A/N: This is the calm before the storm. All the players come together. Yeppers.
Disclaimer: If I owned Kingdom Hearts, this'd be KHIII, and I wouldn't be posting this on the 'net.
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XXVIII: The Longest Night of Her Life
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Axel walked down the white hall, teal eyes glued to the white floor.
Twenty-six, twenty-seven, twenty-eight.
He stopped, and turned to his right. Sure enough, gold letters attached to the white door announced that this was number Six's room, the Cloaked Schemer.
He knocked.
Xemnas had asked the two former Organization members to stay in the Castle that Never Was for the time being, seeing that they had nowhere to go. He also did that to keep an eye on the two, and Axel could tell that he'd do anything to revert them back to their Organization selves.
But the possibility of doing so seemed nonexistent.
The door swung open unexpectedly, and Axel found himself face-to-face with a blonde priestess.
"Oh, Axel!" she bowed her head and smiled, emerald-green eyes bright. "Are you okay already?"
"...erm, not really," he said truthfully, running a hand through his fiery locks. "I just wanted to ask you...from you...how exactly did it happen?"
She stared at him, and sighed, looking to the side. "Well...it was in Twilight Town, on the field trip. I was in our room when Ienzo came in and said Zexion had fallen. I was so excited and well...Larxene just broke down. I can't really explain the feeling."
"No, no, it's fine."
"Axel?" she looked up at him. "I'm sure she's okay, don't worry about her. She's a strong woman...I should know, she's my Nobody. I'm really sorry."
"Thanks," Axel said stiffly. "Thanks for telling me. See you two around."
"Goodbye," she offered a smile, and Arlene closed the door in his face.
Axel stood in front of the closed marble door for five minutes, gloved hands curling into fists, and shard of heart breaking. Salt brimmed at the edge of his eyes, and his breath hitched as he walked away.
It felt more like a goodbye than anything.
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Light.
Light criscrossed.
Light faded.
King Mickey muttered a curse under his breath.
He had been trying to reenable the Cornerstone for more than an hour now, and he had found out that the Cornerstone takes the energy needed to do so from the one doing the Enabling. And right now, energy was something he was very short on supply of.
He was starting to realize he was going to need Rinoa's curative spells after all.
An irony...he was activating the Cornerstone to keep out the person who he needed to cure him. But if he didn't reactivate it, sooner or later the Heartless will figure out that Disney Castle is up for grabs, and they would come without mercy. All beings of the dark would come, and he was positive it was a sure way to throw away the crown.
...King Mickey had much, much more plans for Disney Kingdom.
Panting, he raised the Kingdom Key once more and directed it at the crystal ball of light that was the Cornerstone.
pat pat pat pat
swiish
King Mickey whirled around, and caught the sight of a platinum-haired boy and a redwine-locked girl running down the stairs towards him. The Way to the Dawn was clutched tightly in the taller figure's hand.
He felt all the color drain out of his face.
Maybe this was what Ansem the Wise felt when he realized what he did to Roxas and Naminé.
"King Mickey," Riku started, eyes narrowed and voice dangerous. "What...what--"
"What have you been covering up?" Kairi finished shrilly, tears forming at the edge of her beryl eyes. Her fingers curled into fists and she shook her head. "Why did you---?"
The Cornerstone behind him suddenly whirred into life, the bands of light within spinning rapidly. King Mickey backed away, wondering what in the world caused it to activate this function...He had only seen the Cornerstone do this once before, and it was when it banished the thorns of darkness caused by Maleficent.
Oh no, not Maleficent!
"What's it--" the girl stammered out before falling to her knees. A beam of light had shot out of the Cornerstone and aimed itself right where Kairi's heart should be. King Mickey watched, stunned, as another figure, just like Kairi, fell backwards onto the stone floor. It was pitch black with sickly yellow eyes.
"P-Princess!" he gasped. "You have an antiform?"
Kairi looked back at her other self and screamed. Riku immediately took her arm and forced her to stand up and stagger away from her antiform. Turning back, he caught another glimpse of those pale yellow eyes before another beam of light shot out of the Cornerstone, this time engulfing the ebony-black figure of a girl. With a familiar Heartless-scream, she disappeared into strands of darkness.
And the Cornerstone was silent once more.
