The Thirteenth Order

Chapter XIII: Truth

(BGM: Wild Arms – The power which supports the world)

"Lezard…Valeth...but…we destroyed you! I destroyed you!"

"And yet here I am. I told you before, I am a god. A mere mortal like you, although at the time wielding the power of all three sisters combined, is not strong enough to slay me."

"Oh? Well what about someone…different then?"

Zero spoke while leaning against a pillar. He nodded to Naminé. "You can drop the act now. Thanks."

The blonde smiled and nodded, waving her hands around in an unusual motion.

復　Fuku: Restore (energy)

A glowing light surrounded Kairi. Her wounds slowly began healing. "Naminé?"

Lezard was confused. "Act? What act?"

Zero stepped forward. "The act required to lure you out of hiding, Magician. I know what you are, and I know the form you take. To bring your kind out into the Light, one must release a pre-requisite amount of Darkness…Naminé here…had that required amount already within her. All I did was help her bring it to the light."

Lezard's eyes narrowed. "You presume much Mortal. You know not of what you speak! I AM Lezard Valeth!"

"Tch…you're nothing but a cheap copy. But…"

Here Zero stood in front of Lezard.

"Copy or not…you do have His form…and as such…are the perfect target…"

"For what?!"

"Lezard did something to my Alicia…something unforgivable."

The ground began to rumble beneath their feet. A faint black outline could be seen around Zero's form, growing stronger and stronger as the seconds passed. Zero began slowly unbuttoning the shirt he was wearing.

"Something I plan on returning…with interest."

He threw the shirt off, revealing his bare back to the group…where strange black markings were beginning to form.

"Prepare yourself, Magician…and don't blink…you wont have time to react if you do…"

(BGM: Fate-Stay Night – Emiya Kenji Kawai ver.)

In an instant, he vanished. The next instant, Lezard was knocked off his feet into the air from a crushing blow to his chest. Zero's form…or at least, what everyone believed to be Zero flickered into view.

"What in the world?!"

Everyone was shocked at the transformation. Where once there was a human, a tall humanoid demon stood. Its body covered in sleek black armor, thin legs ending in tri-clawed feet, arms ending in clawed gauntlets with five fingers and blades on the elbows. On its back were two long thin objects that extended out like wings, and folded as such. The tips were ended with curved blades, like tiny scythes. Its head was somewhat human, looking almost like a mask with demonic wing like tips on the sides, pointing back and up. Long black tendrils flowed down like a waterfall, showing the only bit of human that remained on the creature.

Lezard slowly rose, a sphere of light in his hand. He launched the purple orb at the creature, only to watch in irritation as the demonic being slapped it aside like a fly. It leaned forward and vanished from view again. Lezard suddenly felt a pain in his left side, and a crushing feeling on his back as he was kicked into a pillar. He ducked and rolled as a fist came crashing down where he was leaning, narrowly evading the demon's next attack.

However, the black figure simply flipped around, placing its feet on the pillar and propelling itself off, swinging its left arm in the process, delivering three horrid looking slash marks into the Mage's back. It cart wheeled into another pillar, bouncing off and slashing its right arm, sending three crescent shaped claw marks through the air. Lezard barely ducked out of the way as three massive gashes appeared in the ground where he once stood.

Placing his hands together in a triangular formation, Lezard tried to begin a spell. The glyph of energy appeared in front of him…but that was as far as he got before jerked his head back, barely dodging one of Zero's bladed 'wings'. He jumped back again as Zero tried to knock his legs out from under him, but then…

"GAAAH!"

A quick correction made by the demon had it flicking its right wrist up, creating three huge slash marks on Lezard's chest. Blood and cloth both mingled and flew from the mage's torso as if the demon had stuck its claw inside him and ripped him from underneath his skin. But there was no contact whatsoever…it was all pure energy. Stumbling back and clutching his chest, Lezard had no way of defending when Zero dashed by, slashing again, making another gash appear, and then twirling around, slicing into Lezard's back twice before punting the mage back towards the group.

Roxas couldn't help but note. "Dude…that's like…a stronger version of your Anti-Form Sora."

"Stronger? That thing could rip Anti-Form in half!"

Riku absently made a joke. "Can't anything rip Anti-Form in half? Don't you lose practically all defensive power in that state?"

