Author's note: Finally, I'm done with updating this chapter. Sorry I did not appear on Tuesday like I said it would but I got lazy. In one Review, some asked me if my story had anything to do with "I AM LEGEND,". The only thing I probably would say that I copied is the apocalyptical future the world is placed in and the virus that caused it all. Anything else about the plot is completely original. Anyway enjoy the chapter.
As Namine and Roxas left Ansem's office and made their way towards the elevator, Roxas turned his head to Namine and said, "Your father seems like a natural born leader."
"Well, his has led the people of CORE through these hard times for the pass twenty years," Namine began. "In fact, he says he is really close to finding a cure for the OC9 virus. He spends a lot of his time in his private lab trying to find every bit of knowledge that can be use to help stop the virus."
When pair entered the elevator, Namine pressed the button that would send them to the lobby of the building. As the elevator descended to the main floor of the building, Namine and Roxas rode it in complete silence.
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When the elevator had reached the lobby, Roxas and Namine stepped out, and headed towards the entrance of the building. Trying to break the silence, Roxas turned to Namine and said, "So Namine, where's our first stop on this little tour of the city?"
"Well," Namine started, "I was thinking about introducing you to a couple of friends of mine. Usually they hang around the training dojo developing their skills."
"Skills?" Roxas questioned.
"A lot of my friends have the ability to control their mana, making them Druids, Mages, or Chasers." Namine said. "At the training dojo, they each have personal teachers that can help them further master control over their abilities. Speaking of which Roxas, do you have the ability to control your mana? "
Roxas looked slightly embarrassed when Namine asked her question. "To tell you the truth Namine," Roxas shyly said, "I have no idea if have or don't have the ability to control my mana. The only people who ever taught me how to do something were my dad and Zack, and the only thing they taught me how to do was fight and defend myself with a sword."
As the pair exited the building, Roxas started to follow Namine's lead as she began to make a right turn. Just as it was when Roxas had entered the building, the city was still crawling with life.
"Oh Roxas, I just had the greatest idea," Namine exclaimed. "When were at the training dojo, I know someone who will be able to tell if you have the ability to control your mana or not. If you do, maybe he'll decide to train you as well."
"Oh boy, training." Roxas sarcastically said.
"Is there something wrong with my idea?" Namine said feeling slightly offended.
"There's nothing wrong with your idea," Roxas quickly said, "It's just that….. let's just say that I have had some life bad experiences when I was training."
"Bad experiences?" Namine questioned.
After letting out a long sigh, Roxas said " Well, you see Namine, unlike most people, I did not have what you would call a typical childhood. Ever since I was two years old, my father trained me non-stop on how to fight with a sword. Everyday, for three years, my father gave me various exercises to improve my swordsmanship, stamina, strength, or endurance."
"Each and every one of those days was like a living hell to me, whether it was trying to run around the whole city of Midgar before it became dark, to sparring with my father one on one. Of course it was always a one sided fight when I sparred with my father. Can you imagine a four year old trying attack someone with sword that was almost as big as himself."
Namine began to giggle, as she tried to imagine a young Roxas attacking his father with a deadly weapon.
"And get this," Roxas began with humor in his voice, "When my dad was left me with his friend Zack, I thought was finally done with all of the hellish training. Boy was I wrong. It seemed that my father and Zack were thought by the same person. So for the three years I spent with Zack, it was basically the same routine, if not worse, than with my father."
As Roxas finished up his sentence, the pair started to approach a large grey building that appeared to be a train station. There were many people inside and outside of the building. There were seven large entrances along the sides of the building that Roxas assumed were for letting trains enter and leave the station. Proving Roxas assumption right, a blue bullet train sped out of the exit furthest on the left.
"Namine I thought you said we were going to meet your friends at the training dojo," Roxas said. "Unless all your friends are trains, what are we doing here?"
"Hey," Namine said with a smile on her face, "do you want me to show you around or not? Anyway we're at the train station because, unless you want to walk fifty miles to the training dojo, the only way to travel around the city quickly is by train. Didn't you notice that there were no cars in the city?"
"Now that you mention it," Roxas said with a confused look on his face, "the only way I saw people getting around was by walking. Are cars not allowed in the city or what?"
"For the most part," Namine said. "The only people who are allowed to drive cars in CORE are Elites who are on the city patrol team. And if you really thing about it, cars would only be a nuisance down here. We only have a limited supply of oil down here and it's already being used to keep the CORE at a constant seventy five degrees fareinheight, plus imagine all of the resources that would have to go towards building cars that could be used for something else, like increasing the land area for the city."