King Mickey stared. No Princess of Heart should have an antiform; they were pure of heart, for crying out loud!
...wait. If I bring Sora here, then the Cornerstone will wash away Antiform...but he needs Antiform to live! Kairi doesn't since she never had an antiform in the first place...
"What the hell was that?" Riku's voice demanded, snapping him out of his thoughts.
"That," he sighed, "...is the banishment of Kairi's antiform."
"B-But she's pure of heart!" the Wielder countered, alternating a stare between him and the Princess. "She can't have an antiform!"
"Then what was it that you saw, then?" he asked testily, walking over and tapping the Kingdom Key in the spot where Kairi's antiform dissipated. "Kairi, if you have been feeling more hatred than usual..or you have been hearing a voice in your head telling you it's okay to hate and to be angry and so forth...that's your Antiform talking. I only hope to the Creator that you did not listen."
The only answer the redheaded Princess gave to that was clapping her hands to her mouth, horror reflected in her eyes.
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Roxas lay awake, staring at the white ceiling.
He shifted slightly in his bed, hoping for a more comfortable position. But the thing that hurt wasn't on the outside, but in the inside...
He touched a hand gingerly to his cheek and winced slightly. Even if he had a higher threshold of pain than normal Somebodies, Naminé's slap still hurt.
But her words stung him even more.
It was enough to bring tears to his eyes and to make him wonder why he even bothered to chase an impossible dream.
His mind wandered back, and paused at the drinking game Luxord had orchestrated, where the prize was having one of the other contestants as the winner's slave for one month. He had tried to stop Naminé from drinking herself silly, but she had slurred out that she wanted to win because she wanted him, Roxas, to be her personal slave...
"Nam... too much alcohol is bad for your health---"
"Rox hic tell me hic how exactly hic am I goin' to hic get sick when I'm hic not even hic alive," Naminé said forlornly, tracing her shotglass' rim with a precision unusual to those as drunk as she is right now. Her words stung Roxas; she had a point there---how could they get sick if they weren't even alive, they were just 'existing', and--
His brows furrowed again. "You're not alive, but you sure are drunk."
"Whaddya care hic go away hichic I won't let hic Larxy beat hic me---"
"Naminé, you may not be alive, but I don't want you to have a huge hangover tomorrow," Roxas pleaded as she drank her twenty-eighth shot.
"But hic I want hic to win, I want hic to get hic you as hic my slave for hic a month."
Roxas' eyes widened. She wanted him to ber her slave? "What did I actually do this time to deserve that?" he asked.
"Nothin' hic I just want you because hic you're hic I dunno hic maybe you're hic just so cute when hic you're annoyed and hic 'cause hic I like hic you..."
She said she liked me, Roxas thought, stealing a glance at the bed on the other side of the room. The blonde's back was to him, and it looked as if she was asleep. He felt his shard of heart twinge when he asked himself if 'like' always meant 'love'...
Sighing, he closed his eyes and tried to sleep.
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Naminé lay awake, staring at the white wall.
She let her tears drip slowly onto her white pillow, trying to quiet her sobs as much as possible. She didn't want Roxas to see how much she tried to hide her feelings, how much it hurt her to say those things.
The truth always hurts.
She bit her lip, and clutched convulsively at her white bedspread, tears coming faster now, warm over her sore cheek. Naminé touched two fingers to the throbbing skin, not minding the physical pain, but the pain brought by his words. They repeated themselves over and over again in her head: You're not a girl. Like you said, you're a Nobody.
God, that hurt so much.
Her mind wandered, and she came across her Other...Kairi.
With that, Riku.
The haunting feeling of being loved not for who she was but for someone she looks and talks and is actually a shadow of.
That's what Roxas loving her was like, wasn't it?
But, she wondered, ...was that really the truth, or was she just forcing herself to believe it?
Sighing, she closed her eyes and tried to sleep.
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"Huzzah!" Demyx exclaimed gleefully, shading in a final oval. "There we go!"
"You're finished?" Shelinda said wonderingly. He handed her the sheets of paper and beamed at the awed look on the Conductress' face.
He had been working on a piece for something like an hour now, inspired by the sheer presence of so many instruments around him and the praise of the brunette Conductress. The heck, he wasn't termed the Melodious Nocturne for nothing.
"Passion, huh?" she tapped a finger to the paper appraisingly. "This is for orchestra, right?"