Sora flushed in irritation. "Oh shut it you!"

Odin stood with a gob smacked look on his face. "Incredible…such raw power…I didn't think a mortal could attain such strength without drastic actions…"

The Valkyrie nodded, too shocked to speak. Alicia just had her hands clasped together. Zero…you're…doing this for me? But why? What did he do to me that was so horrible? "Tell me you haven't forgotten what Lezard did to us that required Zero's intervention." Well I know about that but…how does he know? "That…is something I myself have been wondering…"

Kairi was leaning on Naminé's shoulder, panting still. Though healed, she lost a good deal of energy in that beat-down the blonde handed to her. A tad bit of mistrust towards the blonde in question shimmered in her eyes…but she pushed it aside. There's always a reason. I just hope it's an understandable one…

After a while of knocking aside Lezard's pitiful attempts at retaliation, the demon finally knocked the Mage down one more time, and stood a good bit of distance from him.

"I think it's time for me to end this little game."

BLOOD HEAT

A sudden pulse of energy erupted from the demon's body. Its form gave off a shimmering black glow. It ran towards Lezard, black shadowed after-images trailing behind it.

CRUNCH!

Lezard's nose was shattered from the demon's right fist. While the Mage reeled, the demon quickly pressed its attack, extending its claws.

Left, Right, Left, Right, Down-Left, Up-Right, Stab, pivot-kick to chest, kick to head-side-stomach-chest-stomach, pivot-jump, twirl with arm and back blades extended, slash-slash-slash-slash, land-kick and finally Zero ended by grabbing Lezard's face in his right claw and using every bit of strength and momentum he'd built up to this point to slam the Mage head-first into the ground.

The force of the movement however, bounced Lezard back into the air to a considerable height. Everyone watched as Zero suddenly appeared above the Mage, body curled into a ball and a serious amount of dark energy gathering to his arms and back blades. The energy swirled around, almost like a dome before finally collecting around the tips of Zero's claws and blades. For an instant, everyone saw a massive black glow before…

X

Zero wrenched his back blades diagonally up and his claws diagonally down, both in an X formation. A giant blazing black X appeared in the sky where the two combatants were...before Zero landed.

A moment later something else fell from the sky…

Kairi and Naminé screamed in horror, Sora, Riku and Roxas swearing and the other's eyes just widening.

Lezard's head had landed behind Zero. A few moments later…so did his arms and legs…and pieces of his torso.

But instead of blood…strange black particles swirled around. In moments, the head and random body parts became particles as well…fading from existence slowly. Zero stood, dark energy gathering around him once again. It swirled around him like a cocoon, before dispersing, revealing his usual self, sans shirt.

At the sight, the Valkyrie stood a tad bit straighter, Hrist absently brushing some dust off her armor, Lenneth straightening her skirt, and Silmeria blowing her hair out of her eyes feverently. Odin caught sight of this and gave a hearty laugh, making the Valkyrie blush when they realized what they were doing.

Kairi couldn't help herself. "Daaaaaaamn…" Naminé just laughed at her other's reaction.

Zero flicked some strands of hair out of his eyes and smiled.

"Impossible! Could he have figured out my plans?!" The voice raged before calming itself. "No…no…this was just a fluke. The form chosen by that particular one caused the reaction, that is all. There are still plenty for the seal to be broken with. I must be careful however…if he catches wind what happens when he destroys one with the Keyblade…I may never be freed…"

Gummy Ship: Interior

(BGM: Rockman ZX – Wonder Panorama)

After explaining that the Lezard Clone was what summoned the Mindless to their world, and with its destruction, no more would ever appear, Zero and the others returned to the Gummy Ship…but not after Alicia had to Ultimate Death Glare the three Sisters when they tried to make passes at the young warrior. To her surprise, Zero pulled her right next to him.

"Sorry ladies, as beautiful as you three are, this one has claimed my heart."

Alicia blushed and smiled as the sisters sighed. Silmeria congratulated her, echoed by the other two.

Now, Zero was using the ship's kitchen to make a nice meal for the group. As he finished, the others sat at the provided table and dug in. Of course, they grilled him.

"So what gives? What was all that with Naminé?"

