I would like to thank my friend and author Kateracks for inventing the lovely little guard boy (though none of us know that yet), and also for creating a version of herself as Number XIV in the organization (named Katex, very creative eh?). And...I would also like to thank the creators of One Piece, the anime show, for allowing me to use Zoro, Luffy, Nami, and Sanji to create a wonderful side plot in my story.
"Come on girl, you have to eat something," the soft voice begged, "Lionel will kill me if you don't eat anything."
I looked up into the face of the young guard who was watching over me and then to the halfway decent seeming food in his hands. He was kneeling in front of the bed I had curled up on. I had streams of tears pouring down my face because I thought Nori was actually dead.
Surprised for a moment, the boy commented, "Oh, I thought you were anime from your hair." I had changed into the kimono and pulled my hair back. After a second, he pulled a spoonful of the soup from the bowl and insisted, "Please eat."
I took the bowl just to make him happy and stirred it around since I still didn't really want to eat. Tia Dalma came into the room, asking the guard to leave. He agreed, slightly satisfied that the food was at least in my hands. Resting a hand on my shoulder, Tia comfortingly led me to a window in an adjoining room.
"Loo'," she pointed to out the window to the light that had returned, "Nori's feelin' better now."
"What do you mean?" I asked, confused.
"There woul'n't be any ligh' if 'e weren't still 'live."
"Wait, that doesn't make any sense…he said you control the weather."
"Aye," Tia assured—or questioned, I wasn't exactly sure which. "Bu' I give 'eem da ligh'."
It quickly made sense why light returned the first time when we first got to Fiction-land and why everything was so gloomy when Nori was feeling depressed. But why did she give it to him? Then, it dawned on me. She knew Lionel would take her captive that day whether she let Nori die or not. She knew I would come save him, so she knew if she acted like she didn't care, Lionel would think of her as easier to break. While she was being broken, however, she didn't want Fiction-land to be entirely lost to the light, so she passed the light on to a person she knew could survive a lot. I asked her, just to make sure I had guessed correctly.
"Aye," she replied at the end, adding, "Bu' 'e don' know 'e have it. If 'e know, Lionel know. Thas why we use Nori an' not Wesley."
"Wha'?" I questioned, still confused. That didn't make sense to me. I knew I had created Wesley to withstand the pressure to give away information. It's not like he would tell the world he had it or anything.
"Nori's happy enou' ta geeve ligh' to da worl' wit'out knowin' eez doin' it," Tia Dalma explained.
"Yeah," I concurred, finally understanding, "it's pretty hard to make Nori sad." Then, I went back to sitting on the bed and picked up the bowl of soup. "Is this stuff any good?"
Tia Dalma just shrugged.
Nori walked somewhat grumpily behind the three others. They were all happy, which was making him mad—one because he had just died again, two because he lost me, and three because he didn't want either of the two girls to be there. Of course, they were thrilled about being in Fiction-land and were excitedly remarking at every little detail…everything that he had already once explained to me.
Vash too was happy—after all, he had donuts; what more did he need—so he was making Nori explain things over again and complaining about Nori's apathetic mood. The only thing that made Nori happy was to see their home in the distance. It meant he could pretend his head still hurt, go back to bed, and ignore everybody. It didn't turn out that way, though.
As soon as he opened the door, Sora grabbed his arm and demanded, "Where did you go?"
"I had something I had to do," Nori replied. "Since when does it matter?"
"Since things started getting so serious."
"Hey, you know what, I'm fine aren't I? I had Vash with me and his giant nuclear bomb on his arm. Nothing bad was going to happen," Nori defended, pushing Sora's hand off his arm.
"I'm not worried about you Dude," Sora countered, pulling Nori far enough into the house that he could see Chiyo on the floor in his room crying. "I'm worried about that."
All the anger that had built up in Nori throughout the day melted away. His heart fell to pieces to think he was the one who made her cry. Sora walked away to leave the two of them alone, and Nori carefully walked into the room. He slid to the floor next to her and leaned his head on her shoulder.
After a second of listening to her sob, he began, "Hi Chiyo…What's wrong?"
She looked up with a sniff. "You scared me Nori; you left me."
"What's the matter with that? You knew I'd come back, didn't you?"
"I promised to never let go of you, and when I woke up, you were gone…We haven't seen each other in a whole year, and then, just like that, you were gone again."
Stroking her hair comfortingly, Nori stated, "But it was you that left last time Chiyo. Nothing ever happened to me. I've just been waiting for you."