He nodded, eyes searching the room for a violin. All were taken, except for Larxene's, which was mounted on the wall. Seeing how Shelinda was, she'd never let anyone else that the blonde herself touch it. "Yep. I wanna try the violin solo there."
"Why not?"
He got to his feet and walked quickly out of the room, mumbling something about getting a violin.
Demyx paused, having just closed the door. He had just heard Shelinda yell something that sounded like 'You can use--', but he had already shut the door, and the soundproof padding blocked her voice.
He stared down the long length of corridor, wondering where on earth he'd find a violin. Then an idea struck him, and he strode, almost skipped, down the hall.
Since he and the Superior were so chummy these days...why not ask him?
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Kairi shook her head slowly, trying to clear it. She...it was...so it was her Antiform...
...and she listened to it.
"What...what are you--" the King started, but she cut him off, remembering why they were here.
"Sora. He killed himself, didn't he? He's now somewhere out there on your command and...and..." she turned away, unable to look at the mouse monarch without getting the urge to kill him right then and there.
King Mickey paused. "Who told you...this?"
"Sora's Antiform."
He laughed nervously. "You know better than to believe the shadow of a fallen Keyblade--I did not just say that."
Kairi spun on her heels. "Fallen?"
"King Mickey," Riku said shakily, closing his eyes and taking in a deep breath. "King Mickey, just say that everything Antiform said was a lie. Just say it. Say that everything's okay, that Sora's fine, that he's still out there sealing the Worlds. Please..." he trailed off, silver bangs shadowing his face and hiding his eyes.
Kairi's heart went out to Riku. His best friend was no longer, and most probably Riku was blaming himself for not being concerned enough with Sora's whereabouts.
"King Mickey," he pleaded once more, the tip of his Keyblade resting against the stone floor.
"I---"
"Hey, King Mickey? I was just wondering if you have another violin I can--oh. Oh. I think this is a bad time."
Kairi looked over her shoulder and saw a blonde-mulleted gangly teen frozen in the act of descending the stone steps. He was outfitted all in black and silver, but what struck Kairi the most was his face. She had seen his portrait in the Castle that Never Was, when that Saïx had dragged her to her holding cell.
"Number Nine, the Melodious Nocturne!" she yelled, staggering back. "Riku! King Mickey! He's an Organization member!"
Demyx panicked and portalled out, leaving trails of darkness rising from where he disappeared.
"Aren't you going to follow him?" She yelled, turning back to the monarch.
Riku shook his head and bit his lip, a hurt look crossing his face. "He knows."
"I'm sorry," King Mickey said once more. "I'm so sorry, Riku, Princess Kairi. Everything Antiform said was true."
She felt her heart stop, and she fell to her knees, the coldness of the stone floor nothing compared to the coldness she was feeling right now.
She...she really did betray Sora.
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"Ugh," Marluxia muttered, brushing his hair out of his face," where is that pyro?"
He had been searching half the night for Axel, knowing very well that no matter how he denied it, number Eight still needed company. Stubborn pyromaniac.
He crossed the wide expanse of pavement in front of Memory's Skyscraper, eyes searching for any flash of red whatsoever. He had set all the Nobodies he could summon on finding the Flurry of Dancing Flames, but so far, none had come back alive to report on Axel's whereabouts.
This is getting crazy...
Marluxia growled, and stepped into Fragment Crossing. He almost bumped into Sora on the way, and he took a step back, groaning. "Hey, Wielder. Have you seen Axel anywhere?"
Sora looked over his shoulder and shrugged. "Nope. Good for him."
"Huh?"
He should've run when he got the chance, when he saw Sora's lips curve into a grin.
Regret always comes at the end, it seems.
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"Hey, Naminé!"
"Naminé, wake up!"
Roxas's eyes shot open, and he held his breath as he slightly turned his head and stole a glance. A panicked Demyx had portalled into their room and was pleading something with the blonde girl.
Girl, he thought. You're always a girl to me, never a Nobody, Nam.
"What, Demyx?" The blonde asked sleepily as she turned to face the musician. "It's what...ten-thirty in the evening...go away..."
"Naminé, I really need your help. Your Other and that guy Riku saw me. In Disney Castle."
