Chapter 5 'I owed them a favor'
The Town was in a state of euphoria. The Struggle competition would start in a few hours. Hayner had been pushed and pulled through the ringer so many times, he was a shoe-in to win against Seifer, who was last year's champ. The only problem with their plans was Larxene. Her drive to prove herself after being beaten by Sora, though he remembered it not, was as fiery as ever; and even though Sora wasn't fighting, she was determined to win.
She had planned to find Seifer, to, how can I put this lightly, show him who he was up against. She scoured the entire city. And, since she couldn't use the Corridors of Darkness, she had to search on foot. Very exhausting. And she never found him! Oh, she was ticked. Larxene of coursed used Axel as a punching bag to handle her frustration over that little punk who had the nerve to get himself lost in his own town!
Now let us watch as Hayner has a nervous breakdown. He heard that Seifer had disappeared and figured that if Seifer was gone he must have something big planned.
"I'm not going just to be humiliated!" said the completely irrational blond boy. He had locked and barricaded himself in the bathroom with a chair and a bar of soap.
"Come on," came the urging of his 'ungirlfriend' Olette, "your acting like a baby! He's probably just at his house!"
"Yeah right," came the blond's reply, "Siefer would never sit on his butt while everyone else was training! He's got something planned."
This had been going on for the last thirty minutes. Axel and Larxene had already left and Sora and his companions were waiting for Hayner. Sora was not the most patient person in all of the worlds.
"OH, COME ON!" screamed Sora. He was already agitated that he wouldn't get to compete, and if Hayner didn't hurry, they wouldn't even get to see the finals. "How hard is it to drag a guy out of his own house?"
The ever observant and ever needing a haircut Riku leaned against the wall of the newly christened 'Hayner Estate'. He chuckled at Sora's words. "Oh," he began deeply while smiling, "Sora, don't you remember when Kairi, me, your dad, and your mom had to pry you off the doorframe to make you go back to high school?"
Sora pouted slightly and glared daggers at his best friend, but stopped when a pair of lips brushed his cheek. Kairi giggled at his blushing face. He was so easy.
"Alright," Sora said, trying to hide his tomato face by bending his head low, "but if he doesn't get down in five minutes, we're outta here." His friends agreed without a complaint.
They didn't have to wait long as they saw Olette dragging the elusive Hayner by his ear with Pence watching from behind, trying to hold his laughter in.
"Ow, OLETTE!" No matter how much he screamed, the blond could not escape her iron grasp. "Let me go!" He was able pull himself free from the powering orange wearing girl. His face was red from embarrassment as the Islanders were laughing to his expense. "Let's go!" he said quickly as he grabbed his struggle bat and ran out the front door as fast as his legs would carry him.
It didn't take long for them to calm down enough, and to regain the ability to breath, and to head out of the house and go to the Sandlot to watch the matches. Riku was particularly interested. One, he had only taught Hayner a bit of his fighting style. To be quick, agile and to strike without mercy. Sora, in his eternal stupidity, had completely forgotten to tell the older boy how the 'stupid game' worked.
It felt good for Sora to see the town finally at ease. Though most of his memories of the town were Roxas' and everything was familiar to him, he still wished he could stay longer and explore the entirety of it. Mainly the parts that Ansem the Wise hadn't been able to fabricate in his Virtual Twilight Town. The best part of the whole thing was without the Organization, the remaining Heartless and Nobodies were left leaderless and their sightings were ever dwindling. That meant that Sora wouldn't have to worry about any effusions (yes, he finally figured out what that meant) of Heartless and Nobodies.
XXXXXXXXXXXX
The Sandlot and the surrounding rooftops were jam-packed, much to the effect of the Axel-incident, as it was now called. People filled the area and everyone was eager for the spectacle to begin. Vendors had setup shop and were selling Sea-Salt Ice-cream along with the classic flavors like Vanilla and chocolate. Others were selling little trinkets like smaller versions of the Struggle weapons and little pamphlets for each of the contestants who would be competing. Some guy even had little dolls of Hayner, Seifer, Setzar, Larxene and others. In Riku's and Mickey's opinions, that was going just a tad bit overboard.
