Xejicka: What are you going to do to me? -still crouching in fear-

Sephiroth: I'm not going to do anything. My fangirls will.

Xejicka: Nooooo!

Thalkxene: Hey, Sephiroth, I got some materia!

Sephiroth: Where? -starts to frantically run to Thalkxene-

Xejicka: My chance! -pushes Sephiroth off side of platform-

Sephiroth: I'll kill you in your sleep!!!! -falls into darkness-

Xejicka: Crap. I did not think that one through...

Disclaimer: I do not own the Kingdom Hearts Series, the Final Fantasy Series or any of the comics done by psycrowe, whose humor offered the plot bunnies I needed for part of this chapter

Thalkxene: Sephiroth really is going to kill you.

Xejicka: I know, I would like to say a couple things though. This is a long chapter and I should have put part of it in the prior one. Some of my regrets. I would also like to thank SacredxMoon for letting me use a reference to one of her OCs. You should read her fanfiction, it's awesome.

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Chapter 16: Ball of Masquerade Hearts Pt. 2

Xemnas

Jackie was shaking in the silver haired man's arms. Fear consumed her spirit when she was with this man. Her tail was even wobbling as it stuck visibly out of her dress. Yet she didn't know why this fear ate at her.

"Stop shaking," he ordered gently. That voice, it nearly stunned Jackie. Her fear only increased. "Do you have any family?" he asked after a couple of minutes.

"Uh, uh, yes," Jackie sputtered fearfully. "I h-had a couple of sisters, a brother, two parents and their fiances. I hope they survived Earth's destruction," she answered as she looked sadly to the ground. "You?" she asked as she lifted her head a little.

"I have none. I do remember that if I were to have a daughter, I would have named her Lucrecia,"

"That is a lovely name,"

"It is. Answer me this. Do you envy your friends in how they have sanctuary in another world?"

"Of course I do. They left me behind in a hell. I'm constantly hurt everyday. They're probably having fun right now," Jackie said as she bent her head down a little. A couple of tears slid down her face from under her mask.

Then silver haired lifted her chin with his hand. He cracked a small smile. Things would go far smoother than he ever expected. The woman garbed in violet quickly ran behind Jackie.

"I think you've spent enough time dancing with this one man," she said to Jackie with a small grin. "I think you should dance with this handsome young gentleman," she suggested as she edged a blindfolded, silver haired teen over to Jackie. She jumped into his arms without hesitation. She would have done anything to have gotten out of that other man's grasp. He put an unknown fear in her heart. The violet clad woman went into the silver haired man's arms.

"Hello, Xemnas," she coolly said with a smile

"Hello, Fate,"

"Was your dance with Jacquelyn enjoyable and informative?"

"She will be much more easier to manipulate than I expected."

"Yes. Her heart is delicate. If you want to see its full potential, you should do more experiments on her heart. It was no where near ready when you thought it to be,"

"You nearly killed me,"

"I had to send off a high enough frecuency to make sure your Luna Diviner wouldn't aid you in the final experiment, Tell me, Xemnas, have you used the castle I found for you?"

"No,"

"I suggest you start sending some of Organization XIII there. They could do great experiments on the heart and memories there. Before the young heart goes to the castle, I will need to you to deliver her a few gifts," Fate said as a few large rings mysteriously appeared between the two dancers. "The wonderful thing about them is that they will ensure utter control over her," she went into reference to Jackie.. Xemnas grabbed the rings. "I'll see you off," Fate said as she quickly paried off Xemnas with a blonde in yellow.

Jackie and Durus

Jackie continued to dance with the blindfolded guy. She felt she had seen this guy before. She looked at his blindfolded face. He danced very well, despite the fact that it appeared that he couldn't see. She smiled at the guy and he smiled back. An invisible connection that brought comfort to both teens.

"I feel like I met you before," the blindfolded teen said. Jackie stared at him.

"I highly doubt we have," she said. "I have to say that you are an awesome dancer,"

"Thanks," he said in return "The music is about to become faster. Follow my lead," he warned as the music changed. It became very fast and Jackie was barely able to catch up.

Fate and Luxord and Another Man?