Roxas smirked, unseen. King Mickey was going to get what he deserved; with a furious Princess of Heart and an equally furious Keyblade Master the King had nowhere else to go. But it made him feel a little pity for the King...what was it that had driven the monarch to take extreme means to protect the realm of light?
The more he thought about it...the better it had seemed to be justified. If Sora was bound to the Light, the realm of Light will be safe unconditionally. If not, and his Nobody had died...well, it was one death versus the death of many if King Mickey hadn't tried the binding in the first place. It was like...Sora was the test subject. An experiment.
For a second there King Mickey sounded horribly similar to DiZ.
He scowled at the name.
"...and so?" Naminé yawned widely. "Let them see you, what's the problem with --- ?"
Roxas stifled a yawn, wondering how yawns managed to be contagious. He was in the act of closing his mouth when suddenly excruciating pain shot through the general region of his chest, and it took all of his willpower not to gasp. He settled instead for gritting his teeth as the pain coursed through. Sweat dripped down his skin and he felt his hands and feet freeze; if this was what a heart attack felt like, then he's sure lucky he didn't have a whole heart.
The pain continued for several minutes, constricting his shard of heart. Then it slowly faded away, until all that was left was the sweat and the coldness and the rapid thud-thud of his shard of heart.
What the hell was that?
"...but Kairi recognized me!" Demyx interjected, becoming more and more panicked by the minute. Roxas, however, was thankful that none of the two Nobodies noticed his little episode. "King Mickey will kill me if Kairi then asks anything about Sora!"
"But -- "
"Nam, please!"
"Dem--"
"C'mon! You got to chain their memories down!"
"De--"
"Naminé!"
"DEMYX. SHUT IT, I'M GOING ALREADY. Just...just be quiet, okay?" she mumbled, stealing what unmistakably was a glance at Roxas as she swung her feet over the side of her bed. Roxas hurriedly closed his eyes and breathed rhythmically in the pretense of sleep. The soft footsteps of who he presumed was Naminé was heard, followed by a whoop of glee from Demyx and the opening of a portal to the Corridors. Then the sound of it closing. Then...silence.
Roxas quickly sat up, got to his feet, and opened a portal of his own, ignoring the fluttering of his chest as he did so.
He had got to see this.
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Naminé yawned. Again. And this time, she made no effort to cover it when Demyx closed the portal behind them.
They were standing in an underground room of some sort, judging from the stone floor and the stalactites hanging from the edge of the room. In the middle of it was a large glass sphere which served as the only source of illumination because of the slowly-spinning bands of light inside. Ah. If she wasn't mistaken, this was the Cornerstone of Light Xemnas was harping on a meeting many weeks before. Impressed, she walked up to it and pressed a hand to its cool surface.
Such a lovely protection...
"Naminé!" Demyx called irritably. "Chaining memories business here?"
"Oh," she turned backwards, smiling sweetly at the stunned looks on Kairi's, Riku's, and who she presumed was King Mickey. "Your memories, huh?"
"You...you!" Kairi yelled, lunging for her. Riku held her back, squirming in her grip. "Let me go, Riku! She chained my memories of Sora down! She's in the league with King Mickey!"
Naminé shook her head, and walked up to her Other. Kairi shot her a venomous look, and she laughed softly.
"Kairi, Kairi...If you haven't noticed, Xemnas was the one who collaborated with King Mickey...and that means Organization XIII stands behind him. But...I'm not one of either sides. I only did those because it was Sora's choice to do so," she paused, letting the words sink in. "He didn't want you to worry about him, even if he knew you could've cared for him less by that time, seeing that you already had Riku. He always thought of you, you know? Even if he had lost the ability to love a long time ago."
"Sora doesn't feel anymore, Kairi. He can't tell between warm and cold, between pain and comfort. He can't love or feel happy. All that's left are the hollow emptiness of a Nobody and the pain, anger and sorrow of a Heartless."
"You kept him from falling into the brink," Naminé continued boredly. "But you were the one who caused him to snap."
Silence hung in the air.
Kairi stared at her.
Riku suddenly straightened up and looked around the room.
"What, Riku?" she asked.
"Roxas. Come down here," the Wielder called out.
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"Heheh...for..got...you can...track..." Roxas staggered down halfway the stone steps, before losing his balance and rolling down the rest of the way. Demyx immediately rushed to his side, trying to help the youger Nobody up. The spiky-haired blonde was clutching his chest, gasping for air.
