't home, Vexen lamented. Home is where you're welcomed and respected. Dare I say, it's where you're loved. He looked to his left to find Larxene nose-diving at breakneck speed, and then to his right to see Demyx floundering desperately, perhaps looking for his lost companion. There's no home for beings like us. Maybe in the next life. Maybe…

Vexen crashed through the roof of an unusually tall building, abruptly ending his reflection. There was another crash immediately following his, probably one of his comrades. His whole body ached with pain, indicating he was still alive. For if Vexen was sure of anything after this adventure, it was that life is pain. Coughing due to the stirred up sawdust, Vexen couldn't say much except for one groan.

"Argh…my skull…" Vexen rubbed his cranium and sat up, wincing. Some gibbering from the pile of rubble next to him caught his attention.

"No, no, no, no, no…" Demyx emerged from the debris, searching desperately for his pet. "He's gotta be here somewhere…"

"He's gone, boy," Vexen said hoarsely, brushing woodchips off his shoulders.

"You don't know that!" Demyx shot back, gingerly getting to his feet.

"He was too far away from the blast," the scientist reasoned, steadying himself against a desk of some kind. "He didn't make it." He spit out a tooth knocked loose from the impact. "Where…where's Larxene?"

Demyx looked around. "I think she fell next to the building." Some hope illuminated his face. "Maybe the Love Monkey is with her!"

"Demyx…"

"I mean, he took a liking to her after that whole pterodactyl thing. It'd make sense!"

"Demyx."

"C'mon, we gotta get outta here and see…"

"Demyx!" Vexen grabbed the boy by the shoulders and sternly stared him down. "The Love Monkey is gone! He's not with us anymore! He stayed in the 1980's and that's that!"

Demyx narrowed his eyes in realization. "He didn't stay." He took Vexen's hands off his shoulders. "You left him there."

"We had to, Demyx. We were running out of time and the Love Monkey bought us some…"

"He didn't have to!" Demyx shouted, marking the rare occasion he ever raised his voice. "There was room behind your shield! I saw it, Larxene saw it, and you definitely saw it. All you had to do was let Larxene behind you so she could do the thing…"

"There wasn't enough time!"

"Lies! All lies!"

Vexen scoffed. "There's nothing we could have done! Hell, things are as they should be now. That animal doesn't even belong in that time period. God knows how much we changed by letting him tag along."

"I thought time travel didn't work that way!"

"I DON'T KNOW ANYMORE! OK?!" Vexen exploded, his whole body heaving. "I don't know anything, apparently! I don't know why someone of my intellect is destined to be debased in everyway possible! I don't know why the only feelings we Nobodies feel is pain and fear of pain! I don't know how you could attach yourself to some rodent and call it your friend!"

"Because he listened!" Demyx screamed, effectively silencing Vexen. "More than any of you black coat losers!" For a moment, the room was quiet, only heightening the tension. Finally, the heartless yet heartbroken musician spoke. "Do you know what it's like to get insulted and mocked on a daily basis? Everyday, I hear I'm a worthless do-nothing. Sometimes, I can't help but laugh at the cruel joke my life is because every time I get called out, I wonder how I even landed this job! Why am I here? Why do I even bother? Is this life? Doesn't matter, though, does it? Because I still go on and do my job because I hope one day, just one, I'll be appreciated." He stepped forward, prompting Vexen to step back in turn. "When you came up to me for your little science experiment, I thought that today was that day! I was so excited, even if I didn't know what was going on." Demyx let out a dry laugh, wiping his lip. "I wasn't discouraged when we landed in dinosaur times. Even though you and Larxene kept bullying me and calling me stupid, there was a silver lining." What appeared to be tears were reddening his eyes. Demyx continued, choked up, "The Love Monkey. It was weird, meeting him. He just clung onto me. I don't know why he didn't run off with his lemur family. Maybe they didn't accept him for who he was, so he didn't mind leaving them." He nodded, smiling somberly. "I guess we had that in common." Demyx paused, carefully considering his next words. "So, yeah. I made friends with some 'rodent.' Ha ha. Demyx made a funny. But at least I had a friend." He shook his head at Vexen, betrayed. "You just lost one."

Demyx turned to leave, limping gingerly.

"Don't turn your back on me!" Vexen staggered after the musician, grabbing him by the hood.

"Get off me!" Demyx tried to escape the scientist's grasp but it was futile.

"No one listens to you, hm? No one listens to you? So it's just flowers and roses for me?"

