Chapter 81

Burning Anxiety

Roxas entered yet another room in the mansion, exactly the same as the last one—completely white. He wondered if this had been a part of the mansion's original design and, if not, then how had Kefka even amassed the necessary funds to construct such elaborate rooms?

The door closed behind him once again, barring re-entry. Roxas saw six pods, three on each side of the room. They resembled the pods that Roxas had once seen Sora, Donald and Goofy in. He walked up to one of them and looked in but they were too cloudy white to see through. Roxas placed a hand on the cool glass, wondering if it was possible to open the pods somehow. Before he decided on pulling away, a hand, most certainly not human, smashed out of the glass and snapped shut around his hand like a Venus Flytrap. It was a bony hand with long, slimy fingers that wrapped around his scarred ones, and its tight grip refused to let go.

Roxas wasted little time in summoning his Keyblade and severed the hand from its limb. The organ fell to the floor before withering away into dust seconds later. Roxas looked at his own hand for a moment before backing away from the glass.

"What the hell is that?" he asked aloud.

"Don't recognize them?" Kefka's voice sounded out from the ceiling. "Ah, you probably wouldn't. They've been having a nice nap for about a thousand years now."

"A thousand…. What?" Roxas whispered.

"You're so close, Roxas. Two more levels of our little game and I'll let you have access to Xion. For now though, it's time for your penultimate test. Defeat the Wraiths!"

"The Wraiths?" Roxas repeated. The shattering of each glass pod forced him to forget the number of question marks going through his head at the moment. The monsters in front of him were skeletons in slimy flesh, their backs hunched over and bony like a reptile, their sockets eyeless. The most surprising feature to Roxas however was not what they were but what they possessed. In their hands, each wielded a rusted Keyblade, all different in appearance.

"Kefka, what are these?" Roxas yelled, but he received no answer. The Wraiths marched towards him, eventually picking up speed. Roxas held up his Keyblade as the rusted Keys slammed down on his own. He ducked underneath them and ran to the opposite end of the room, creating some space between him and them. They ran in once again, their hulky forms towering over Roxas.

Roxas found his cut hands stinging from holding onto the Keyblade so tightly. The first Wraith brought it's Keyblade down on Roxas, who dodged out of the way and slashed at its side. A second Wraith came in from his side and lifted Roxas up with tremendous strength, slamming him into the nearby wall. It leaned it, with Roxas unable to do anything but punch its head repeatedly with his free hand. The Wraith moved its Keyblade's handle up and drove it into Roxas' face, bursting his lip open. The Wraith attempted to do this again but Roxas grabbed hold of the handle before it could come down on him again and threw his head forward, slamming it into the Wraith's own.

Roxas was dropped from his pinned position on the wall and he quickly rolled to the left as the other Wraiths slammed their blades down at where they had once been. The second Wraith recovered from the headbutt and ran over to Roxas, swinging its blade viciously. Roxas backed away quickly before jumping and cutting through the Wraith's neck, lopping its head off. The head dropped to the ground before withering away, with the rest of the body following shortly after.

Another Wraith marched in, slicing at Roxas who guarded against the attack. The Wraith raised one of its legs and kicked at Roxas' stomach, knocking him into a wall. It attempted to stab Roxas but he leaned to the side and plunged his own Keyblade into its stomach instead. The Wraith and its Keyblade soon vanished into dust.

Roxas suddenly felt a bony fist digging into his jaw. He was launched off his feet and hit his head against the wall again. He felt a throbbing pain in the back of his head and looked up to see bright lights above the shadowy approaching figures.

"Oh, I am so sick and tired of this crap," Roxas muttered. He put his hands up and smiled at the creatures. "Okay, one minute, guys. I just need to catch my breath."

He obviously hadn't expected his words to get through to them, but when he thought about what Lea would do, he would probably try to stay cool and unfazed through such an intense situation. Roxas leapt up from the ground and wrapped his arms around the Wraith's waist, attempting to tackle it to the ground, but the monster elbowed him in his back, sending him flopping on the ground.