"Well, when you put it that way," Roxas said, "I guess cars really are just a nuisance if you really think about it."
"I knew you would see it my way," Namine said with a smile on her lips. "Now hurry up, if we get to the train station in enough time, we can probably make this next train."
Just as Namine had said, there was a silver bullet train slowing down on the tracks as it approached the train station. With that Namine and Roxas hurried their towards the train station.
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Just as it had appeared outside, the train station was packed with many people. Roxas figured that this was the result when no one, but a few fortunate people, was able to own cars. It was so crowded in the train station, that Namine and Roxas almost did not make there.
Roxas and Namine took the two last seats at the caboose of the train. Besides a sleeping young man who had his face covered by a book, the caboose was empty.
"O.K Roxas," Namine said, "it's going to take about thirty minutes to get to the Twilight district, so sit back and enjoy the train ride."
"Twilight district?" Roxas asked.
"Oh, I'm sorry Roxas," Namine said embarrassly, "I forgot to mention that CORE is divided into four huge districts, each with its own purpose. There's the Twilight district, The Moogle district, The Bastion, and The 100-Arce district.. Let's start with the Twilight district first."
"The Twilight district, located on the west side of the city, is basically the military and research section of CORE. Besides my father's private study, this is the location of every research lab in CORE. An elite group of scientist, my father included, are currently on the breakthrough in finding a vaccination for the OC9 virus. This district is also the location of the Elite's Headquarters and training dojo. This is were Mages, Druids, and Chasers, who plan on joining The Elite, train. The district that we are currently leaving is the Moogle district."
"The Moogle district is the largest district out of the four. Located on the North side, the Moogle district is basically the shopping center of CORE. Everyone who isn't working for in the military or in the labs usually has a job here, whether it is selling goods or services to working construction."
"The Bastion district is where the people of the city live. At the 11:00 p.m. curfew, all of the citizens of CORE must return to their apartments in the Bastion district and retire until 6:30 a.m. The only people who have exceptions to this rule are the Elites who are patrolling the city."
"Wow, it sure sounds like these Elites get to break a lot of the rules to the city," Roxas
stated.
"They only have this authority so they may protect the people from harm," Namine said. "Anyway, the last district of the CORE is the 100-Acre district. This is were all of the produce and organic food originates from. Using solar powered from several panels the CORE has place on the surface world, we are able to gather energy from the sun. When we fuse that energy with raw mana we are able to produce artificial sunlight, which we use to grow crops and power the main generators for CORE. Aside from all of this, the 100-Arce district also has over eighty five miles of forest."
"A forest?" Roxas exclaimed, "It was hard enough trying to accept there was a city eight miles underground, but you're telling me that there's also miles of forest down here too. How and why is there a forest down here?"
"Well, as I said earlier," Namine started, "we are able to grow plant life down here by fusing the sun's energy and mana. As for why there is a forest down here is because my father didn't want the people to think that they were going to be trapped do here for the rest of their live, so he thought that it would be a good idea if he grew a forest down here. He says that give people the hope that if we continue to work hard looking for a cure, then we will be able to once again live in a beautiful world."
Just as Namine finished talking, the train came to a halt. The stop was so sudden, that Roxas was almost thrown out of his seat. Overhead, a crackling noise came from the speakers until the voice of the conductor was heard. "Sorry about that sudden stop folks. Apparently the head engineer, Cid, did not take such a good look at our brakes as he thought he did. Anyway, we have arrived at the Twilight district. Repeat, we have arrived at the twilight district. All passengers who were traveling to the Twilight district please leave the train in a neat and orderly fashion. Once again we have arrived at the Twilight district at 3:20 p.m."
As the conductor turned off the intercom, young man with the newspaper over his head quickly shot up and said "3:20! Crap my dad's going to kill me!"
This sudden reaction made Namine and Roxas turn towards the boy. He had light brown hair and blue eyes.
Namine's expression turn from a startled one to a cheerful one. "Sora, have you been here for the entire train ride?"
The boy named Sora, now realizing that he was not the only one in the train cart, turned to Namine and said "Oh, hey Namine. I guess I didn't notice you sitting there." Then, noticing Roxas, Sora realized that Namine was alone.
Sora started to wear a goofy smile as he said, "Hey Namine, who's your friend? Did I interrupt something?" Namine started to blush furiously as she said "It nothing like that, I was just going to show him the training dojo."
"Whatever you say," Sora said, still wearing his goofy grin, "That still doesn't change the fact that Riku is going to be pretty jealous."