Chiyo shivered, so Nori pulled her into his arms and ran his hand up and down her arm to warm her, or comfort her, or fix whatever the problem was, as she cried, "I haven't seen any people in a year, and I've never ever been to Fantasy-land, so the people I do see aren't people I've ever seen before—not that I'd be likely to recognize anyone but you. Even your narrator doesn't sound familiar. Your voice is the only one I can remember." She stopped for a moment to take a breath. "Please just hold me, and cuddle me, and whisper in my ear, because that's all I want to do right now."
So Nori did. He pulled her head to his chest and rested his chin on it to whisper things to her. Figuring it would help her be comfortable around his new friends, he told her funny stories about them, starting with Sora…
Some time later, Warren burst into with the room Dusty in one hand and Becca in the other and demanded, "Who are these two girls that were sitting in my hammock?"
Nori looked up innocently and explained, "That's Tiara's sister Dusty and their friend Becca."
"You idiot!" Warren exclaimed, "You keep bringing these teenage girls up here! Why can't you bring us someone helpful?"
"I could be helpful if I wanted to," Becca noted. "I just choose not to be."
Dusty slapped her from across Warren. "You're not helping any," she said.
Nori laughed quietly. In anger, Warren formed a small fire ball and flung it at Nori, purposefully missing by an inch. "Hey, what was that for?" Nori complained.
"It's not funny. No one is allowed in my room; you know that, but no, you had to bring two more completely useless teenage girls and let them mess around with my stuff."
Dusty wanted to say something, but she didn't get the chance because Nori quickly defended himself, "It's not my fault they were in your room. I came straight here when I got home. If it's such a big deal to you, you were in the living room when they got here. You should have stopped them."
"Right, I was in the living room," Warren said sarcastically.
"That's what you get for volunteering to go get chips and soda. Now your pillows are gonna smell like girls," Sora noted with a tinge of Warren's sarcasm, as he came in from the living room.
"I didn't volunteer, I got volunteered because Roxas was afraid I'd beat him again."
"Whatever," Sora rolled his eyes, officially ending the argument. "Now that everyone's here, alive, and awake at the same time, let's meet and see what all happened today…and why darkness keeps flashing in and out."
Sora left and Warren grumpily followed, still holding the two girls by the arms. He intended to keep an eye on them and make sure they didn't cause anymore trouble than they already had. Nori climbed to his feet and then helped Chiyo up as well. Smiling a question to her, she returned a smile in reply that said, "Yeah, I guess we can go out there," so they went to the living room for the conference.
Nehemiah presided over the meeting, so as soon as everyone had scattered themselves about the living room with various chairs or pillows, he began, "All right we have three new people: Becca, Chiyo, and Dusty," he pointed to the three girls in turn, "they're all here. We have all the not new people: me—here—Nori."
Nori answered, "Here."
"Roxas and Sora," Nehemiah called.
"Both here," Sora replied.
"Warren."
"Here," he mumbled grumpily.
"All right…and then the new people who aren't so new: Tiara's not here, Vash is here, and Wesley…where's Wesley? Warren, he didn't come back with you?"
"No," Warren responded cautiously. Then he explained:
We were walking back from the store when Wesley randomly asked, "You're not Sora, are you?"
"No," I replied, confused as to why he would ask.
"He's the short one then, with the really weird hair?"
"Yup…why do you ask?"
He tilted his head toward the right, pointing out the man I'd fought the night before, and whispered, "That man's lookin' for 'im…He seems pretty desperate 'bout it too."
"And you know this how?"
Wesley just smiled guiltily. He had done that every time someone had slightly mentioned the things that happened to him while they were all escaping. I was starting to get suspicious about him when the Flaming Maniac caught sight of us and seemed to grow ten times more angry than he had been the second before.
When he started towards us, Wesley shoved me further from him and ordered, "Run."
I would have done so, but he didn't run with me. Confused, I stood there with a questioning look on my face.
He repeated the order and then explained, "If you're not Sora, he's not really after you. Staying here will only get the both of us in trouble."
I didn't know what he meant by that, but I knew that if I asked, he wouldn't tell me. Instead, I pretended to leave and hid behind some bushes a little ways away to watch.
The Flaming Maniac grabbed his wrist angrily and commented, "You're a liar!"
"I am not!" Wesley insisted. "Well, actually I am, but I swear I never lied to you…not that you're one to be talking. Whatever happened to absolutely free?"