Roxas, don't give up!

"Xion?" Roxas called, having heard Xion's voice from somewhere. When he looked around, he realized that it had just been in his head. He chuckled and stood up slowly only to be punched in the face by one of the Wraiths. He stumbled backwards but otherwise kept standing. His face felt swollen up and it stung, but he didn't care.

The same Wraith leaned in to swing his Keyblade but Roxas dodged under and cut diagonally through its torso. The Wraith with the hand he had taken off earlier approached him but could only get so far before a Blizzaga that Roxas casted rose from the ground, its pointed Ice shards stabbing into the Wraith's body.

The last two Wraiths came in from different sides, and Roxas swung his Keyblade as quickly as he could, meeting the blows from both creatures. He soon found an opening and stabbed into the Wraith on his right, retreating with him all the way to the opposite wall. He pulled his Keyblade out and drove it back in again and again until the Wraith withered away. His anger had dulled his senses to the Wraith behind him, which sliced its Keyblade right down his back.

Roxas yelled out as pain engulfed his body. He turned to the Wraith and rush forward, using every bit of strength he had left to knock the rusted Keyblade away from the creature before impaling it. Even as the last Wraith withered away, Roxas began swinging violently at thin air, using it as a sort of catharsis to fight off the pain. Eventually he regained some sort of sense of his surroundings and cast Cure on himself.

"Checking status of room," the mechanical female voice rang out. There were a few seconds of peace and quiet before he heard the voice again. "You have successfully completed the level. Nice work! Please verify by touching the screen."

Roxas watched as a similar monitor to the one in the last room rose out of the ground. He stumbled over to it and slid his thumb over the screen, a smear of crimson tracing across the screen as he did so.

"You may now proceed to the final level. You may opt at any time to stop playing the-"

"Shut up." Roxas ignored the repeating line from the last room and walked over to the door. If after all of this, he found Xion only to find that she had been harmed in any way, there would be no place that Kefka would be able to hide. Roxas would chase him down if he had to. Heck, he'd probably chase him regardless, just for putting him and Xion in this awful situation.

He staggered back and forth as he left the room and went down another corridor. When he opened the next door, he found himself in another room but with one big difference. The room wasn't completely white. He was in a place that resembled a dining room and a rather extravagant and expensive one at that. There were beautiful red curtains covering the large windows, casting red light into the room. In the middle of the room was a medium-length rectangular table facing a fireplace that Roxas couldn't imagine anyone had used in years.

Roxas looked to the table where a small syringe was place in the middle next to a vase of flowers.

"Welcome to the final level. If completed, you will gain access to the second player," said the female voice. "The final level requires that you inject yourself with the liquid from the syringe. No liquid must be left in the syringe in order for the player to clear the level."

"Of course he'd do this," Roxas said with a pained smile. He had been pretty aware from the start that Kefka wouldn't have let both him and Xion out unharmed. Still, he had thought he had suffered enough for Xion's freedom. He supposed with Kefka, there were no limits.

He walked over to the table and took the syringe into his hand. He didn't want to think too much about it. All he wanted to do now was see Xion to safety, even if it meant having to never see her or Lea or any of the others again.

"Here goes nothing," Roxas said. He rolled up his sleeves all the way to his arm and jabbed the needle in. He gritted his teeth and pushed down on the syringe's handle until its golden contents were completely drained. He had a feeling he knew what the liquid did, but he wasn't sure when he would begin to feel its effects.

"You have successfully completed the level. Nice work! Please verify by touching the screen to receive your reward," the computer said. The monitor appeared closer to the door this time. He authenticated with the touch screen and waited a moment. "Congratulations. You have successfully beaten the game. All doors in the mansion are now unlocked. Please follow the arrows provided to reach the second player."

Roxas heard the clicking sound of the door open up next to him, but his eyes were not focused on it. Instead, they had found intrigue with the fireplace near the table. The stonework behind the fireplace gave a slow growl as it turned to the side, revealing a secret passageway behind it.