The girl in question flushed and ducked her head. "Sorry about that…It was all part of Zero's plan…"

"Oi, I'll explain. Don't blame her, it's all on me. I was on my way back when I heard Alicia cry for help…and I sent her something I'd picked up."

"So it WAS talking about you!"

"Yeah. That weapon you were using, it was once a powerful Demon called Beowulf. He was defeated by a man named Vergil, and his power condensed into those gauntlets and greaves. Some of his spirit remained as well…honestly I'd hoped to keep those for myself, but you needed some extra firepower so I sent him off to you."

He took a drink.

"Anyway, because of my connection to Kairi, I knew what world you guys were on…and on that world was a Cellar. Before you ask, a Cellar is like…a cage, and a factory, all at once. Originally, a Cellar was used to mass produce Metatron based robots in specific locations. They would appear as small boxlike clusters that would expand into a giant orb, spit out a few mechs, and close. When open, they could be easily destroyed, but when closed they were shitloads harder to kill. Someone…has taken that design and modified it to spit out Mindless. Not only that, but they've further modified it to morph into the form of that worlds strongest being, copying its abilities and knowledge…but not so much its thoughts."

"Which is why Lezard came back."

"Exactly. That particular Cellar had a bit of a lock on it. It would only morph and show itself if a certain amount of natural dark energy was released at a specific point. So, because of my connection to Kairi, I'm also able to speak with Naminé a similar way. I slipped into Kairi's head while you guys were busy fighting the Mindless, and told her my plan. See, I know all about you guys, every, single, thing. And Naminé…well…"

"I'm…not as innocent as I look…"

"Sora, you don't remember this, but before you woke up in Twilight Town, you spent a year regaining your memories because not long after you'd closed the door to Light, you'd ran into a place called Castle Oblivion. The Organization ran that place, with its newer members running the show on the upper floors, and some of the older ones keeping an eye on things down below."

Riku tensed.

"Yeah, that's also where Riku confronted his inner darkness and gained the ability to What the Fuck Hax at will."

Confused looks all around.

"Oh come on. Roxas, you remember the form Riku took when he beat you right?"

The blonde nodded.

"You can't say that wasn't like an uber cheat code of God Mode Turn On."

Roxas nodded. "You've got a point there."

Sora was still confused. "What are you talking about?"

"Roxas wasn't kidding when he told you he defeated a Riku once. In fact he kicked Riku's ass, but then Riku came back and fought him again. He pissed Roxas off something harsh, and then when it looked like your other was about to beat him, Riku went God Mode Turn On, unleashed his inner darkness and morphed into Ansem, Speed Haxing his way to Roxas and What the Fuck Pwning him."

"Oh."

"Anyway, Castle Oblivion."

They all nodded. "Because of your mock suicide in Hollow Bastion with that Reverse Keyblade thing, you not only unlocked the darkness in your own heart, but what little was in Kairi's as well. That darkness took form as Naminé, and like with Roxas, the Organization found her. Only unlike Roxas, it wasn't Mansex who found her, but Marluxia, the flower fag."

Riku and Roxas snorted.

"Marluxia basically kept little Naminé trapped in the castle, then lured you in to try to use you against Mansex. Using her power to rewrite the chains of memory in your heart, she slowly undid the links you placed, but tried to leave around hints. Of course back then you were denser than you are now, so her little clues that shit was going down, and it wasn't pleasant, went right over your head. Though she did it mostly because Flower Fag and his Pink Scythe of Fruitiness, could One Shot her if he felt like it, being Kairi's shadow, she knew everything Kairi knew, mostly due to the unorthodox way she was brought into this world. As such, she knew what she was, and who she was, and that she'd only be a shadow."

He took another drink.

"That's why she slowly replaced Kairi with herself in your heart. Using her power to morph Kairi's good luck charm into a much better looking one."

"Hey!"

"Well it's true! Yours is a little paper cut out with a smiley face and blue and purple coloring. Hers was a bigass fluffy yellow star! Hers was MUCH better looking than yours."

Kairi pouted.