"Whatever Sora," Namine said still a little flustered. "Come on. I'll tell you the story on the way to the training dojo. If we don't leave soon, the train will." With that the trio got off of the train just as it was about to leave.
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"Aren't you suppose to be at the training dojo right now," Namine said as the three of them made their way down the street. "It's not my fault I am late," whined Sora, "thanks to my dad, I was up most of the night training. He said that if I ever want to join the Elite, I have to sacrifice anything that was necessary. I'm guessing he meant sleep as well. Anyway I got on the train at 12:00 so that I could get to the training dojo a little earlier. The seats on the train seemed real comfortable at the time, so I decided to rest my eyes for a while. Now look what happens! I'm two hours late for my training session and my dads going to kill me. My life's no fair!"
"Don't worry about it Sora," Namine said trying to cheer him up, "I'm sure when you see Kairi, you'll forget all about how your father is going to train you to death."
"Gee, thanks Namine," Sora said sarcastically.
"Oh yeah," Namine said suddenly realizing that she forgot about Roxas, "Sora, I'd like to introduce you to Roxas Strife, the newest citizen of CORE. And Roxas, this is one of my many good friends, Sora Leonhart "
"Oh, thanks for finally noticing me," Roxas said.
"Strife?" Sora questioned, "Does your father happen to be Cloud Strife?"
"Why does everyone keep asking that," Roxas said, beginning to become annoyed, "I don't see what the big deal about my father is anyway."
"Well besides being one of the strongest Elite captains in the history of CORE, he also single handedly took down a small army of heartless that tried to invade the city," said Sora.
"Well as impressive as that maybe," Roxas hesitantly said, "that still doesn't redeem him in my mind for not telling me anything or abandoning me at the age of five."
The three of them walked in silence after that. Sora felt bad for bringing up bad memories in Roxas' past, Roxas was thinking on how much he hated his father, and Namine just felt awkward. After walking for about five minutes, Roxas started to notice the city start to change around them. The once colorful skyscrapers he saw in the Moogle district started to disappear, Replacing them were bland grey buildings no taller than three stories high. The many people he had seen covering the streets earlier, had also seem to have vanished. The few people he did see were either wearing plain white lab coats or red and white uniforms, similar to Namine's robe.
Roxas then noticed that Namine and Sora were leading him to a long grey building that reminded him of a warehouse. There were no windows on the building and besides the front door, it looked like there was no other way to enter or exit the building.
"The training dojo is just up ahead," Namine said, finally ending the silence among the trio.
"Why did you bring Roxas here anyway Namine?" Sora asked. "Wouldn't you have showed him around the Moogle district if you wanted to give him a tour of the city?"
"I thought it would be a good idea if Roxas got to meet some people around the city," Namine said, "and since you, Riku, and Kairi are always down here at this time of day, I thought that I should introduce him to you guys first. Plus we were also hoping to see if your father could tell Roxas if he was able to manipulate his mana or not."
"Well Roxas, you better pray that you can't manipulate your mana," Sora jokingly said. " If you are, my dad is probably going to want to train you and all. And if you didn't get the hint earlier, trying with my dad is a real pain in the ass."
"Hey, if I can handle my father's training, than this should be a piece of cake." Roxas shrugged.
"You say that now," Sora said amusedly, "but just you wait until you actually do the training."
"Come on guys," Namine said, "let's get into the training dojo before Sora's dad becomes even angrier."
Sora frowned, "Ah man, I forgot my dad is still going to kill me for being extremely late to training." Namine and Roxas started to laugh at Sora's misfortune. "Hey come on guys, that's not very kind of you," Sora whined.
"Come on Sora, lighten up," Roxas managed to say through his laughs, "Everyone has to laugh at themselves sooner or later." A grin quickly grew on Sora's face and he said, "I guess your right Roxas. You know what? It's only been ten minutes since I met you and I can already tell we are going to become good friends."
With that Namine, Roxas and Sora entered the large doors to the training dojo.
If Roxas could choose one word that would best describe the inside of the training dojo, he would have probably chose the word "Wow."
When Roxas stepped into the training dojo, it was like waking up from a bad dream. Where as the outside of the Twilight district had been vacant and eerie, the inside of the training dojo was colorful and serine. The floors were covered with teal and white tiles, while the wall was painted with an ocean blue color. Across the floor, there were ten large training rings that Roxas guessed were used for sparring and practicing. On the sides of the building there were wooden dummies that were suspended from the roof by metal chains. Each dummy had two target marks on its body; one in the center of the head and one in the center of the chest.