Riku narrowed his eyes as he watched the blonde struggle to get back on his feet and miserably fail. "What's up with you?"
"Like...hell...I...know," he choked out, hands and knees on the floor.
Riku turned to Naminé to ask, but the thought was suddenly banished by the look on her face, which was a highly toxic mix of disgust and anger. He turned to Kairi instead, but she was looking at number Thirteen with a horrified look on her face. Sighing, he turned to King Mickey, who, thankfully, had a neutral expression on his face.
"Have you any idea what's happening to Roxas?" he asked.
King Mickey's expression turned grim. "I have no idea, but it seems it has something to do with his heart. Shard of heart."
No duh, he's clutching at his chest and groaning, Riku wanted so much to say, but went against it.
Demyx shook Roxas' shoulders slightly. "C'mon, Rox, pull it together."
The blonde tried to smile weakly in reply, but only managed a grimace. "I think...I know what...this is," he breathed, hands curling into fists. "Three..."
Naminé shook her head and rolled her eyes.
"Two..."
"What is he counting off to?" Kairi asked nervously.
"...one."
A portal sprung up between them, and a very harried Xemnas stomped out.
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"What are you doing here!" Kairi hollered.
Xemnas didn't answer as her spun around, having heard a weak groan from behind him. His youngest, Roxas, was half-collapsed on the stone floor, eyes tightly shut and sweat beading on his brow as he clutched at the general region of his heart. "Roxas!"
"S-Superior," he tried to stand up, but he only managed to sit. Slowly he calmed, but he still shook slightly. "I-It was a shard...Sora's ripping them out."
A collective gasp rippled through the occupants of the room. However, Xemnas only shook his head resignedly and sighed. He clapped the boy on the shoulder, and, satisfied that Roxas was okay, turned back to the group.
Eyeing Riku, Kairi, King Mickey, and Naminé, (and internally wondering why they were all here in the first place; it took him a hell lot of time to find King Mickey) he decided to give up all secrecy in favor of saving Organization XIII. "We need help."
Riku narrowed his eyes. Kairi's eyebrows furrowed. King Mickey nodded and tapped his Keyblade on the stone floor. Naminé merely raised an eyebrow.
"I...I had just come across my second-in-command, Xigbar, lying in a pool of his own blood. Presumably, with shard of heart ripped out. Number Seven, Saïx, had informed me that the same had happened to Marluxia--"
Roxas let out a derisive laugh, and Xemnas ignored it.
"...I have a fallen Keyblade Master gone berserk on my hands, and I need your help to subdue him," he cleared his throat. "Permanently."
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Yawn.
"And he tells me I didn't get enough sleep," Sora snorted. "Come on, Darkie, falling asleep already?"
Shut up, I just yawned. Pssh. Like I'm going to miss this. Hell no.
The brunet laced his hands behind his head in his trademark carefree pose, whistling gleefully. He was careful not to trip over the unmoving blue-haired berserker as he stepped over, and he was just as cautious about not slipping on the blood. Yep. Blood was pre-tty hard to remove when it stained clothes.
"Well, I already got three," he mused, gazing up at the moon that was Kingdom Hearts. "Ten more."
Nuh-uh. My control and that blonde chick split one, right?
"So that makes eleven more."
Don't worry. You've got all night to do this.
"...yep. I've got all night to get back what's rightfully mine," he said aloud, staring dead ahead at the white length of the hall he was walking through. "Roxas will keep them safe for me. And then..." he brought his hand across his neck in a slicing motion. "I get my heart back."
So my control's been gettin' the shards? How come?
" 'cause I've become so evil even my own heart won't come near me," he laughed loudly. "But no worries. Soon enough, it'll have nowhere else to go but to me."
Smooth!
"Yep," he agreed, walking down the hall and stopping in front of a door. The gold letters V and I were mounted on it, near eye level. "Such a fun day we have today."
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SUCH A FUN DAY WE HAVE TODAY, NE?
Haha. I think I'm going insane.
And if you haven't figured it out, it all started in the afternoon (when Roxas and Naminé fought), and continues into the night. The 'she' I referred to was Kairi, and it's true.
SO THE END COMES.
Cuuute.
Haha.
Read and review! Flamers can go ahead.