Chapter 22: Kidnapped
Skye, Riku and Gaden were all in Skye's bedroom. Gaden was bouncing on the bed, and Riku was sitting on the floor at the foot of the bed, both watching Skye intently. She, meanwhile, was inspecting her weapons for the attack on Ansem.
"So, how do we know that Ansem's actually going to be at the Fortress?" She asked, looking up.
"Why wouldn't he be?" Riku asked in reply.
"Because he knows that we know where he is."
"He doesn't consider us to be a threat, so he's not going to get up and move just because we know where he is."
"Um, how are we not a threat...? I mean, just you and Sora alone have already destroyed him..."
"Ansem refuses to believe that anyone could possibly rival him and his Heartless."
"He overestimates himself." She said, poking the tip of her dagger into the carpet. She watched it thoughtfully; the shadows danced across the steel blade in an almost impossible fashion. It wasn't until the tip was entirely bathed in black that Skye pulled her dagger from the carpet, scrambling backwards. Ribbons of shadow snaked out of the ground towards her. Riku jumped to his feet to help her when Gaden let out a cry: similar dark snakes were coiling around him. Riku reached for him and tried to pull him from the shadows' grip. Skye stabbed at one of the ones attacking her, but it wrapped itself around the blade and ripped it from her grip. She was on her feet in a matter of moments, backing up into the wall and stepping nimbly around the tendrils of shadow striking out at her. She made her way slowly towards the bed, grasping the hand of Gaden's that Riku wasn't already holding on to. Always keeping half an eye on the shadows snaking towards her feet, she and Riku tried desperately to free Gaden. Then she gasped: Of course! Skye buried her hands in the shadows that had now completely enveloped Gaden's legs.
"Skye! What are you doing?" Riku asked, wide-eyed. She didn't answer, but a moment later, the shadow that had a hold on Gaden burst, sending blackened goop flying everywhere, flames exploding from within where Skye's hands were. Free from the shadows, Gaden was pulled from the bed by Riku and Skye threw more fire at the shadows to allow the three of them a clean getaway, only this time, her flames didn't have as drastic an effect.
"Run!" She ordered, skidding out of the bedroom after Riku and Gaden. Tentacles of shadow as thick as tree trunks shot out of the bedroom after them. They ran out into the hallway, pulling the door shut after them. Sora and Kairi were just on the other side of the door and they nearly collided.
"What's wrong?" Kairi asked, seeing the looks on their faces; Gaden had started crying.
"Run!" Riku said, pushing them rather forcefully out of the doorway as Skye scooped Gaden up into her arms and ran.
"What-!" Sora began to shout, but was silenced with the door all but exploded and the shadows forced their way through. Skye gasped, not having expected the shadows to break down the door with such ease. She stepped backwards, turned on her heel and ran, still holding Gaden in her arms. Riku armed himself and began to slash at the shadow snakes, though it didn't seem to have any effect on them. One shadow caught Skye around the waist and pulled her back, but she burned it, though it took a lot out of her and it didn't ever properly destroy the tendril, it just caused it to recoil.
"Why isn't it working?" She cried, running from the things again. Venus and Mars arrived moments later and formed a wall of stone between the shadow and Skye and Gaden. The shadows collided with it and the stone crumbled into dust, barely slowing down. Skye had come nearly full circle around, and was running back towards her own room, where the base of the shadow vines was, now thick enough to take up the entire doorway. A secondary off shoot emerged from the base and moved to cut her off; she was now surrounded, shadow tentacles coming at her and Gaden from both directions. In a last ditch attempt, Skye enveloped herself and Gaden in flames. The tentacles jabbed into the fire, and for a long moment, there was complete stillness and silence. Riku broke it first by sprinting towards the fire, cutting at the shadow vines every few steps, though it made as little difference as it had made before. Just before he made it, Skye and Gaden were pulled from the fire, thrashing against their unnatural captors. Riku caught Skye's hand as the vines drew her back towards the bedroom. The tentacles didn't even slow down, all it did was pull Riku along, flying through the air, behind. Sora jumped up and grabbed onto the tentacle between Skye and the base, desperate to do something to help. Kairi threw herself at the base of the vine, hoping perhaps to crush it in the doorway, but to no avail. A smaller tentacle shot out, caught her by the ankle and threw her down the hallway. Venus and Mars followed Kairi's line of thinking and tried to shrink the doorway, filling it with stone, in hopes that it might block passage back through. Again, however, it didn't work, and the extra stone in the doorway burst as the vine continued to retract into the room. Sora and Riku were still holding on, but when the vine finally shrunk back into the room, it made a whiplash turn to go back into the bedroom, throwing both Sora and Riku off of it and into the window. Sora collided with it first, bruised but otherwise uninjured. Riku hit it harder and faster, cracking the glass with his shoulder. And before anyone else could do anything else, Skye, Gaden and the vines completely disappeared, leaving only the damaged doorways, a crater-like hole in the bedroom floor and the mattress ripped to shreds. Riku stood up, stumbling towards the bedroom.