"How far are you going to drag this out?" Roxas whispered. He walked over to the fireplace and crouched under the mantelpiece, stepping into a dark cavern that seemed to stretch on for quite a while. He called out Xion's name, but he could only hear his own echo bouncing off the walls. "How long has this been here? Just what is this place?"

Roxas continued farther into the cavern, with torch light on the walls serving as his guide. The tunnel split off into several other paths, but only one contained the torches that he was using to help him. For someone as insane as Kefka, not even he would have had this much patience to dig out this entire cavern, though he certainly didn't put it past the clown to have explored the entire area either. That begged the question, who had built these caverns and for what purpose? The only reason Roxas could imagine was if its builders wanted to either hide something or hide from something or someone, like a quick getaway in times of emergency. If that was the case, then he was looking at something that could very possibly take him all the way to the other side of Twilight Town.

Fortunately, he didn't have to travel too far before finally reaching a metal door. Roxas grasped the valve with both hands and twisted. The valve didn't give in easily, partly because Roxas' hands felt incredibly deprived of any strength. Roxas only tried harder. He kept pulling until the valve finally started moving, by which time his hands were covered in blood and sweat. He pulled it the rest of the way and gave a tug, opening the door.

He was in a square room that looked more like a prison. The only light that came into the room was from the torch at the back.

"Xion!" Roxas yelled, running to the girl who was tied to the chair in the middle by thick ropes. Roxas went around to her front and carefully tore the duct tape off her mouth.

"Roxas, it's you! You look better than usual," Xion said with a chuckle.

"Huh. Really?"

"No, you look like crap," Xion said, a small smile on her lips.

"Ow! You don't hold back, do you? Well, you're right anyway. It has been a crap day for me so far," Roxas said, surprised that he was still able to laugh and smile after everything that he had been through.

"I could gather as much. Anyway, I don't know about you but I certainly can't wait to get out of here. I could do with some fresh air," Xion said. She could only provide small talk as she waited for Roxas to untie the ropes.

"They didn't do anything to you, did they?" Roxas asked.

"Oh, other than having a guillotine about t come down on my head and being blindfolded and locked in this room after, not really. I don't really remember anything before I woke up though so I'm not sure. I think they woke us up at roughly the same time, or me slightly before you," Xion said. Roxas successfully managed to undo the ropes and Xion freed herself from her chair.

"I'm glad you're okay, Roxas. What did they do to you?" Xion asked. Now that she was free, she pulled him into a hug.

"I'll explain when we get out of here. I really don't want to stay in this place any longer than I need to," Roxas said. "Kefka will pay for what he's done, but your safety comes first."

"Alright. Let's get out of here… wherever here is," Xion said, looking around.

"I came through a fireplace in the dining room on my way here-"

"Whoa-whoa-whoa, a fireplace?" Xion asked.

"Did I misspeak? I guess you could say I'm Santa Claus. Ho Ho Ho!" Roxas roared merrily.

"Alright, that's enough out of you. Let's get moving," Xion said. Roxas took the lead as he led her back down the candle lit path. On their way back, Roxas listened to Xion assessment of the cavern without saying much in return. His mind was more concerned with figuring out how to tell Xion that he couldn't go back to Radiant Garden with her. It was simply too dangerous now and he had no idea how much time he had left.

"Roxas, are you listening to me?"

"Hold on a second," Roxas held out his hand in front of her and sniffed the air. His eyes widened.

"What's that smell? Smoke?" Xion asked. She had realized it too.

"No, he can't be…" Roxas grabbed Xion by the hand quickly. "We need to get out of here now!"


Kairi and Max watched over both Riku's statue, Pete and the young girl as they waited for Lea to return. At some point, the girl opened her eyes and looked up at Kairi.

"Where… am I?" asked the child.

"Twilight Town, not that it matters. You're probably a long way from home, aren't you? Do you remember your name?" Kairi asked.

