Disclaimer still applies.
That whole Marluxia using his vines line Spiderman uses his web was inspired by a picture I saw on deviantART.
Thanks for all the wonderful reviews, I love you all!
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Chapter 3 - Atlantica
The Graceful Assassin and the Savage Nymph reached Atlantica shortly; soon finding -much to their dismay- it's residents in full song.
The pair drifted silently through the tall, gently swaying seaweed; Marluxia took time to admire all the fascinating plant life, wondering how he would be able to get some of it grow in his garden. Larxene impatiently dragged him away, explaining in a furious whisper that they did not have time to take souvenirs, this quickly sobered the Assassin and soon his mind was back on the task at hand.
It was lucky that Larxene's Atlantica form was an electric eel, Marluxia noted, otherwise had she gotten wet and used electricity, it would've backfired and killed her. He glanced across at her now as they lay in wait among the seaweed; her hair floated around her face in fluid motions, as if it had a life of it's own. Her eyes were boiling with determination and devotion to the mission.
I wonder what emotion I would feel for her if I had a heart...
Marluxia frowned thoughtfully.
Hatred? Definitely not. Friendship? Probably.
His mind delved into other possibilities.
Lust? Most likely, but what about...... Love?
The Assassin ignored the thought, he needed to concentrate on the mission and the idea of loving Larxene was too unreal to consider without a heart.
Loving anyone was unreal to consider without a heart.
Love is a weakness...
Larxene looked at him and he quickly averted his gaze; they watched the festivities from a distance until it ended, both muttering about how they wished they had something to plug their ears with. As soon as the final chords were strung, Marluxia and Larxene swam down to greet the locals with a plan already in mind, shared between them through their strange telepathy. All merpeoples' and sea creatures' heads turned to watch them with curiosity and apprehension; the Assassin swam to the right and the Nymph to the left, both stopping when they were level with the locals just above the sea bed.
"Wonderful! Really I must applaud you, so impressive for a final performance!" Marluxia said jovially.
"...Final performance?" a hermit crab with an unusual accent enquired "Oh! You must mean the final performance of the show, yeah man!" he said, brightening.
Some of the locals still looked a little uneasy about the "Final performance" thing, there was something not right about these two newcomers...
"A bet a lot of work goes into these shows!" Larxene said feigning interest, all heads swivelled around to her "It'll be a shame to waste it..." she added with a menacing tone.
More and more locals looked uneasy, the hermit crab however remained clueless.
"Ah yeah, it is a waste with no real audience to show it too! My name is Sebastian, man! What are yours?" Sebastian the hermit crab asked.
"Lumaria, it's a pleasure, Sebastian." Marluxia answered politely, exchanging a subtle wink with Larxene "That's Relena."
If the Keyblade Master didn't know their true names, it would leave him confused until he discovered the anagrams, buying them more time.
"Where is the esteemed King Triton?" Larxene wondered.
"He is planning a celebration, Relena woman! His daughter has gotten married!" Sebastian shook his head as if everyone in the ocean knew that "Where've you two been, man?"
"And you're all back here? Isn't that unfair?" Larxene began the despair poisoning.
"Well... we have to keep the spirit going, yeah?" Sebastian said uncertainly. "His daughter Ariel used to star in our shows."
"Perhaps now that she's gone he sees no point in your shows?" Marluxia suggested innocently.
"Nah he'll be back soon, Lumaria man!" the hermit crab said defensively.
Damn, I used that one too early...
"It was heartless of Ariel to forget you all like that." Larxene sighed.
"What you mean, forget us?" Sebastian asked suspiciously.
"They're playing with you, Seb, ignore them." A blue and yellow fish piped up.
"Are you a friend of Ariel's?" Larxene enquired.
"Yeah, I'm Flounder!" the fish said, attempting to be brave.
"Well maybe you should hear this too, I went up to the surface just earlier and I was talking to a recently married woman who called herself Ariel, she was sitting on the beach waiting for her husband." Larxene paused, as if in thought.
"And what did she say?" Sebastian demanded, he sounded a little sad.