In the training ring in front of the trio were sparring with wooden swords. The first person was a young man wearing a sleeveless black shirt and blue pants. He appeared to be around the age of seventeen or eighteen and he had shoulder length silver grey hair and a well tone body.
The other person in the sparring ring was a man in that looked to be around his mid thirty's. He had spiky light brown hair and a diagonal scar on his face that started above his right eye and ended on the left side of his nose. His eyes were fierce and were concentrated on the opponent in front of him. As Roxas, Namine, and Sora made their way towards the sparring ring, the man with the scar turned his head straight towards Roxas. Roxas felt as if the man's fierce eyes were burning a hole through him.
Just as Roxas thought that the man's gaze was going to turn him into a puddle, the man turned his attention to Sora. "You're two hours late Sora." The man's voice was deep and smooth as he spoke to the intimidated Sora. "Riku," the man said to the boy with silver-grey hair without taking his eyes off of Sora, "work a couple of drills on one of the training dummies." Riku gave a glare at Roxas before he hopped down from sparring ring and headed toward one of the wooden dummies.
"Well you see dad," Sora said nervously, "I was on the train early today so I could get more training done but since last night's training ran so late I-"
"You will train for four hours extra after we are done with today's scheduled training," Sora's father interrupted Sora without giving him a second thought.
"FOUR HOURS!" Sora yelled, "But I wanted to hang out with Namine, Riku, and Kairi after I was done with training."
"Well you shouldn't fall asleep on the train next time you plan to come to training earlier," The man said.
Sora wore a shocked expression as he said "How did you know I fell asleep on the train?"
"Sora you're my son," Sora's father said with an amused smirk on his lips, "I know more about you than you do. Now enough talk. Sprint twenty five laps around the training dojo and then go spar for twenty minutes with Riku. "
In a flash, Sora took off to do the laps, mutter words that nobody but himself could hear.
Still looking at Sora, the man said "I honestly don't know what to do with that kid sometimes," talking to nobody in particular.
After a moment of silence, the man turned to Namine and Roxas. "Anyway, how can I help you and your friend Miss Namine?" The man used a softer tone with Namine than he did with Sora.
"Good Afternoon Mr. Leonhart. I actually came down here today to see if you could help my friend here."
The man let out a sigh before he said, "Namine, how many times do I have to tell you don't call me Mr. Leonhart, it makes me feel old. I told you to just call me Leon."
Leon turned from Namine to Roxas and said "So, what's you're name kid?"
Normally Roxas hated when people called him a kid, but the intimidating aura that this Leon guy seemed to give off made him shut his mouth immediately. Anyway, it would be a bad first impression if my first words to this guy happen to start an argument. Roxas thought, especially if this guy happens to become my new teacher.
"My name is Roxas Strife," Roxas managed to say as he swallowed his pride. For an instant, Roxas could have sworn that he saw a shocked expression on Leon's face, but quickly dismissed the thought when Leon started to speak.
"Roxas Strife huh," Leon said "I thought you looked like Cloud when came in here. Your father still alive?"
When asked this, the nervousness that Roxas was feeling earlier was replaced with anger? "How the hell should I know if he's alive or dead," Roxas spat out, "He dumped me with his friend when I was five without telling me were he was going and I haven't seen him in twelve years."
After a couple second of silence "Sorry about bringing that up but that sure sounds like the Cloud I remember. A loner to the end I guess. Anyway, let's get back on topic. What seems to be your problem?"
"Well," Namine said timidly, "His father never told him about what was happening around him, leaving him ignorant to a lot of basic knowledge such as how to tell if he is able to manipulate his mana or not. We were kind of hoping if you could tell him or not."
"You know that I could never say no to you Namine," Leon said with a smirk on his face, "sometimes I wonder if I got the right child or not." Namine giggled at this.
"O.k. Roxas get over here," Leon commanded. Hesitating a little, Roxas cautiously made his way toward Leon. When Roxas was about a good three feet away from Leon, he noticed the obvious height difference between them. Leon was about a good head taller than Roxas.
"So, what do you plan on doing?" Roxas nervously asked.
"Well first I will transmit some of my mana into my hand and place it on top of your head," Leon began, "I will then be able to sense the state of the mana that is inside of your heart. If I feel that the mana is course and rough like gravel, then that means you can not manipulate your mana. However, if I feel that the mana is fluid and smooth like water, then that means you are able to manipulate mana. Before I perform this procedure, I think you should know that this process is extremely painful and most grown men who have had to endure this have cried. When mana, that has no healing intention, has intruded into your body from an outside source, it create an alien feeling that your body will try to reject. The rejection causes pain receptors in your nervous system to go off at random. I will ask you once and only once, are you sure you want to do this?"