"Penny. Where are my parents? I have to find them!" Penny asked. She sat up and looked around frantically.

"You need rest. Don't worry, you'll be in a nice comfy bed soon enough. It's a bit cold but… it's the best we have," Kairi said to her. "We'll look for your world after we've gotten you away from here."

"My… world?"

"Don't worry. We'll talk about it back on the Gummi Ship," Kairi said. She looked up to see Lea having returned and examining the scene in front of him.

"She's-?"

"Yeah," Kairi answered.

"Poor thing. The other girl woke up. Her name's Anna. Says the last thing she remembers was arguing with her sister and then it's all a blank from there. But guess who her sister is," Lea said.

Kairi shrugged. "Are you gonna leave us in the dark or what?"

"Oh, come on. You won't even entertain me with a guess? Say, what happened to Riku?" Lea asked.

"You're looking at him," Kairi said, nudging her head in the direction of the statue.

Lea alternated between the stoned Riku and Kairi, plain disbelief in his eyes. "You're kidding me, right? Well, is there any way to help him?"

"I'm not sure yet, but I need the both of you to take Penny and Pete back to the Gummi Ship. Once you've done that, come back for Riku. I'll find Roxas and Xion," Kairi said.

"By yourself? Are you crazy? You know what Kefka is capable of!" Lea blasted. "I'm coming with you."

"No, I can't risk having Pete waking up and getting away or even having Penny and Riku stay here alone. Lea, you have to trust me here, I will bring Roxas and Xion back," Kairi said. "We roped you into this. You, Roxas and Xion were just supposed to hang out and have fun like normal people. Instead, we whisked you back off into the hurricane that is our world. We shouldn't have done that. We put you in danger."

"Yeah, well, it wasn't like we were forced. We did it of our own accord because we wanted to help Sora. That and we kind of missed this anyway, especially Xion. You shouldn't blame yourself, Kairi," Lea said.

Kairi nodded and smiled. "I know. Don't worry, I'll be in and out before you know it."

"Yeah, I know you're confident about this, but be careful in there. I have no idea what Kefka has in store in there but he's certainly going to try to make sure you have a hard time reaching them," Max said before looking to Lea. "Alright, I'll take Penny and you can take Pete."

"Why do I have to take the big guy?"

"Do I look like a guy who can carry Pete?" Max asked.

"Oh, don't be a baby. Fine, let's get to work but you owe me one, got it memorized?" Lea checked, visibly shivering in exaggeration.

"Oh, I'm sure it's something you'll remind me about every single day until the day I die," Max said.

"Well, you got THAT memorized," Lea laughed and walked over to the giant unconscious cat. As she arrived at the front door of the mansion, she gave a final look at Lea and exchanged nods before opening the door and stepping inside.

The moment the door closed behind her, Kairi heard a snap to her left and the sound of something like a rope being pulled. Her eyes widened and instinctively she rolled to her right just before the wardrobe could come crashing down on her head. There was a deafening crash that rang out throughout the foyer as the piece of furniture broke off into different pieces as it made impact with the ground.

Soon, all Kairi could hear in the room was her own breathing. She made to move again, but something stopped her. When she looked down, she saw what looked like trails of 'water' going in different directions. They seemed to split off in to three separate trails with two going to both rooms on her left and right and the third heading up the stairs.

"Uh oh. I've seen enough movies to know where this is going," Kairi said. At the sound of sharp claps, Kairi looked up at the second floor landing to see Kefka with a huge sadistic grin on his face. Kairi stepped forward. "Where are you hiding them?"

"Them? Them who? I have no idea who you're talking about," Kefka said, playing dumb.

"Play dumb if you want. You're not escaping like last time," Kairi said, summoning her Keyblade.

"Oh, you kids and your toys, waving them around like matchsticks wherever and whenever you can. The thing with matches and kids is, sometimes a kid needs to get burned in order to learn from their mistakes," Kefka said. He raised a hand to reveal a flaming matchstick and cast it down with a flick of his wrist. As soon as the matchstick hit the gasoline below, bright flames rose up from the ground and travelled quickly across the room.