"I don't wanna hear it, man!"

"No one does!" Vexen threw his arms up in the air, releasing Demyx. "That's the problem! Even when I have your best interests in mind, I'm the villain! I'm the bad guy! Even though you'd be lost without me to guide you, I'm mean and crabby! No one wants to hear what Vexen has to say because even though he's the smartest, he's not the strongest, he's not the youngest, he's not the fastest, he's not even the handsomest! He's just Vexen and Vexen isn't good enough for any world or any time period or any Organization!" He glared at Demyx, fuming. "You think that daily disrespect would make us kindred spirits. But then again, I'm no adorable lemur."

Demyx tilted his head, confused. "We were kindred spirits, Vexen. I called you my friend. And even though you claim to know so much, you don't know what to do with compassion." He leaned forward and hissed, "You're. A. Dummy."

"What is going on in here?"

Vexen and Demyx turned at this new voice to see five cloaked figures standing in the doorway. Each dressed in some kind of animal mask. The one who spoke wore the mask of a unicorn. A taller and broader fellow wearing the mask of a bear stood at his left, and at his right a woman wearing a serpent-mask. Flanking the three of them was a boy in a leopard's mask and a young girl in a fox mask.

"Looks like we have intruders!" The bear-man spoke up. "They're probably searching for a copy of the Book of Prophecies!"

"Uh, no," Demyx replied with a nervous laugh. "It's not like that…"

"Then why are you in the clocktower?" The snake-woman interrupted the sitarist. "You should know this area is off-limits."

"Wow, they made a hole in the ceiling," the leopard-boy pointed out. "Their methods appear to be, um…unorthodox."

"Look, this is just a big misunderstanding," Demyx assured these queerly-dressed strangers. Nervous, he turned to Vexen. "Can you help me out here?"

"What? Me?" Vexen crossed his arms. "I thought I was a dummy."

"Oh, don't do that!"

"Maybe they're right!" The fox-girl chirped. "This could all be an accident or something."

"There are no accidents!" The bear-man roared before commanding the leopard-boy, "Gula! Check the Book of Prophecies!"

"Sure, boss," Gula sarcastically replied as he took a book off a nearby shelf and began to flip through the pages.

"C'mon, Vexen," Demyx pled with the scientist. "You gotta help me out here. These guys seem to be part of some funny cult. They even have prophecies. Prophecies!"

"Seems hypocritical for our cult to insult the other cult!" Vexen sassed back. "Oh! Maybe that culthood would make us friends! It all makes sense now!" He got to his feet and sauntered over to the unicorn-man, proceeding to vigorously shake his hand. "Hello! I am Vexen! I'm the resident genius of my cult. Who might you be?"

The unicorn-man withdrew his hand and turned to his colleagues. "They appear to be mental patients of some kind."

"What should we do, Ira?" The snake-woman asked.

"What we should do with all mental patients gone astray!" The bear-man clenched his fist, triumphantly proclaiming, "ANNIHILATE THEM!"

"Oops!" Vexen shrugged. "I guess I'm not any good with first impressions!"

"What are you doing?!" Demyx asked furiously. "You're gonna get us killed!"

"I'm giving up, that's what I'm doing!" Vexen snapped back resolutely. "Doesn't matter when or where we are, I'm destined to be alone and spat on. Maybe you have some false hope, but I've taken enough abuse over the years, thank you very much!"

"You can't give up! We can still get out of this…"

"And venture off to some other dump where we'll run into more trouble!" Vexen spat, looking very delusional. "I say, we should get out while the going is good."

The fox-girl tapped Vexen on the shoulder. "My friends might think you're crazy, but I don't, sir."

Vexen turned around and bellowed, "WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE?! Won't you just kill us already?"

"See? They even want to be put down," the bear-man crossed his arms, proud of his judgement.

"I still think we should get all the facts," Ira countered.

"I agree with Ira," the snake-woman seconded unnecessarily.

"Man, you are a sad guy," Demyx insulted Vexen. "People call me lazy but you can't even bother to get people to like you!"

"Well, people are trash, Demyx," Vexen countered. "My newest thesis! People are trash! That will get me tenured for sure!"

"Here!" All eyes turned to Gula, who was reading a page from the book. "'Should two crazed mental patients invade the clocktower, eliminate them."

"Well…" Ira smacked his lips. "If it's in the Book of Prophecies…"

"See, Demyx," Vexen wagged his finger. "Our failure is prophesized!"