"Skye..." He murmured. Then, expression hardening, he punched the wall, the pressure reverberating into his shoulder. The pain made him dizzy, and darkness ate away at the edges of his vision. He collapsed to the floor as Sora walked in.
"Riku!" He pulled his friend back up into the sitting position. Riku gave his head a shake.
"But, we shared a paopu fruit... this wasn't supposed to happen." He sighed. "I guess it really is only a myth. I was stupid to think that it would actually work."
"No way. Don't say that, things will turn out okay."
"How can you say that? She was just eaten by an enormous shadow vine and I don't even know if they could possibly have survived it!"
"Ansem wants them to be on his side. They're too valuable to him for him to hurt them." Sora answered. Riku nodded and stood up, motioning for Sora to follow. They walked out of the room and towards the Council Room. Lodi and Jade were inside, still unaware of what had just taken place.
"Change of plans." Riku said, throwing the doors open. "We leave for the Fortress now. Ansem just took Skye and Gaden."
Skye groaned. She didn't bother to open her eyes; she didn't really want to know where she was. She knew that she was lying face down on a cold stone floor, and that it was very damp, but the air around her wasn't particularly cold.
"Hey! Lemme go!" Gaden's voice cried from somewhere near her. Her eyes snapped open and she saw a cloaked figure tugging on Gaden's arm, pulling him to his feet. She recognized the cloak as one belonging to Dax's cronies.
"Don't touch him." She threatened, furious. She pushed herself up into the sitting position, glaring at the cloaked man. He let go of Gaden and walked over to her.
"Still got that fire in you I see. Spirit is dangerous in a woman. Show too much spirit and some men might be inclined to break it." Rio said, pulling back his hood. Skye stood up.
"Don't touch me either, for that matter." She ordered. Rio chuckled cruelly.
"Highly unlikely that I won't." He said, grabbing both of her upper arms.
"Remember what happened last time?"
"Try it." He said, smiling cruelly. She sneered back at him and kneed him in the groin. He jumped backwards, shouting a string of obscenities at her. He fell back, landing hard on his tailbone. She stood over him, arms crossed.
"Careful, next time, I'll burn it." She said, taking Gaden's hand and putting herself between him and Rio. A single person's applause broke the thick silence. Skye looked up and saw another cloaked man walking down a staircase towards them. It was the first time she'd taken notice of her surroundings. It looked like she was in some sort of reception hall.
"Well done Skye." The newcomer said, almost mockingly. He looked down at Rio. "Get out of my sight. I'll deal with you later." He added coldly. Rio got to his feet and slunk away, glaring at Skye as he did so. Skye watched the stranger warily as he approached.
"Who...are you?" Gaden asked, peeking at him from behind her. The cloaked man leaned over so that he was at eye level with Gaden and pulled back his hood, grinning wickedly.
"Come now, don't you recognize you own father?"
Sorry for the shortness, but I felt the need to include a gasp-worthy ending to this chappie, and plus I can't seem to add anything else to it as of now. Maybe the writer's block will go away if I have a fresh slate to work from... anyways, review all!