After Leon's explanation, Roxas began to wonder if this was real worth knowing if he was able to manipulate his mana or not. He started to imagine the pain he might have to withstand if he went through with this procedure, but at the same time he just had to know the things his father had not told him.
Roxas felt a hand on his shoulder and he look to his side. "No one will think badly of you if you don't decide to do it." Namine said "Many people decided that it was not worth it and decided not to do it."
Roxas smiled at Namine and put his hand over hers. "Thanks for looking out for me Namine," Roxas said in his gentlest voice, "but this is something that I have to do."
He lightly lifted her hand off of his shoulder and turned towards Leon. Taking a deep sigh and looking straight into Leon's eyes, he said "I am positive that I want to go through with this." As he said this, he eyes seemed to fill up with confidence.
After looking into Roxas' eyes, Leon said "You really are your father's son." With that being said, Leon lifted his hand to his face and he close his eyes. After a moment or two, his hand started to illuminate a light blue color. He opened his eyes and locked them with Roxas'. "Are you ready?" he said as he looked down at Roxas.
Roxas took a deep breath and said "As ready as I will ever be."
'Than prepare yourself," Leon said as he brought his hand down towards Roxas' head. Roxas clenched his teethed as he prepare himself for the pain to come.
The moment Leon's hand landed on Roxas' skull, Roxas' body burst into sheer pain. It felt as if his whole body was engulfed in fire. Every pore on Roxas' skin screamed as Leon pulsed his mana into Roxas'. It was as though there was an invisible had that was probing around Roxas' entire body in the most painful way possible.
Through all off the pain, Roxas felt something roll down his cheek. Before he realized it Roxas was crying his eyes out. He hated himself for crying in front of other people but there was no way he could control himself. Crying showed weakness and that was the last thing he wanted to do. The last time Roxas cried was when his father had left him.
Roxas began to feel a strange sensation in his legs, and before he knew it, his knees began to buckle in. He was about to land on the floor until a pair of light arms caught him.
"Don't worry Roxas," Namine said, "I support your body."
"Hang in there," Roxas was able to make out what Leon said, "I'm almost there."
After a few more moments of sheer pain, Leon finally removed his hand from Roxas' head. As he lifted his hand from his head, Roxas fell into a slump in Namine's arm.
Leon wore a puzzled look as he stared at the hand that had just examined Roxas'.
Roxas was breathing hard after the examination and was still slumped in Namine's arms (he wasn't complaining though). Through his gasp, Roxas managed to ask, "So what's the deal Leon, am I able to manipulate my mana or not?"
Leon, still wearing a perplex look on his face, turned to Roxas and said, "It's strange Roxas, you have the ability to manipulate mana but it seems like there is as giant door blocking you flow of mana. This so called door is making it impossible for you to project your mana into this world."
"Is there anyway that can get rid of this "door" so that I can manipulate my mana?" Roxas said looking a bit disappointed.
"I'm no expert on the subject," Leon said, "but I do think that there may be someone who can help you. Meet back at this training dojo tomorrow at 7:00 sharp. There will be a man named Auron Ishikawa meditating on the top of the roof. Keep asking him to train you in the ways of mana, even if he keeps denying your request. If worse comes to worse, tell him that Leon sent you. Although he is old, he is one of the most skilled Chasers on earth, and he is also the person that trained your father."
"This is the guy who trained my father," Roxas exclaimed, "There's no way I'm going to miss being trained by the guy who taught my father."
Namine smiled and turned to Leon. "Thanks for all of your help
Leon."
"No problem Namine," Leon said, "listen, I know that you came here to hang out with Sora and Riku, but their going to be in for a rough day of training and they don't need any distractions."
"I understand," Namine said to Leon and then turned to Roxas, "Come on Roxas, I will introduce you to Riku some other time.
With that Namine and Roxas turned to the only door of the building and left.
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"I can't believe this Namine," Roxas said as he and Namine walked back towards the trains, "I'm going to be trained by the guy who taught my father. This has got to be one of the most exciting things that has ever happen to me!"
Namine lightly giggled at Roxas' action. In a way, they kind of reminded her of Sora.
"Oh and about earlier, when you tried to talk me out of going through with Leon's procedure and when you caught my body when it was about to fall," Roxas shyly said as he rubbed the back of his neck, "I just wanted to say thanks for looking out for me."
"Ah, that's sweet Roxas," Namine said, "but you don't have to thank me. I was just being who I was."
"Well then,' Roxas said, "thank you for being yourself," Roxas said.
They both laughed as they made their way toward the train station.