"So you're gonna burn the entire place down? Is that it?" Kairi yelled from across the room. Her response was a booming howl of malicious laughter. Kairi ran over to the door to her right and quickly opened it, heading inside. There were already bright mixtures of orange and red hissing and spitting in the room, singing pieces of wood around the room and scorching the few tapestries around the room.

Kairi made her way over to the next room and put her hand on the doorknob only to withdraw it instantly from the heat.

"Okay, okay, let's see…" Kairi backed away quickly and pointed Destiny's Embrace at the handle before casting Blizzard. After freezing the handle, she smashed through it with her Keyblade, taking the handle off. She kicked the door open to see an entire room engulfed in an ocean of flames, even worse than the one she was currently in. "Roxas! Xion! Oh, come on, don't make me kill myself just to find you guys."

Kairi began hopping from one clear spot to the other, her skin prickling from the intense heat as she did so. She looked around and spotted a wardrobe untainted by the otherwise engulfed room and carefully moved over to it. Once there, she grabbed it by its edges and pulled, bring the entire thing down and creating a path for her. She jumped onto the back of the wardrobe and leapt across to the other side. Again, she cast Blizzard on the door knob and cut through before kicking it open.

As she made her way into the hallway and skidded around the corner, Kairi ran into a duo of Neoshadows that flew immediately for her. She barely had time to crouch as they soared over her head.

"I don't have time for you," Kairi yelled and set off in a sprint again. Before she could ascend up the stairs in front of her, a part of the ceiling caved in over her head. Kairi threw herself backwards just as the Neoshadows tried to jump at her again only for them to be crushed by the falling debris of the upper floor. Kairi got back up and climbed up the rubble, jumping high and catching the edge of the exposed floor. She pulled herself up slightly so that she could see around her. Despite all the flames around her, she found some joy in the scenery. "There you two are!"

Roxas and Xion turned around to see the redhead poking out from the floor. They both looked pale and Roxas in particular seemed heavily bruised, his lip bleeding and nose looking rather out of place from normal.

"Kairi, you found us!" Xion yelled over the flames.

"Not sure now is the time for reunions. We need to get out of here," Roxas said. Kairi lifted herself completely up into the new room and ran over to the door where Xion and Roxas were. "Here, give me a hand with this. It's stuck."

"Right," Kairi said, replacing Xion and heaving her weight onto the door. It took a few slams with their shoulders before she and Roxas were able to get the door to open. As soon as they reached the room, more Heartless popped up, this time Minute Bombs. As they threw themselves at the trio in preparation for self-destruction, the Keyblade wielders worked together to bat away the tiny Heartless. They exploded in different parts of the room, though not in any beneficial way to Kairi and the others as it caused them to rethink their steps multiple times.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me! It's blocked," Xion called to their attention the double door in the room that had been obstructed by wooden beams and rubble.

"No getting out that way then. Are we trapped?" Kairi asked, looking around for anything they could use.

"Then we'll use the window," Roxas said through coughs. Smoke was beginning to pour into the room and Kairi felt like her lungs were on fire. Oxygen was being deprived from the room fast and she was finding it harder to breathe.

"You're serious? We're high up. We won't make it down," Xion said.

"You'd rather the fire get you? I know which way I'd rather go out," Roxas said. He was about to head around to the window when he suddenly turned and called out, "Xion!"

Xion frowned in confusion. Kairi looked up to see what Roxas was focused on. A lone Minute Bomb, its fuse prepped, was falling from above right towards Xion. Before Kairi could summon her Keyblade, Roxas pushed Xion out of the way as a flashing white light blinded Kairi's sight. She could feel herself being thrown of her feet, her back hitting the ground.