Much to her dismay, Fate was stuck with none other than Luxord.

"Fate," he said with a grin.

"Luxord, the traitorous gambler of Fate," Fate said with a cold voice. The music became faster and the gambler and the mage went into graceful hand to hand combat that looked like dancing.

"Still as graceful as ever," Luxord coolly said.

"I try to keep things formal at my own ball," Fate said as she twisted around Luxord. She side stepped as she twisted and kicked. "You gambled your heart, you stole some of my power as well as degrade my name,"

"I feel that the name suits me well. Why do you call me by my new name, Fate?" Luxord said as he quickly turned and grabbed Fate's foot. She quickly yanked her foot up and hit the gambler in the face.

"Acknowledging you for who you once were would only complement you. I shall get my revenge on you one day," Fate vowed as Luxord recovered. He quickly struck out his left hand and hit Fate's mask. Her whole face was revealed to the gambler and only the gambler. A smile cracked on his face.

"And you still haven't healed from my damages," he said as Fate quickly adjusted her mask. Rage swallowed her. She cursed a little as she charged up and knocked Luxord to the ground with a strong hit of her fist.

"May your heart rot in darkness," Fate spoke as she looked at the fallen man.

"It's strange how I finally see through your mask," Luxord said as he quickly kicked Fate in the legs abd knocked her to the ground.

"I only let people see me if I plan to have business with them. You should have known that out of all people," Fate said as she got up from the ground and dragged Luxord up with her. She went back to the dancing position. "We must keep composure," she stated as they started to dance.

"Always with the formalities,"

"This won't be the last time we meet. I shall exact my revenge on you. For now, we will dance," With that, the mage and the gambler danced at a fast pace, though it still looked like fighting because they refused to touch each other.

Several minutes later, the ball was silenced. Fate was at the highest platform "I would like to bring attention to everyone that you are now free to dance with whom ever you desire. Cherish this time and let your heart decide," she stated to everyone beneath her. Immeadiately the crowd dispersed. Fate turned around to face an unmasked Asian man in a tuxedo.

"Should they be allowed to continue on dancing?" the man asked in Japanese.

"Why not? They deserve to have fun and to have a choice. Let them do what their heart desires. You should do the same," Fate answered in perfect Japanese. The Asian man turned to Fate.

"Would you like to dance," he asked with a smile.

"I would love to, Sama," Fate replied as she gave a small bow to the man and they began to dance.

Matt vs. Xaldin

Matt was free from the short, poofy haired girl's hold. Ever sinc ehe woke up in this place, there was one thing he had to do. The music gave out a good beat and then he did it. Matt danced.

It was no ordinary dance. It was good dancing. The guy did all of the famous dance moves, even the famous Michael Jackson crotc hgrab. People started to circle around him. Logan even started to bust a berat as Matt continued to dance. Another person butted into the circle. This man had long, black dreadlocks that aseemed to flow ever this way and that. He started to dance just as well as Matt. They had met each other's equal. Then the dancing became intense.

Hell was starting to break loose in the circle. Matt threw off his jacket, hat and tie as he ran in a circle to the point that his head made contact with the ground and he started spinning on his head. The dreadlocked man did the same. They were rapidly spinning, Matt was gaining a small profit as girls started to drop munny in his hat. Torey got kicked in the face dreadlocked man. He fell over and knocked Liam, which in turn, knocked dowm Logan. The bust a beat stopped and so did the dancers.

Matt and the dreadlocked man got up from the ground. They brushed their shirts off a little and then turned face to face. Matt shot out his right hand and the man with the dreadlocks did the same. They shook each other's hands with good sports manship.

"Good job, man," Matt said.

"You were a formidable challenge," the dreadlocked man concluded.. The two dancers walked away from each other. Unfortunately a few girls pounced on the both of them. All of them were muttering something about dancing and awesomeness. For the rest of the ball, Matt and the dreadlocked man were desperately trying to escape the newly made fangirls.

Jackie

Jackie walked away from the dancer's circle. She chuckled a little at the sight she witnessed. It reminded her of when she hung out in the past. The music became slower and she sighed. She didn't want to slow dance because the first person she danced with made her petrified her for reasons unknown. The second person was nice, but she felt like she was dragging the guy down. She didn't feel good enough for him.