Each one of the combatants waited in a little area talking amongst themselves. Larxene and Axel could be spotted from miles away with their hair and the fact that they had decided to wear their cloaks, just not zipped up. They looked a bit out of place. Most of the people who had come, wore either brighter or neutral colors mixed in with each other. With their yellow, red and black clothing (but mostly black), they stood out like sore thumbs. Hayner, who was talking to Axel, had not changed his appearance for any of this and was confident that the extra muscle and bit of speed he had acquired over the last two weeks would be enough to beat out all the contestants. Setzar was basking in all that was his fan club, which consisted of love struck teenage girls who were all begging for his autograph, his jacket, a bit of his hair, a kiss, a marriage, and the occasional wish for his child.
However, the weirdest thing about the area was Seifer, or rather, the lack there of. Sora looked everywhere and even jumped up onto one of the roofs, but the white trench coat wearing jerk was nowhere to be found. Sora even re-did his search, thinking that Seifer might have changed his wardrobe like Axel and Larxene. Nope. But, Seifers' cronies were there alright. Fuu, Rai(ya know), and Vivi were all there. They were standing in a corner of the lot, huddled in the shadows.
Sora jumped back down and pushed his way through the crowd with an 'excuse me' there and a 'sorry ma'am' here. When he finally got over to them, he was shocked. He had never seen them look so downcast. Rai's shoulders were slumped, Vivi looked like, well, Vivi, and Fuu looked like she had been crying. Her eyes were red and splotchy, and it didn't take Sherlock Holmes to see that there were bags under her eyes as well. Yeah, She was so distraught that her normally combed over hair was parted so that she looked a lot like Kairi, just with silver hair.
"Hey, guys," Sora began awkwardly. He was trying to think of a way to ask 'what's up with you guys' without being a total ass. It didn't look like it had been long from since those red eyes had let the faucets run. This was hard! "So, Rai, you gonna compete?" Yeah! That's gotta be a safe subject!
Rai cocked his head to the side and said, "Nah, ya' know, couldn't get past the last competition. The finals are for Seif--!" he just then realized what he had begun to say when he looked at the shorter grey haired teen. That one syllable had caused her to start crying with all the power of a waterfall back on the islands. One look into those puffy eyes told Sora a lot. Mostly pain, sadness and loss.
But before Sora could inquire why, Fuu ran! She was running from him and right out of the Sandlot, knocking people out of the way. Sora and Rai tried to follow but her small stature proved to her advantage as she slipped from their view very quickly. Vivi, who was eager to be of service, ducked under the legs of a few people and left the two taller boys alone to hope that the strange kid could find the sobbing girl.
"What's wrong with her?" Sora asked, feeling bad that he had even come over here in the first place.
"She's worried sick," Rai stated simply, his faced pained.
Sora cocked his head to the side in confusion and expressed said confusion with his voice. "Huh?"
"Seifer's been missing for two weeks, ya' know," the darker skinned boy said with a solemn look. "Fuu's been real desperate to find him."
Sora racked through his memories. Whenever they had used the Sandlot to practice for the tournament, Seifer and his crew had never been there. They had the entirety of the time for themselves. The manager had come in a few times to watch the training but Seifer, who usually hogged the lot, was never there and his crew was nowhere to be seen.
"Have you seen him at all?" the brunette asked his curiosity peeked. "You checked his house? The normal hangouts?" The boy nodded solemnly.
"We check a few times a day. Fuu's hasn't been taking it real good, ya' know. He's always been there for her. With him gone . . ." he left the rest of sentence hanging in the air. Sora really wished he had finished it. Then Sora wouldn't be so worried for the soft spoken girl.
XXXXXXXXXX
Larxene hated all this waiting. Well, that was half of the problem. She also couldn't kill any of her opponents. Not a single damn one. She had been mad enough when she had heard that she couldn't use her kunai, then that she could destroy anybody. That's a cruel thing to do the poor girl. At least her mom wasn't here. She would go nuts to hear that her daughter hadn't turned out to be a lady of society like her. More like a stuck up wench who can't do crap! She thought bitterly. Her mother was all into that hoity-toity crap. At least her dad was a normal one. He was the one who taught her how to use her knives and that's where she got most of her personality from, at least the basics.