"Excellent!" The bear-man cheered. "Let's DO THIS!"

All five masked strangers took out Keyblades and prepared for battle.

Vexen and Demyx blinked at this development. "OK, Vexen," the sitarist spoke up, scared. "Is our prophesized failure gonna be a painful one orrrr…"

"I don't know," Vexen answered, pale as a ghost. "I just hope it's swift."

"Hey. Are you dead? If you are, don't answer."

Larxene opened her eyes to find a yellow and blue blur standing over her. Still half-conscious, she wasn't able to articulate words, so instead she grumbled.

"OK! You're alive!" Larxene's vision cleared a bit more, revealing this blur was a girl curiously studying her. "Tell me: are you a shooting star?"

Larxene struggled to speak. "What kind of…stupid question…is that?" She sat up, immediately regretting it. Something was definitely shattered. A rib, maybe? Turned out Larxene had landed on hard cobblestone.

"Well, I saw three shooting stars fall from the sky," the girl explained. "No one believes me, though."

"Three shooting…" Larxene repeated to herself. "That was us." She noticed something lying on the ground not too far away from them. The gummi—that stupid, ridiculous, no-good gummi. "Great," Larxene picked it up, in spite of the pain she felt bending over to do so. "Stuck in another hellhole." She glared at the girl, realizing they shared one thing in common: their hairstyle. "At least it's a fashionable one." Pocketing the gummi, Larxene asked, "Do you have any idea where the other two stars landed?"

"The clocktower, over there," the girl pointed to some absurdly tall structure standing a few blocks from where they were.

"Alright, thanks for the tip, kid." Larxene started to walk away before the girl grabbed her arm.

"Don't go!" She exclaimed. "I need to show you to my friends!"

"The hell?" Larxene retorted, confused. "What, is finding an unconscious woman on the street a merit badge for whatever you call girl scouts?"

"My friends don't believe me," the girl explained. "But if I show them to you, they'll let me into their party."

"Oh." Larxene blinked. "Is their booze at this party?"

"What's booze?"

"Yep. This is a hellhole, alright."

The girl's face lit up with excitement. "Look! There they are now!" She pointed at three kids her age walking out of a shop. One was dressed in an elaborate suit wearing a top hat that resembled a chocolate cake, the other in some overalls sporting a mohawk, and a third dressed in a pink fur-suit.

"What kind of fucked-up place ACK!" Larxene wasn't able to finish her pejorative when the girl dragged her over to this group.

"Hey!" The girl greeted them.

The boy in the suit stopped in his tracks and paused to consider the girl's name. "Hey…Arlene?"

"Elrena."

"Elrena, right," the boy nodded unenthusiastically. "What do you want?"

"This is the shooting star I told you about!" Elrena beamed. "One of them at least."

Larxene pinched the bridge of her nose, shaking her head. "I can't believe this…"

The girl in overalls squinted at Larxene. "That doesn't look like a star. More like a vagrant."

"Or a mental patient!" A muffled androgynous voice spoke up behind the bunny mask of the boy or girl in the fur-suit.

"Well, either way, she fell from the sky!" Elrena gestured at her trophy. "See? She's even bruised and stuff." She poked Larxene's rib, sending a jolt of a pain through her body.

"Hey! Watch it!"

"I dunno," the boy stroked his chin. "It seems like you just beat up this homeless woman to prove a point."

Larxene scrunched up her face in revulsion. "Hey! Watch it, asshat! I'm not homeless and there's no universe where I'd let one of you punks kick my ass."

The children gasped.

"Oh, no!" The girl stepped back in horror. "She's angry and bitter!"

"She must be corrupted somehow…" The boy attempted to reason.

"By DARKNESS!" The fur-suited one concluded.

"What the fuck are you talking about?!" Larxene was on the verge of exploding. "I just don't like you. Can't you get that through your thick skulls?"

The boy ignored her, turning his attention to Elrena. "Elrena, you endanger us and all of Daybreak Town by hanging around this monster."

"Piss off, kid!" Larxene snapped, sick of this shitshow.

"This kind of reckless behavior is why you'll never be part of our party," the boy continued. "Goodbye, Elrena."

The three kids began to walk away, leaving Elrena desperately calling after them. "Wait! If you could just let us explain…"

"No chance," the girl dismissed Elrena. "Go form your own party. I'm sure you'll have a bunch of homeless nuts lining up to join you."