Marluxia grinned delightedly; as always, Larxene was just brilliant at this. It was good that there had been so much about this world in Sora's memories when he had entered Castle Oblivion, it had helped the two Nobodies learn the names of everyone. Plus the chatter around here told them the name of Ariel's new husband.
"All she would talk about was this 'Prince Eric' guy, I asked her whether she was once a mermaid because I thought I'd seen her somewhere before and she just looked at me strangely and then said that all she knew was Eric." Larxene answered, shrugging.
"Yeah Eric is the man she married on a boat." Sebastian covered his face with his claws "Oh this is no good, man! What will Triton say...?"
All the other locals looked sad and depressed too, all except Flounder.
"I can't believe you lot, you actually think what they're saying is true? I'm going to get King Triton!" the fish shouted, and swum off furiously.
"He could be a problem, Marluxia deal with him."
Already on it, my dear.
Marluxia subtly brushed his tail against the sea floor; a Dusk flitted after Flounder and there was a muffled yelp, but the locals were two wrapped up in their depression and confusion to notice. Nor did they notice the pink glow of a heart floating up and out of the ocean.
"King Triton will be heartbroken..." Marluxia said smoothly, with fake sadness.
This is too easy...
"I can't bear to face him!" Sebastian wailed. "When he finds out that his own daughter has forgotten him..."
"He might blame you all for not keeping her here...!" Larxene piped up.
"You're right woman, he will." the hermit crab said sadly. "King Triton never did listen to much reasoning."
A few fish and merpeople dissipated into darkness already and their hearts rose up; the other locals gasped in fear. The stared at Marluxia and Larxene in horror, quickly realizing that it was them that was bringing this darkness upon them; the pair smiled serenely back. Larxene burst into cackles as several Dusks appeared and closed in the locals who screamed in terror as the deformed whispers of human bodies clutched them with their blade-like hands, a horrifying intensity that only comes from the worst of pain and loneliness emanating from them.
"What are you two playing at, man?!" Sebastian cried as he too was claimed by darkness.
After a while it was Dusks versus Shadows once again, the Dusks with the power of Marluxia and Larxene in the vicinity swiftly overpowering the Shadows. Many hearts rose up to Kingdom Hearts, feeding the immense power that would be eventually harvested. As the Dusks flitted off to claim more hearts, Marluxia swam over to Larxene.
"I must say, you were magnificent." the Assassin complemented her. "They fell for it beautifully."
"What do you say to crashing Ariel's honeymoon? She's probably still on the boat the stupid hermit crab mentioned." Larxene suggested.
Marluxia considered it.
"More hearts for our mission, should we go about it the violent way this time?" he asked softly.
"You know I love violence..." she replied with a smirk, and nodded.
They swam around together for a while, glancing at the surface every now and then to look for a boat. The water was quiet and calm, as many of the residents had now been consumed by darkness; the only sound was the water brushing over their tails and through the seaweed and the occasional beautiful, mournful cry of a distant whale. They said nothing to each other, not even through telepathy; they didn't need too, on missions their minds acted as one.
Soon, the keel of a reasonably sized boat came into view and the two Nobodies went to investigate. From underwater Marluxia could see the blurred image of a woman with long red hair standing in the arms of someone with black hair; he poked his head out of the water just enough to give his eyes a clear view. It was indeed Ariel and Prince Eric on the ship, he slipped back under the surface and motioned Larxene over.
"Tell me, have you ever seen 'Titanic'?" he asked, grinning.
"I have, shall we give them a taste of it?" she hinted with a knowing smile.
Marluxia summoned his scythe and swung it into the side of the boat; the metal crumpled like paper under the force of the blade and tore open. He dragged his weapon through it, the muscles in his shoulders flexing and straining with effort. His exertion rewarded him with his creation of a huge, gaping hole in the body of the boat. Water began flooding in and the vessel tilted to one side. Yells of surprise and alarm could be heard from the deck.
The Assassin drew back and watched as Larxene tried a different approach; she threw a kunai knife straight into the main back propeller, there was a series of crunching and clanking as the propeller jammed, leaving the boat drifting aimlessly in the water. Marluxia hacked the boat even more now that there was no danger of being minced by a certain now-jammed area of the craft; Larxene helped by diving further down and sending shockwaves of electricity at the centre of the keel, causing it to snap and the whole boat begin to crack up the middle. She rejoined Marluxia's side and they both watched the sea do the rest of the work.