"That…was an accident," he admitted, "but you're free enough now, aren't you?"
"Well, what do you want then?" Wesley demanded, freeing his wrist.
"Xaldin's pretty mad that you lied to him."
"I didn't lie to you!"
"Where's Sora then?"
"Well, he's not there now, but I swear—by a thousand years of servitude to Davy Jones—that he was there."
"Right," the Flaming Maniac agreed sarcastically. "We'll see about that, but since I really don't feel like fighting you right now," he gestured to another person in the same cloak with short, blonde hair, "we're going to do this the easy way."
The blonde one didn't even move. He just looked over and Wesley turned into dice. The Flaming Maniac put Wesley in his pocket, and they all disappeared through a portal before I was even able to stand up.
He finished, "Not that I mind any. He was clearly working for them."
"That's impossible," Dusty interrupted, "Wesley would never do something like that."
Everyone looked to Nori, expecting him to explain to her—just as he had explained to me several times—that characters aren't necessarily the way they were created, but instead, Nori sighed, "I find it hard to believe he would do that too. Why would he save my life if he were working for Organization XIII and CrawFish?"
Wesley was finally let out of the dice inside of a jail cell. He stretched, happy to be able to move again, but when he realized where he was, he pounded his fist on the floor.
"Damn, not another bloody prison!" He shouted in anger. Then, he noticed who was on the other side of the bars. There was Axel and Demyx and the one that scared Wesley, and the guy who turned him into a dice. These strange people with weird hair and magical powers who all dressed alike were multiplying very quickly. He was starting to regret making himself their enemy—or slave, depending on the moment.
"Why'd you lie to us?" Demyx asked.
Defensively, Wesley gestured to Axel, "Like I already told him, I didn't lie to ye! Sora really went to Aerith's place, an' that's why he's all merrily walkin' around now! Is it really my fault if he left before ye got there?"
The dice guy chuckled slightly. "It certainly is nice to hear a familiar voice. Where are you from? Below a bridge somewhere?"
"No, uptown London, an' I ain't no Cockney neither," Wesley answered.
He just chucked again. A slight, "No?" came from his mouth in disbelief. After all, Wesley hadn't sounded very proper at all.
Wesley took a deep breath to calm himself, knowing that he always fell back to pirate slang when he was frustrated, and replied, "My father is the governor of Port Royal, which makes me equally adequate in acting the part of pompous, proper, British ass as you are."
"Son of the governor," the third cloaked man mumbled interestedly to himself. Not that it mattered in Fiction-land who Wesley's father was. Parents were usually only parents in the story.
The British man was offended; though, he refused to show it, simply retorting, "More likely, he's the son of a biscuit eater."
No one understood that insult except for Wesley who was familiar with the phrase that meant: your father was a sailor who got your mum pregnant, disappeared, never returned, and most likely died. Wesley was immediately to his feet and at the door.
He rested his hands on the bars, leaned through the door, and insisted, "I am not!"
The British man got close up in Wesley's face and whispered, "No one learns to speak like that unless their father does not teach them, and whose father refuses to teach their son unless there is no father? You obviously learned to speak English on a ship."
"That I did!" Wesley agreed loudly. "But that is not to say my father never taught me the proper way. I know perfectly well how to speak the language; I simply choose not to think that hard when I could be pondering how I shall escape from this brig in front of your very eyes."
He thought for a second and then stated, "I knew it! You're a pirate."
After a moment of Wesley staring blankly at him, trying to figure out how he guessed that, Wesley calmly responded, "Interesting deduction; though, I am not certain how you came to such a conclusion."
"The son of the governor," the British man explained, beginning to pace, "is left on a ship where he is not surrounded by the proper influences of Lieutenants and others of his class, and instead learns insubordination and how to defile his own language without regret. No other way could a lad your age stand before us and state with such confidence that you would escape our custody. What other ship could teach a child that?"
"I admire your reasoning Sir," Wesley stated. Then, emptying his pockets and handing a bunch of stuff to the British man, he continued, "Here are your things back."
"What?" Demyx asked, confused.
Axel grabbed something from the British man, noting, "Hey! That's mine."
The British man looked silently to Wesley for an explanation. Wesley smiled and explained, "That's everything I've stolen from the four of ye today. There should be things that belong to each of ye. Figure we best start things off on the right foot."
"What do you mean?" The third one, who kind of had dreadlocks, asked with some humor in his voice—the way Barbossa or Koehler, Wesley's worst enemies, would talk.