"Yeah," the fur-suited one needlessly affirmed.

And like that, the kids had gone away.

"What a bunch of stuck-up pricks…" Larxene grumbled, finally wrenching herself free from Elrena's grasp. "I'm really missing the dinosaurs right about now…" She looked to Elrena, whose eyes were fixed on her feet. "What the—are you crying?"

"No," Elrena faintly sobbed back.

"Oh, for fuck's sake, they're not worth the effort," Larxene threw her hands in the air. "I mean, to cry over. You should have squared up with them, then and there. Hell, I might have helped."

"I can't do that," Elrena whimpered. "They're my friends…"

Larxene sighed. "Look. I don't know much about friends, but enemies, I'm well-versed in. And those up-tight, rooty-tooty shit-wads wanna be your enemy."

"But…what did I do?"

"That's it: nothing. You were a doormat. And people love picking on doormats. You can't stand for that. You can't give up while they make an idiot out of you. You gotta do something."

"Like what?"

"Talk back! Insult them! Mock that Type-A nonsense of theirs! Hell, pick a fight! Jerkasses tend to talk less when they're down a few teeth and faceplanted on the pavement."

"But, isn't that…falling to darkness?"

"Bitch." Larxene face-palmed, frustrated by this girl's saccharine innocence. "I don't know what they've been teaching you in school but getting POed isn't falling into darkness. Clocking someone isn't falling into darkness. Beating up an asshole isn't falling to darkness. It's common sense."

Elrena rubbed at her eyes to dry her tears. "I dunno…"

Larxene sighed. She didn't remember anything about her childhood. One of the Nobody's curses or blessings, depending on who you asked, was forgetting your past as a Somebody. Larxene, frankly, did not give a damn about her past, but she would be lying if this didn't feel familiar. Aside from the odd coincidence in hairstyles, something about this girl being bullied by a bunch of high-and-mighty losers resonated with her. She didn't want to admit it but Larxene felt this…fuzziness in her stomach?

Ugh. Disgusting.

"Listen to me," Larxene got on her knee and look Elrena in the eye. "You're gonna go through a bunch of shit in your life. You just are. You'll meet jerks like those kids all the time. They'll badger you and disrespect you and make you feel like shit. But I'm telling you, you have to stand your ground. Do not give up. There will be days when you want to give up, but don't. Got it?"

"Yeah," Elrena nodded.

"So next time someone wants to start shit with you, give them this…" Larxene cleared her throat. "'I didn't ask for your garbage opinion.' That's a good start."

"Alright," the girl smiled, cheered up. "I'll try it."

"Good." Larxene got up and looked at the tall building in the distance. "You said the clocktower is over there?"

"Yeah," Elrena replied. "Wait, you're not going there, are you?"

"Um, yeah. That's why I asked."

"But…the foretellers said that area is off-limits."

Larxene groaned. "Lesson Number Two in bullshit tolerance: ignore bullshit rules." She paused. "C'mon. I'll take you with me. Give you a live demonstration."

"Really?"

"Sure, sport." Larxene led the way, signaling Elrena to follow. "Keep up, will you?"

Elrena jogged to catch up with Larxene, eagerly joining her new mentor as they strode to the center of town.

"Demyx? Where are you?" Saix called out, patrolling the castle's monotonous corridors. "You must face the consequences for your actions."

"What might those be?" Luxord asked, trailing right behind him.

Saix took out the Organization's Term and Conditions: Pocket Edition and scrolled through the pages. "Let's see…assaulting a fellow Organization member warrants…one week's torture."

"Ah," Luxord nodded. "If he knows that, then we'll have no chance of coaxing him out in the open."

"Ha. As if Demyx knows the Terms and Conditions. He's a vapid fool, nothing more…"

"DANCE, WATER, DANCE!"

Saix didn't have time to look up when he was whipped in the face with water by none other than the young musician they were looking for. He hit and ran the Lunar Diviner and was already on the move. Right behind him were a drenched Xigbar and Xaldin.

"Get that punk!" Xigbar called after him, dripping wet.

"He must suffer the most dire punishment!" Xaldin added, whipping his soggy dreadlocks back.

"My God, he's on a rampage!" Luxord began to panic. "We must…" Another water-whip, this time grazing the gambler. He readied his cards to retaliate, entering what could be his final game…

When suddenly, their attacker was impaled with none other than Marluxia's scythe.