There were panicked shouts from above but it was too late; the weight of the water and the broken keel ripped the boat in two across the middle, each half up-ended and people slid screaming down the deck into the unforgiving water. Marluxia swished his red and white tail; the dorsal spines uncurled, looking sharp and deadly in the water-filtered light. The Assassin rushed at who he had seen was Prince Eric, spun around at the last moment and smacked him with his tail; Eric -who was already drowning- inhaled more water from the impact and shock as one of the venomous spines grazed him across the belly igniting a searing pain. Darkness forced it's way into the wound and Eric's heart was dispersed to Kingdom hearts.
Ariel upon the instant of touching the water had become a mermaid again, and was fleeing as fast as she could swim from the two Nobodies.
Larxene! You take care of the other humans, I'll get the mermaid.
"O-kay Mr. Leader."
Marluxia gave chase to Ariel; her experience with being a merperson gave her greater agility than the Assassin and in result dodged every energy wave that was sent rocketing towards her by his scythe. However, her skill was outmatched by his pure tenacity and cunning mind; a final energy wave was aimed at a rock arch Ariel was just about to swim under, the rocks cracked with the collision and collapsed down, just missing the mermaid by a hair's breadth. Ariel darted out of sight and away.
"Aren't you going to kill her?"
No, she is a close friend of Sora's. Killing her would be too much of an attack on him for now; besides, the loss of her friends and her beloved will call upon despair like none she has ever experienced. It will send her straight to her father, who will send a distress signal to Sora. While the Keyblade Master is distracted here, we take another world.
"Ooh, who's a clever boy then? Props, Marly."
Thanks....I think.
"Time to go back to Castle Oblivion, methinks; I've taken care of the other humans."
I'll drive.
"Fair enough, Rainbowfish."
Lionfish.
"Whatever."
Marluxia and Larxene swam back to shore, dismissing their weapons; the Assassin felt fatigued, but in mind rather than body and he guessed the Nymph did too even though neither would admit it until they were about to drop. They had had little rest over the past week, and what rest they had gotten was only broken patches of sleep every now and then.
Marluxia dragged himself up the shallow slope of the sandy bank and as soon as he was free of the water his body transformed back into human shape with his robes; he wrung his hair of seawater, sighing with disdain. Seawater does no good for the appearance, this was going to need a shower.
Larxene soon joined him in her robes too and they headed back to their airship which was a short distance away from them.
Once they were in, Marluxia started up the engine while Larxene settled down to doze. Traffic in the Realm of Light wasn't too bad, the asteroids weren't much trouble and were easy to manoeuvre away from. The Assassin flicked on the radio, low volume so he didn't wake Larxene; some Asian flute music came on, it was calming and helped him relax but not to the point of falling asleep.
Marluxia hit warp drive to pass through into the Realm of In-Between; after flying over many fields he touched the airship down outside of Castle Oblivion. He reached over and gently shook Larxene's shoulder; she mumbled something incomprehensible before opening her eyes and looking around.
"Damn." she swore suddenly.
"What?" asked Marluxia, confused, switching the engine off.
"I had a dream..." she trailed off.
The Assassin didn't press her, they teleported to their separate quarters; he undressed and took a shower, before lying down on his elaborately decorated king-size bed. The red silk sheets were soft against his skin and the polished brass bed frame gave the room a sense of grandeur with it's vine-and-rose pattern. It was all meaningless, he had no heart to be able to feel proud of his recent achievements; all that mattered was getting his heart back and filling that hollow place in his chest with it's warm beating presence - a heart would end this eternal, cold existence and bring him back properly into the living. A body and soul gives you structure, a heart gives to the things you both hate and crave. You only really miss it when it's not there.
I should not have let that fool Xigbar recruit me, even if it was by force. Oh, the humiliation of being defeated by a half-blind moron with a bad accent!