She felt a hint of sadness as she thought about them. It had been so long since she had seen her mom or dad. Would they even claim her as theirs? Would they still be remembering all the things she had done? She had screamed in their faces. Told them that her life was hers and her's alone and she didn't want the company. She had never wanted it. Why would she? It was too settled for her. It was for people like her cousin Orlud who was all for the money and the fame that came with the name Nixel. What had she ever done to deserve all this crap? Oh, right . . .
The announcer made his way up to the center of the arena and proclaimed that the matches would begin in a few minutes. Finally, Larxene thought with a hungry smile. Her eyes were like that of a lioness lusting for battle.
Another man came up and began to announce the contestants. "Well everyone, we have a few new welcomes to the finals so we had to open a few more slots making the event a little longer than usual. For one we have the underdog who came in second to the champ, HAYNER!" the crowd roared with approval as one of the favorites came up with a confident but serious look on his face. "Next we have new comer to the system. She flew right under our noses and got right into the finals with her prowess, LARXENE!" The crowd cheered once again, though, not as loud as for Hayner. They were all eager to see what she could do. "Then I must introduce an old favorite for games and the previous champ. The girl's fave, SETZAR!" There was a cry out once again but it mostly came from the female spectators. They loved their Setzar and he knew it as he stepped up and tossed back his long silver hair. "And now back with a newcomer, he wowed us with his skill. Now let's give a welcome for Irin!" A very tanned boy stepped forward with a green shirt with a biohazard sign on it and a dark blue jacket. His face was set in a permanent smirk with a mop of black hair, yet his green eyes held a serious nature that Sora felt very uneasy about. "We have another newcomer who surprised us all. Let's give it up for Kain!" Another boy stepped up. Sora felt completely off about him. He held no smirk, no smile; no hint of any positive expression. He held his arms crossed with a mop of red hair that just seemed to sit there. He wore kaki pants and sash over his maroon shirt that held his struggle bat in place. Sora looked into his eyes and he could feel distain, hate, and most prominently, sadness. "And of course, we can't forget the champ! Let's all give a greet welcome to Seifer!"
The crowd roared with approval for the champ of the Struggle matches. The yells even continued when no one stepped up. Eventually the cries began to waive into sounds of confusion and wonder. No Seifer.
Rai stepped up to the plate and walked toward the announcer and whispered into his ear. Larxene and Axel watched as the young man's face went from confusion to upright shock. The man turned to the crowd uncertain on what exactly what to say. "I am sorry ladies and gentlemen, but it seems that the champ is missing, and if he does not arrive by the time of his match, he will be disqualified.
The crowd was taking no pleasure in the fact that their champ was nowhere to be found, but they could do nothing but let the matches commence.
"Now, let us begin!"
XXXXXXXXXX
Fuu ran through the empty streets of the town, her tears still running down her face. Why? She thought as she tripped over a tipped trash can. She got back on her feet, never noticing that her lip had burst since she had fallen on a brick. She didn't feel the pain. It couldn't match the pain in her heart. Why? Hadn't she done everything she was supposed to? She was loyal. She had done everything that he had told her? Why had the only person that she could be, well, herself around, just disappeared? It wasn't damn fair! He was the only one she really ever talked to, and it seemed to her that she had been cast aside like a dry Sea Salt Ice-Cream stick.
She ran through the streets, never noticing where she was; only believing that the more she ran the more the pain would disappear. Why was there no one that could make her feel like she actually meant something? Sure she had her mom, but that meant nothing. Her mother didn't know her like she thought she did. She thought that Fuu was a gentle flower. A delicate person who liked to get dressed up! That was never her. She was normally depressed and shy. She never talked with huge sentences because she felt like no one would really understand her. Except Seifer. He would listen to her. Talk to her. Around him and him alone she could be who she truly was. And she loved that. She loved him.
She continued though the darkness of the alleys. Her pain filled heart forced her to wander. That's really all that she felt like doing. Rai and Vivi had come to her and basically dragged her to the games. They had hoped that at least Seifer wouldn't miss that. But no. Rai just had to say his name. Damn him.
She continued through the alleys. Her pain. She just wanted to get away. She just wanted to be alone. DIDN'T THEY GET THAT!?