"D-DANCE W-WATER…DAAAAANCE…" In a flurry of sparks, Replemyx fell to the ground lifeless.

"He's on no rampage," Marluxia explained as wedged his weapon free from the body. "He's malfunctioning."

"Malfunctioning?" Saix some water from his hair. "What are you on about?"

"He's one of Vexen's replicas, set loose on us for some reason." Marluxia unveiled Larxica's severed head from his coat. "Demyx isn't the only one."

"What the hell?" Xigbar scoffed. "I knew that kook could hold a grudge but I never thought he'd sic his creepy clone army on us."

"Rejection is a powerful incentive," Xaldin crossed his arms. "And Vexen was accustomed to it."

"What is going on here?" Xemnas stepped off the castle's Crooked Ascension, immediately noticing what remained of Replemyx and Larxica. "What's this? Have you felled your own comrades? What kind of treason…"

"We're no traitors, Xemnas," Saix interrupted the Superior. "It is Vexen who is the traitor."

"What are you talking about? Vexen is completely trustworthy. That's why I entrusted him to raise the castle's defenses for the incoming invasion. As we speak, he's in the control room activating all necessary measures. There is no way he had anything to do with…" Xemnas trailed off, eying something down the hallway. Naturally, his minions joined him.

Replexen was walking into a wall, again and again, triggering the same command. "ARGH! MY SKULL! ARGH! MY SKULL! ARGH! MY…"

Xemnas finally spoke up. "I suspect we've been had." He put Replexen out of its misery, beheading him with one swing his of laser-sword.

"….MY…SKULL…"

"The question is," Luxord pitched in. "By whom?"

"…and out of all them, red travels the farthest."

"Yes, yes. So I've heard."

All heads turned in the other direction to Axel and Zexion who were casually strolling, unbeknownst to what was going on.

"No. 6." Xemnas called out.

The book-master yelped, freezing both him and the fiery assassin in their tracks. "Oh! Xemnas! H-how are you doing?"

"Where's Vexen?"

"Vexen?" Zexion gulped. "He's probably in the lab, b-brooding…"

Xaldin picked up Replexen's head by his long and luscious locks.

Zexion wasn't sure what to say, but fortunately, Axel had him covered with a healthy batch of feigned concern. "Oh nooooooo! What happened to him? Was there an accident?"

"There was," Saix answered. "A mistake in trusting that foul scientist and his apprentice." He glared at Zexion. "This is a replica, along with these…" Saix gestured to the fallen Replemyx and Larxica. "We suspect you and your master set them loose out of spite. Where's Vexen? In hiding?"

Zexion sighed, knowing the game was up. "No. He…he's dead."

There was silence.

"Really?" Zexion cocked his eyebrow. "No collective gasp…"

"C'mon! Get on with it!" Xigbar shouted from the back.

"He died," Zexion continued. "From an experiment we conducted. Along with Larxene and Demyx. They're…dead, too."

"You've eliminated multiple comrades…" Xemnas spoke up. "…and tried to cover it up."

"That's treason of the highest level," Marluxia added with an embarrassing voice crack, sweating for some reason.

"I know!" Zexion pressed his hands together, ready to beg. "It's terrible and heinous and completely against everything I believe. I know the punishment for doing something like this is…"

"Death."

Everyone yelped. Lexaeus had just stepped out of the men's room. "Sorry, I was just freshening up and…am I interrupting something?"

No one bothered to answer him.

"Axel," Saix turned to their No. 8, who had remained silent for the most part. "You've been spending a good deal of time with Zexion as of late. You even scorched Vexen's room, isn't that right, Lexaeus?"

Lexaeus nodded solemnly, not entirely sure of what was happening.

"You weren't debating Kantian philosophy, were you?" Saix stared his old friend down, his eyes searching the inner-depths of Axel's hollow frame.

Axel bit his lip nervously and glanced at Zexion, who was looking at him with bated breath. He was many things, but snitch wasn't one of them. However, he also wasn't a traitor. To the Organization, sure. But Saix? No, he was…he was a friend. Yet, Zexion was a friend as well. Somehow, over the past twenty four hours, they had managed to have each other's backs.

No. Axel would tell the truth. "We weren't."

"Then what were you doing?" Saix interrogated sternly

"I was asked to participate in their experiment…"

"So you were coerced?"