There was a ringing in her ears as her eyes opened once again. Her blurry vision soon came into clearer focus and the ringing lessoned until it came to a complete stop at which point her hearing returned. What she saw in front of her made her wish that her vision hadn't cleared.

"ROXAS!" Xion cried out. She ran over to the pile of rubble that had crushed Roxas' body and tried to move some out of the way, but it was too heavy for her. "Kairi, help me!"

Kairi nodded and tried to lift up some of the rubble. "I- I- don't understand. I thought we had gotten rid of all of them a-and then that one popped out and-"

"Don't…"

Kairi and Xion paused and looked down to see Roxas whispering to them.

"Roxas, it's okay. It's going to be alright. We'll get you out of there. Come on, Kairi, we're almost there," Xion said, attempting to double her efforts.

"Stop, Xion. It's useless. If you stay here any longer, the building'll come down on you. You need to go," Roxas urged.

"I'M NOT LEAVING YOU!" Xion yelled. Tears were forming in her eyes and dropping down on the pieces and concrete over Roxas' body. "Don't you give up on me. Don't you dare…"

Roxas chuckled. "It's funny how we've changed positions. Last time, I recall crying over you. I wouldn't have made it out anyway."

"What do you mean?" Kairi asked.

"One of the games Kefka had me play. I had to jab myself with a syringe. You know what it was," Roxas said.

"No…" Kairi looked away for a moment in disbelief.

"So you see? It would never have turned out well for me. I was just doing what I had to do in order… to get Xion out," Roxas said. He looked directly at Kairi. "I pass that… to you. You know what to do. Consider it my final selfish act."

"No… Kairi, you can't. We need to save him. I won't leave him!" Xion yelled, she looked up at her with pleading eyes. "Help me!"

"Kairi, you know you can't do anything. Also, tell Lea I'm sorry I couldn't make it to the beach after all. He might have to awhile," Roxas said.

"Kairi will do no such thing because we're getting you out of here," Xion said.

"Xion-"

"Shut up, Roxas. Shut up, shut up, shut up!"

Xion stopped muttering to herself and looked up as Kairi stood tall. She shook her head but Kairi didn't care. Xion could very well hate her for the rest of her life for this, but it was better than her being dead. She grabbed Xion's hand and hauled her up, much to Xion's reluctance. Xion just kept screaming and kicking for Roxas, making it hard for Kairi to move her. The redhead soon realized that she was either going to have to convince Xion or force her to comply. They honestly seemed to be one and the same thing.

"Xion, look at me," Kairi said, taking hold of Xion's wet face and turning it towards her. "We can't save him. He did this to save you, don't be an idiot and let it go to waste."

Kairi dropped her hand and looked away, partly because she felt looking any longer at Xion would give away how she truly felt. Kairi pointed her Keyblade at the window opposite her and blew it open before taking Xion's hand again. "You go first."

Xion looked past Kairi one last time at the pile of rubble before climbing out of the window and jumping. Kairi quickly followed her, unable to look back at Roxas. She found herself falling for only a second before she hit the truncated rooftop. Tiles broke off from the roof and slid down along with her as she neared the edge of the slope. She was about to look below her to check on Xion but an explosion from behind threw her off the roof and onto the ground.
"Ugh… that hurt. I am feeling that in the morning," Kairi mumbled, rolling about the grass. She eventually sat up and looked to her right to see Xion crying into the grass next to her. Kairi crawled over and put her hand on her back, rubbing up and down. She wasn't really sure what to say to comfort her or whether saying anything was the right thing to do at the moment. She could only stay silent and wait for her friend to regain her composure. Kairi wanted to cry, but for all her attempts nothing came. There was only simmering anger and at the center of it, the laughing echoes of the mad man who had started it all.


A/N: Going to need some tissues after this. I swear I'm not George R. R. Martin in disguise. Anyway, next time on Cracks of the Past, Sora returns to Alexander and to meet up with Luna and seek the help of two key players previously introduced in the story. Until then, please review and *puts up flame shield* I'm ready for ya, Roxas fans.