If for one second she could get out of her self-pity and such, she would have noticed that there were two yellow eyes staring at her out of the shadows that crept into this dark corner of the town. All she could see was the inside of her hands as she cried. She was curled up on the ground where no one would ever look for her. Just like no one had ever looked for the creature that had survived here, thirsting for hearts. And her heart was just ripe for the taking, wallowing in despair. Perfect.
Fuu continued to cry. Her thoughts were on Seifer and what she felt about him. Never noticing that shadows were moving and crawling. Nor that the air had grown colder.
The Neoshadow crawled its way through the darkness. This was so delicious. All the pain and sorrow. Perfect. It came forward and began to shift from the 2-d form it had just taken now back to its natural form to take the young girl's heart. That's all it needed and that was all it cared for. More hearts.
It's dark, clawed hand grabbed onto her leg, wishing to drag her to it to devour her. For the first time since Rai's words earlier, Fuu noticed what was going on. She felt her leg go cold as ice with the creature latching on to her. She felt not pain in her heart, nor sadness, nor sorrow, but fear. The yellow eyes were looking at her from out of the blackness that made up its being. Her red eyes widened. She had no idea what to do. What was she to do?
"Take that!"
The black thing jumped back from her. She had no idea what had happened or why, though she did see this shiny stuff come over the thing and some of it had hit her. The thing turned around to see a young spiky haired man. He wore blue jeans with a silver chain hanging out that connected up to his back pocket. He wore a white t-shirt with a blue jacket that had a black trident on the side. In his hands were the strangest weapons the neoshadow had ever seen. It looked like a guitar that only had four strings and it was shaped like the symbol that those weird white and grey things wore on their bodies. He had a confident smirk as he held out his hand and the strangest thing began to happen. Water began to form out of the air and into a ball. Only one thought rang through Fuu's mind:
Impossible.
The man's mouth became a smirk. He reared his hand back and more impossibilities came. The orb of water followed the place of the man's hand. The seventeen year old girl watched as he threw the water ball like a pitcher. The water stayed in the circular form and hit the dark creature. It shuddered away from power of the water that had hit it. The man charged forward and swung his guitar (but really it was a sitar) like a baseball bat and hit the shadowy thing, making it dissipate into black gases.
It was silence.
Fuu said not a word as she looked at her rescuer. Now that she looked at him, she noted that she had never seen him before. She also saw the backpack he had hung on left shoulder. It looked pretty full.
"You alright?" the guy said in a light voice that sounded around her age, maybe a bit older. "That Heartless hurt you? You look like you've been crying." He held out his hand for the grey headed girl to take.
She grasped his hand as she came up. She muttered her thanks to the boy, hoping he would just leave her. She wanted to stay alone. "Fine." She said unevenly, a little apprehensive about him.
He cocked his head to the side, which caused his spiky hair to flip slightly to the side. "A bit of a talker, aren't ya?" he side with a smirk. No matter how she felt about that remark, she couldn't help but flush red from embarrassment. "Just to let you know," the water user smiled, "I'm Demyx!'
Even after all that happened, after the tears, the Heartless, whatever that was, and the water, Fuu couldn't help but smile a little. "Fuu."
XXXXXXXXXX
Seifer felt weird every time they did that. The boy had just followed Sephiroth through the portal to some sort of metallic hallway. Though at first glance, it wasn't Seifer. He was taller, more muscular, darker hair, his face basically the same just more angular, with the scar across it still there.
Along with the changes on the outer shell that he was, he had lost something else. His heart was gone. The darkness had consumed it and manifested it as a Heartless. These two weeks, Sephiroth had schooled him on the realms and the creatures of them. He knew all about the Heartless and their kin, the Nobodies which he had now become. He no longer had any of the emotions of a human. He had been apprehensive about being an empty shell but he had found that he was far stronger than he had been in his pathetic human life. No emotions to drag him down now.
Though he had become his temporary teacher, Seifer was utterly terrified by Sephiroth. The silver haired man intimidated him more than any other living or non that he had ever meet. He was cold, calculating and ever calm. Seifer had tried to use his new weapon against the swordsmen only to be soundly defeated in the blink of an eye. Yes, he feared him.
"Why are we here?" Seifer said to the man ahead.