"What? No, not exact…"

"There it is, then." Saix cut Axel off. "Zexion, you are charged with the death of our comrades Four, Nine, and Eleven and will be executed on the Superior's order." He turned to his friend. "Axel, you are charged with aiding and abetting the murderer, but since you were coerced, you are sentenced to merely one day's community service."

"What?!" Zexion and Axel cried at the same time.

Xigbar loaded a cartridge into one of his rifles and chinned towards Zexion. "So are we gonna Old Yeller this kid or what?"

Xemnas raised his hand, signaling the sniper to stand down. "The execution can wait." Xigbar groaned audibly but the Superior continued. "I tasked Vexen—that is, his replica—with raising the castle's defenses in preparation for an incoming Heartless invasion. Considering he was merely a robot walking into…walls," he sighed. "No necessary action was taken."

"Which means we're vulnerable to attack," Xaldin lamented gravely.

"Correct. We must stand ready for the impending assault." Xemnas turned his attention to Zexion. "Apprehend the traitor and lock him away. We'll dispose of him later."

Xaldin and Marluxia followed the Superior's order and took Zexion by each arm, dragging him to the castle's dungeon. "C'mon! You can't do this! You'll need my help!

Axel stepped forward to stop his friend's arrest, but Saix put a staying hand on his shoulder. "Don't ruin what we have going, Axel," he warned. "He's just one pawn out of the picture." Saix patted Axel on the back and walked off. "Get ready and stay safe."

Left alone, Axel got one last look at Zexion, who was glaring back at him. None of them were experts on emotion, but Axel knew the look of someone betrayed, of someone feeling they had been abandoned. That yearning expression begging a friend to do something, anything to save them. To cry out in protest, to chase after them, even to start a fight with their aggressors.

But Axel did nothing.

"And if you get into a fight, just remember three things: hair up, earrings off, Vaseline on your face." Larxene lectured her new admirer as they traversed the dark depths of the clocktower.

"Wow," Elrena gawped in awe. "I never thought of that."

"Of course you didn't. You've been conditioned by this…commune."

"You might be right," Elrena agreed, leading Larxene onto a gear-shaped elevator. "There's a lot the Foretellers don't tell us. We just collect Lux, go home, collect more Lux and rinse, wash, and repeat."

"That must make for a pretty boring life." Larxene said as the gear began its ascent upwards.

"I cope. I just go on with the hope that the Foretellers will have the answers we need once we do what we need to do."

The gear creaked to a stop, revealing those very Foretellers engaged in combat with Vexen and Demyx!

"Holy shit!" Larxene cried. "What…what are they doing?"

"Fighting," Elrena explained. "Isn't it obvious?"

To the regular Daybreak Town citizen, yes. But to the foreigner, the sight of people in animal-masks pelting two strangers with medals was a strange sight.

"Argh!" Demyx cried. "Someone help us!"

"This is mildly annoying and somewhat painful!" Vexen protested. "Why does even my death have to be a slow and monotonous torture?!"

"These are tough opponents," Ira said, refusing to yield in his barrage of collectible trading pins.

"We'll wear them out eventually!" the bear-man roared.

"But we're running out of medals," Gula reasoned, as his assault was beginning to slow down.

"Then that leaves us with no choice," said the snake-woman.

"You don't mean…" the fox-girl whimpered anxiously.

Ira took out an extraordinarily shiny medal. "SUPERNOVA ++!"

"Oh no!" Elrena gasped.

"What?" Larxene demanded to know. "What's going on?"

"That's the most powerful attack there is," the girl frantically explained. "A fiery explosion ten times the heat of the Sun!"

"Heat…" Larxene took the gummi out of her pocket.

It's now or never.

"I'm gonna go, kid," Larxene said solemnly. "Just promise me one thing."

"What?" Elrena asked, scared of what was transpiring around her.

"Remember what I told you." Larxene clenched the gummi tighter.

Elrena blinked. "Don't take shit?"

"Never ever, kid." And with that, Larxene charged into the battle just as Ira threw the Supernova ++ medal. Holding the gummi as a shield, she jumped in front of Vexen and Demyx. However, not everything went according to plan. She was one second too early, as the medal made contact her stomach, not the gummi. The medal activated on impact, igniting a violent explosion that Larxene was caught in the midst of. Although Larxene was hit by the blast first, the gummi followed in short order, the heat triggering the gummi's trademark flash of light.

When the dust cleared, the Foretellers and Elrena were left alone in the clocktower, wondering what had become of our heroes, and pondering what strange land they had gone off to now.