"ANYWAY, eventually the older members below caught wind of what the above dudes were doing, and since you were in the castle, and Riku was kinda being jerked around by the dark corridors, he ended up in the castle as well. Vexen, that's the Ice Nerd, fought Riku, and made a clone of him. The clone was pretty awesome, but in the end they forced Naminé to rewrite the Clone's memories as well, so they mirrored yours. He fought you about two or three times, each time losing because though you were dense as fuck and compared to him not as skilled, you had Main Character's Luck on your side, combined with some pretty awesome weaponry. Eventually, Axel, who was playing a double agent, killed Vexen at the Castle Oblivion rendition of Twilight Town, as he was about to tell you about Roxas. Riku was plowing through the other Organization members while you were being pulled along by Flower Fuck's chain."

Another drink.

"Eventually, Flower Fuck crossed a line, and Axel, who was never on their side to begin with, pretty much pushed Naminé to get the fuck out. She explained everything to you, including her reasons for going along with things, and honestly, you can't blame her. Stuck as a shadow of a girl who had someone who loved her, able to dick around with peoples thoughts and feelings…the only GOOD thing going for her was her ability to draw, and even though it was rather crude, it was pretty meaningful. You, being your usual dense but optimistic self, forgave her, kicked Flower Fuck's ass, then kicked his ass again when he fused with the Lovebot-2000. Then one last time when he tried to be all Death like. He bit the bucket; Naminé knocked you, Goofy and Donald into a coma and started re-dicking around with your memories, this time to put shit right."

"So…that's why there was a note left saying Thank Naminé…"

"Yerp, she willingly and unwillingly put you through a good bit of tomfuckery, but in the end the girl owned up and put shit right. But we got a bit off topic."

They all nodded.

"I knew Naminé still had a few minor unresolved issues with Kairi. Nothing ground breaking, but enough that it was floating around her head. So I formed a plan to give Naminé her own body, much like I did with Alicia, and at the same time, lure the Cellar out into the open. I'm a pretty good actor if I do say so myself, so playing the bad guy wasn't too difficult. I kinda had to do it the rough way by pulling Naminé's soul out forcefully…and painfully…but it had to be done in order to get you guys angry enough to chase after me. Then, I gave her her body back, got a rather nice view in the process-

Here he was slapped upside the head by Alicia. He winced, but continued.

"Gave her a snazzy new outfit to reflect the act we were performing, and had her open up a scroll containing the powers of Okami Amaterasu's Thirteen Brush Techniques. I figured since I ended up somehow knocking Roxas back into existence, with his own body to boot, it would only make things even if I brought Naminé back, but since she wasn't much of a combatant, I had to supply her with a suitable weapon, and a bit of a power upgrade. Then, when you guys showed up, she was able to let out those last bits of aggression towards her other, while fulfilling the requirements to summon the Cellar."

"And…you're not sorry in the slightest?"

"Honestly? No. I'm not one to believe that the ends justify the means, but with an entire world at stake, I only had one shot to go with the first plan I could."

"Tell me you didn't forget." …I could…but then I'd be lying.

While the others frowned, Zero jumped. "Speaking of upgrades…"

He got up and opened a hole to a Dark Corridor. He reached in and pulled out a suitcase.

"Upgrades for all!"

He opened it up…and within were a series of strange looking stone bracelets. He gave one to everyone.

"What are these?"

"Powerful and potentially dangerous objects that can manipulate gravity by means of opening, utilizing, and then closing miniature black holes."

They stared at him.

"What? It's friggin sweet! This way you all have a better fighting chance against these things. The Marcellus Alicia took out isn't the only of its kind, and even stronger things exist. Being able to boost your jumps and slow down your enemies is pretty nifty. Not to mention for those of you who CANT glide or fly or anything, or don't have the energy to, if you're knocked off a cliff or something these things can save your ass. Think of it as a gift, in exchange for wrecking your shit to get the plan to work."

They all nodded.

"Alright, where to next?"

Sora spoke. "I think we should tell the King about these things. Maybe he knows somebody who can track them for us?"

"Well…" Zero cut in. "I know a few worlds that no longer have them. By the way, Alice says hi."

"Wait what?"

"While I was traveling I went to a few worlds and knocked off a few Cellars that were there. Wonderland was one of them. Alice and I teamed up against one and…" He burst out laughing. "Well…that girl has a mean right hook."

"Speaking of Wonderland…what was that?"