Sephiroth did not reply, he only nodded forward. Seifer sorely wished that the man would stop being so mysterious and just bluntly give him an answer.
They continued to move through the completely white hallways until they came up to a sliding metal door with the symbol of Organization XIII broadly in black on the door. Seifer looked at his teacher but the man said nothing and continued through the door.
Inside was a long line of empty canisters with numbers above them.
I, II, III, IV, V, VI . . . .XIII, XIV, XV, XVI, XVII. What is all this? Seifer wondered. The room was cold. Deathly cold. For a moment he thought that this was a morgue. Why had Sephiroth taken him to a morgue?
"Welcome, young Nobody," Sephiroth said in an ominous voice. "Welcome to the final lair of the last Human Nobodies." His hands pointed out to the canisters marked XV, XVI, and XVII. "The last canister is yours. Whenever a new Nobody is born, a new cell is made for them in case they need it. These two," he said indicating two canisters. Unlike the rest of them, whose contents were none, these held something. Seifer could clearly see black boots which were partially covered by black cloaks that spread up to the torso. Oh, so conveniently, the ice of the cryogenics tube seemed to thicken up around the face so no matter how close you looked, you could see nothing. "I owe them a favor."
Before Seifer could protest, the dark man pushed him between the two canisters forcing him to touch the icy glass. Seifer didn't know what he had done but he felt the room slowly start to get warmer. He could see steam rising from the two containers.
They were coming free. They were coming back to life!
Number XVI began to shake violently. The canister began to rip from the wall as the being inside was fighting to free itself from its icy prison. Seifer got up off the floor and turned back in fear to Sephiroth. The swordsmen said nothing but pointed back to the shaking container.
Seifer gulped, and if it hadn't been for the shaking vessel, then it would have been very audible. The more and more it shook, the more and more that Seifer wished he had stayed human.
The ice shattered with a violence unheard of in the young man's mind. He closed his eyes but he very distinctly heard a clear male yet raspy voice that said, "Damn, it's about time we got out!"
Seifer opened his eyes and he saw two figures standing side by side. There was a man; he was tall, almost lanky. He had an angular face that was partly colored by constantly shifting rainbow spectrumed hair. The multicolor hair wafted over the man's right eye and Seifer was glad he could only see one. The one he saw was so filled with madness that he felt his heart would burst.
The other man stood tall as well. Just as tall as his companion. But he was much broader shouldered. The traditional black cloak of the Organization was upon both of them but while the first man held his hood down, the other kept his up. All Seifer could see was the bottom of a dark brown and grey short beard.
The lanky, rainbow haired man stepped forward and proclaimed, "Greetings young one! I am Boxcly, The Rainbow Ravager, Sixteenth member of Organization Thirteen! I am the Lord of All That Glitters and Glows!" then he looked straight at Seifer, and his voice changed in an instant from happy and boisterous to cold and soulless, "Now, who the hell are you?"
Then he knew without a doubt, that he had opened the gates of Hell.
WOOW! MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! It's done! The Organization is back, baby! This one was hard to write. I hope you all enjoyed it. It was hard to write Fuu's emotional breakdown. If you all want I can give guys the parings. Just ask and I'll pm you or if your not a member, leave it in my review answer. I won't put it here so that others who still want to be surprised will be able to be surprised. Now, big question of the day! How was the entrance? You know the entrance of XV and XVI. Nope, only one name for you guys just yet. I had planned for this to go a bit longer but if figured that this chapter was long enough so I left it just at the getting out so their names will be revealed next chp. And yes Seifer is a Nobody. The reason why he still has his human name will be in the next chapter.
NOW REVIEWS! MELON!
CattieGothLoli-Thanks for the reviews each chapter. Most people only give one after they read everything I got so far. Selphie will appear soon so don't worry.
flowergirl220-of course her attacks are cool, that's one reason I have her. That and the great comedy I can use between her and Axel. Axel wasn't the one who went into Larxene's room. It was Demyx who's drink was spiked with the vodka had who got pushed into Larxene's room. If you want darker, then I hope you enjoyed this. MUHAHAHA!
Fiendslayer-That and he owes me both a five day loan of the sword and 234 munny. But whose counting these days?
Now LET'S ENJOY THE SUMMER!