"As a pirate you can legally torture me for any reason you want, and I just happen to know you have a reason…By the way, the answer is no. I won't tell you."
He shrugged, "Well, you said you wanted to know what I could do."
"You don't look too hot," commented the girl who had just entered the prison area. Wesley didn't have to look up to tell she was a girl, but he did a little anyways. Surprise, surprise, she was dressed like everyone else.
He shrugged from the back of his cell. "Hmm, I've felt worse." He pulled his sword out of it's sheath, boredly admired it for a second, and tossed it aside, knowing it wouldn't help him against these people. Were they trying to intimidate him by using a different person each time? How many had he met? Eight? This was the first girl heed seen, but he was sure there would be more. The strange thing about her was she actually looked like a normal person, without the unnatural, gravity-defying hair.
Wesley walked up to the door, exaggerating the little limp he had and brushing his hair out of the way, so the girl could clearly see the cut on his cheek. She gulped slightly, and Wesley smiled.
"It's nothing…What's your name?"
"Katex," the girl replied, unsure if she should tell him or not.
Wesley wondered what was up with all the weird names—Demyx and Katex were the only ones he knew—but he simply responded, "Well then, Katex, when you leave would you mind telling the man with the six weird sticks that it hurt worse when ol' redhead fought me this morning, that I've clearly recovered from both, and that I'm starting to get bored." He smiled again and mindlessly glanced at his fingernails to emphasize the bored part.
Katex chuckled. "You have a deranged sense of enjoyment, you know that? I guess that's why Xaldin likes you so much."
"Who's he?" Wesley asked dumbly, raising one eyebrow.
"The man with six weird sticks," Katex answered with a laugh. When Wesley's expression didn't change a bit, she continued, "Honestly! He walks around telling everyone about you—mostly how he tricked you and beat you, but still! He likes you, and I think it's 'cuz you've got that much in common."
"That we both gain a deranged sense of enjoyment from my suffering?" Wesley asked to make sure he understood what they had in common. Resting his elbows on the bars, and leaning onto his hands, he continued, "Honestly, it's not really a pleasant thing for me; though, I'd like your friend to think I enjoy it as much as he does. It's a mental thing…if I get back up and smile after every time he knocks me down, eventually he'll get bored."
"Or you'll die," she added bluntly.
"I'm not afraid to die…I'm afraid of Demyx's magical buckets of water, but I'm not afraid to die."
Katex broke out laughing. Wesley waited patiently for her to stop laughing. When she finally had, after almost falling out of the chair she was in, Wesley smiled again.
"Well, are ye gonna go get 'im?" He inquired after a second. "The sooner he gets here, the sooner he'll get bored, the sooner I get out."
She just shook her head. Wesley started pouting, and Katex gave in.
"I don't get you, Pirate Boy, but if you're going to force me…" She stood to her feet and created a strange oblong board that she used to move around on. "Be good," she ordered as she slid away.
Wesley called after her, "No worries! It's not like there's anywhere I can go."
A second later, when he was sure she was gone, Wesley walked over to the edge of the cell door to examine the source of the strange, glowing bars. They seemed to be coming in a continuous flow from two small pieces of metal…magnets maybe. He went back to the rear of the cell to grab his sword. Then, eventually he was able to pry the two magnets apart and stuff the blade of his sword between them. The flow was disrupted, and the whole door disappeared.
Wesley smiled. "That's what I thought," he congratulated himself quietly as he walked through the now open doorway. Grabbing his sword because he didn't want to lose it—and because it would confuse his captors more if they didn't know how he got out—he closed the door behind him and ran down the hallway.
Xaldin and Katex returned to the cell to find Wesley gone and their boss Xemnas glaring angrily into the cell. Immediately, Xaldin turned to Katex and shouted, "This is why you don't leave the prison area when you're dealing with pirates!"
"You weren't mad at her five minutes ago," Xemnas noted, turning toward the two inferiors, "before you found out he was gone. In fact, you asked her to wait a minute so you could finish what you were doing. Now what were you doing again? Let's see…oh yes, you were getting after Axel for letting him go the first time."
That embarrassed Xaldin because he knew he had been caught. He smiled sheepishly.
"Whoa," Demyx interrupted, having just rounded the corner with Zexion, and noticing that Wesley wasn't in there anymore. "How'd he get outta there?"