She became lonely. Everyone was pairing off and/or dancing with multiple people. This time the woman in violet wasn't there to pair her off with someone. She strayed off to the edge of the platform and looked at the Heart shaped moon. Such radiance and beauty. Jackie was never able to appreciate how lovely a moon could be, especially a heart shaped one.

A hand grabbed and shoulder and she jolted a little. She quickly turned around to be face to face with a blonde guy. "How about we dance?" he suggested with a kind smile and open arms.

"Sure," Jackie replied happily. She went into his arms and they started to dance to a joyful tune. She was having trouble because she was never good at dancing in any form and her eratic foot steps made it obvious. The man saw this too, but he was kind about it .

"Just follow my lead and thing will be better," he said.

Wow, this feels like something straight from Howl's Moving CastleJackie thought to herself. But it is sweet.

Man, I'm glad I listened to that raven guy from that world with the giant moving castle. The blonde thought to himself. "Good job," he said to Jackie.

"Thank you," Jackie said as they waltzed. She felt so happy, so safe. The blonde felt something warm inside him, something he could only remember feeling. They both were dancing in circles, they weren't able to notice a misplaced electro rod on the floor.

The blonde took a step back and on the electro rod. It rolled under his foot and he fell back, bringing Jackie with him.. The fear of history repeating itself consumed both of them and yet it didn't. They both fell to the ground, Jackie on top of the blonde. Her head landed next to his. Both dancers let out a sigh of releif. Jackie got up and helped the blonde up. Something felt very familiar about this situation and this guy. She didn't know what it was, but things felt right.

"Heh heh, I missed," Jackie said with a grin. "What's your name?" she asked.

"It's ( )" the blonde replied.

"What?"

"( )"

"I'm sorry, I can't hear you,"

"IT'S ( )!" he shouted. Several people turned around. To them, the blonde only shouted it's. The people started to think the poor blonde was insane. "Maybe you should tell me yuor name?" the blonde nervously suggested.

"Ehh... sure. My name is ( )," Jackie said, but she covered her lips when she realized she couldn't say her name. Was it her, or were they not able to say their names? Fate at the highest platform laughed a little with the Asian man.

"It looks like the masks are doing their job," Fate said with a chuckle.

"It doesn't look like you can say your name either," the blonde said.

"Maybe we should keep on dancing," Jackie suggested.

"Yeah," the blonde agreed. They danced as the music changed again. The pace became faster and the dancing more rapid. Twists and turns and shakes galore. Both dancers broke a sweat. They were moving so fast and vividly that they were distracted from what really went on around them.

Pair by pair, couples disappeared. So slowly that no one seemed to notice. It happened over the course of the next few songs. Not only were the couples disappearing, but some of the floating platforms as well. Eventually it was just Jackie and the blonde left on the dance floor.

"You know, if we can't say our names, then maybe we could recognize each other by our faces," the blonde suggested.

"That would be a great idea," Jackie turned around. "Why don't you turn around and on three we turn back around with our masks off,"

"Okay," the blonde replied as he turned around.

"One," Jackie took off her mask.

"Two," the blonde took off his.

"Three!" they both turned around but couldn't see each other. A flash of light from the heart shaped moon and everything was gone. So ended the Ball of Masquerade Heart.

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Xejicka: I don't want to sleep tonight. Sephiroth's fangirls will flame me to death, then blame it on Axel.

Thalkxene: Or Sephiroth will just stab you with his masamune. Which ever comes first.

Xejicka: You're not going to flame me, are you?

Thalkxene: Of course not! -hides flame thrower-

Xejicka: I almost forgot. The purpose of the masks was to cover the identity of people with accuracy and prevent from saying their own names.

Thalkxene: What about Fate and Luxord and Fate in general?

Xejicka: Fate is a powerful mage that controls time. It was her ball anyways, she can do whatever she wants. I would like to add that I'm not implying any pairings, because if I did, then that would make Fate a whore.

Thalkxene: Okay, you guys can still ask an OC any quetion and we'll get them to answer it for you. You don't have to ask if you don't want to. Reveiw please!