It was not the time to dwell on it though, it was the time to sleep before thinking of a plan for the next world he and Larxene harvested hearts from. He rolled over and fell into a deep sleep, dreaming of nothing at all.
At some point just after midnight Marluxia woke up, wondering what had caused him to awaken; the answer came when he felt a static prickle in the air. Larxene must be using a lot of her electrical power, he thought, but why? No one had invaded the castle, a Dusk or something would have warned him.
The Assassin decided to get up and find out what was going on, he put on his uniform minus the cloak, gloves and boots; his socks made no noise against the hard flooring as he made his way to Larxene's quarters, the static in the air was becoming almost painful as he came closer. When he finally got there, it felt like millions upon millions of needles were stabbing him all over; he knocked on the door experimentally. No answer. Marluxia opened it and looked inside, shielding his eyes until they adjusted to the intense light. What he saw confused and intrigued him.
Larxene was sitting on the floor with her back to him, wearing nothing and in the centre of an electrical orb; she seemed to be in deep concentration and had not noticed Marluxia's entrance. Her hair floated delicately around her but her body was motionless, yet she still looked completely at home in her element. The static being emitted was unbearable, but her focus was so strong that her mind was blocked to any telepathy; the Assassin didn't want to surprise her to the point of causing an explosion, so he attempted to get her attention in an almost unnoticeable way.
All he did was swish his hair rather extravagantly.
The fragrance would tell her of his presence, the smell of roses mingled with cherry blossoms was unmistakeable. Larxene did smell it, her muscles stiffened and the orb around her slowly dissipated and with it the static on the air; she stood up and put on her uniform but with a black tank top rather than the cloak and her boots and gloves lying discarded by her bed. She still remained silent and did not face him.
What troubles you, Savage Nymph?
"Nothing. Piss off."
Don't be a fool, Larxene, for this whole plan to work we have to learn how to help each other out. That was our fatal flaw last time, we didn't communicate properly.
"Since when did you care? You're an arrogant bastard last time I checked."
I've cared since we found we could trust each other, you know that. I'm not leaving until you tell me what's the matter. We have no hearts, we can feel only memories of emotional pain which is what you seem to be in.
"We can't feel sympathy either, so why are you here?"
Because I care. In theory.
"In theory?"
Our lack of hearts prevents us from caring for one another. I want to care for you, so I do in any way a Nobody can.
Larxene didn't reply and sat down on her bed, which was like Marluxia's only with golden silk sheets and a jagged lightning-like pattern on the bed frame. Marluxia came and sat down beside her.
"Out of all the Organization, you were the one that stood by me even when it killed you." he said out loud now. "If only I could feel gratitude..." he lamented softly.
"You gave me something to believe in, Marluxia..." Larxene paused as if remembering something "You recall me saying I had a dream?"
Marluxia nodded, listening.
"I saw two baby girls and that's it, I don't know who they are or whose they are." she continued "What do you think?"
"What colour eyes did they have? And hair colour?" he asked.
"They were sleeping, and they were too young I think to have hair." she answered, frowning in thought. "Why?" she enquired.
"Oh nothing, just a passing thought." Marluxia replied, shrugging "I'd best get back to my quarters now, unless you want to talk some more...?" he wondered.
"Another time, I have to do some extensive repairs to my pride." Larxene joked, grinning.
Marluxia laughed and kissed her on the hand "Get some sleep, my bloodstained Princess." he said, standing up.
Larxene sniggered at the new pet name and lay down on her bed; the Assassin paused at the door and inclined towards her.
"Why were you sitting in the electricity before?" he asked curiously.
"It helps me think." she stated and left it at that.
Marluxia waved goodnight before returning to his quarters, wondering about Larxene's dream and what it could possibly mean.
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I'm getting all the emotional stuff out the way first.
Emotional "in theory" as Marly says XD
If they seem OOC (particularly Larxene) I disagree, I'm looking beyond the cruel, hard-as-nails shells they wear on CoM. I mean, have you *watched* Larxene's death on that? Doesn't that show that really she was quite the sensitive one? Or if you want some imagery, a soft-boiled egg rather than a hard-boiled brick ;P
Review please, you lovely people ^^