Zexion brushed his silver hair out of his face for a second and began to explain, "Well that's simple. He just—"
Xemnas broke in, "Doesn't matter. Just catch him again, and next time he won't escape." Everyone obeyed, turning to chase after me, but Xemnas stopped Zexion, noting, "You knew there was a way to break out and you didn't fix it yet?"
Zexion gulped before answering, "But Sir, I told you when we built this, if you want it made this way, there is no way to fix it."
Somewhere in the middle of that sentence, Xemnas ordered, "Make it impossible to get out."
Wesley knew he couldn't stop running. He also knew he was lost, but if he ran down every hallway, eventually he'd find the door. He found Axel long before he found the door. Slamming on his breaks, Wesley turned and slipped into a room. It was a mess, with dirty clothes scattered around the room, but it had a window in the back. Walking to the window and opening it, Wesley realized it was close enough to the ground for him to jump out. When he hit the ground, he tumbled a little, having hit it harder than he expected, but he could now see the gate to the building. Now knowing where he was going, he climbed to his feet and started running again.
Axel suddenly appeared out of a portal halfway between Wesley and his escape, asking, "How'd you get out?"
Wesley smiled and turned to run the other direction. After rounding the corner of the building, Wesley got far enough ahead that Axel couldn't see him any longer. Taking advantage of that, Wesley hid behind a wall and waited. A moment later, Axel came around the corner as well. He paused, surprised to not see Wesley, but figuring he was just really slow that day, he kept running around the building. When Axel was no longer in sight, Wesley started back to the gate.
As he turned the corner he had just come around the second before, he ran into another person. He was relieved that this person wasn't in the same black cloak, but for some reason Wesley was afraid of him too. Perhaps it was the short, green hair, but Wesley didn't think so. Both of them drew their swords in shock; however, the green haired man had three and would probably win.
"Have I met you before?" Wesley questioned nervously, "I know I don't recognize you, but for some reason, you scare me. So I think I'll just go the other way." Wesley started backing away from the man.
"I'm Roronoa Zoro," the man answered, allowing the third sword to drop from his mouth in a sort of surprised way.
"That would be why!" Wesley exclaimed, realizing who the man was and turning around to run away. He was not the best person to run into when you're a pirate.
Zoro called after him, "I'm not a pirate hunter anymore Wesley," adding to himself, "most people know that by now."
A moment later, Wesley came flying back around the corner and ran to hide behind Zoro begging, "Will you protect me from them?"
Zoro laughed, jokingly adding, "But if I were still a pirate hunter I would most certainly kill you. You're incredibly wanted by the authorities, yet surprisingly easy to trick."
"Shush," Wesley commanded. "That's not nice. Just hide me!" He positioned himself back-to-back with Zoro in a way that no one could see him from the front.
"Who are you hiding from?"
Peeking over Zoro's shoulder for a second, Wesley saw Demyx, Katex, and Xaldin and whined, "Them!"
Zoro allowed a little fear to cross his face. "All three of them…at the same time?" He asked just to make sure.
"Four, actually," Wesley corrected, "if you count the one I tricked into running the wrong direction."
"Oka-ay," Zoro said, thinking. "I…like your idea. Run!"
Both of them quickly sheathed their swords and ran towards the gate. Axel once again got in the way before they escaped.
"That would be the other one," Wesley noted.
They instantly found themselves surrounded on four sides, but that was okay. They had a total of four swords. Three of them belonged to one person, and he somehow managed to fight with all three at the same time, but Wesley was just glad he wasn't dead yet. Wesley dodged a swipe from one of the "six weird sticks" and grabbed it to swing it back at Xaldin.
"That actually worked surprisingly well," Zoro complimented. He had lost one of his swords, so he didn't have one in his mouth at the moment.
"Thanks," Wesley was able to get out as he ducked from another attack. After a second, he wondered, "Why are you here anyways?"
"Tiara told me Queen Dalma was most likely trapped here. I couldn't resist the adventure," he replied, having knocked Demyx to the ground and quite a ways away.
"Here?" Wesley questioned curiously. "Tiara told me she was in Writers' Block…but then, that was before Tiara got captured. Tiara is captured, isn't she?"
"I don't think so," he answered skeptically. Another second later, he commented, "Oh, look! There she is."
Two orange haired girls were approaching from the side. Neither of them were me, the Tiara Wesley was obviously talking about. Wesley looked at the two girls for long enough to figure that out, before the distraction allowed someone to pound him on the head.
Wesley fell to the ground, slightly mumbling, "That's not Tiara," and then he passed out.