"That…is what happens when you have access to a shitload of Dark Energy…but almost no control of it. Darkness is like a corruption. It's powerful, but if you aren't smart with it it'll take over and eat you from within. Because of the two halves, I have access to both Destruction and Creation, the ultimate forms of Light and Darkness. Usually they're in harmony…but around then…some shit was going on in my head that was making me a bit…messed up. That…was me unconsciously tapping a very large amount of Destruction, and wiping out everything near by. But, because of that overload, the levels reverted to normal, but when they did, for some reason Roxas' existence was separated from mine."

"I keep forgetting you have their existences fused with yours."

"Yeah…I tend to as well. But it's useful. Anyway, we're heading for the Mouse House right? I'll clean up around here, you guys start pointing us there."

Everyone nodded and left…except Alicia. She looked at him nervously.

"Sup?"

"Did you…did you really do all that…for me?"

"He hurt you…and I don't play that shit."

"Zero…"

"Look…I know I'm a bit rough around the edges…a bit of a pervert…and got some heavy shit floatin around…but…I was wondering…if you'd like to-ummmph!"

Alicia answered his unasked question with a kiss.

"FINALLY! I've been waiting for you to do that for weeks!"

"Well…it seems like she shares his interest…"

And there you have it. An epic level fight, a bit of a revamped history lesson, and an explanation to why Naminé was being a bitch. AND, Zero and Alicia are FINALLY together. Bout bloody time.

RCRS: Naruto…is a fairly decent anime. Personally I prefer the Japanese voices over the English…mostly because 1) it's what I heard first and 2) some of the English voices just don't fit. The Manga however…well…Shipuuden's gotten all fucked up with all this Uchiha bullshit. Honestly, when Itachi dropped, everyone thought that it'd get back to Naruto…but no. I HOPE once all this talking is done, we won't see Sasuke AT ALL for at least 20 chapters. Because that's how much page time that asshat's been getting.

Anyway, I remembered another trait that I'd forgotten until after I'd posted last chapter. If Zero gets bored…weird shit happens. So anyone who knows him FEARS his boredom. Because he makes shit get destroyed when he's bored…actually he does whatever he damn well pleases when he's bored, but to a greater extent…a SCARY extent. So everyone who knows him will start getting freaked when he says "I'm bored." And if he says it about twenty times in the span of ten minutes…well…

People start literally throwing things at him to distract him from boredom.

Taeniaea: good to see you again. Glad you like it.

D&S Master: As explained, Naminé was doing this of her own full free will. No evil tainting at all. Just a really quickly thought up plan, and suppressed aggression towards Kairi. Seriously, read through the KH:CoM LP. It kinda points out that Naminé wasn't as innocent as she seemed. It's just that unlike most people under envy's embrace, she allowed her conscience to take over, and regretted her actions. Naminé herself wished for her own body, but she also had unresolved problems with Kairi. All superficial enough that she never voiced them, but they were still there. And by kicking Kairi's ass, she was able to prove to herself that she's every bit as important and powerful as Kairi.

The only support she got from Zero, or anyone in that fight, was that he gave her the scroll to the Celestial Brush Techniques beforehand, but he was already going to give that to her, so it wasn't like he gave her a quick boost for the fight.

Alright, since I doubt anyone is going to be able to spot the references in this chapter, I'm just going to point them out.

Naminé's abilities were from Okami, and are a version of Amaterasu's Celestial Brush abilities.

Beowulf is from Devil May Cry 3.

Zero's Demon Form is based off the creature from Monster Rancher's 3, 4 and Advance 2 called Zan. Zan, when literally translated means Blade, which makes sense for the monster because of what it looks like. I'll make a link to the picture on my profile so you can get a general idea of what it looks like.

Zero's final attack, the one that ended in an X, was taken from Ovan's A strike in the .hack GU Trilogy movie. Ovan smashes Haseo into the ground, the force bouncing Haseo back into the air, and appears before Haseo's prone body. He curls up into a ball as a fuckton of AIDA swirl around the two, and taking his two blade arms and his one bladed weapon, makes a big red A in the air, which ends up chopping off one of Haseo's legs, as well as doing some FUCKLOADS of damage.

Lovebot-2000 is taken from the Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories LP. Go read it. Now.

The stone rings are from Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity. A pretty decent non-platforming Sonic title. Though the whole Gravity Drive thing would have been fucking EPIC for an actual Platformer…someone needs to tell Sega this.

Alright…this will be the last update for a little while. I've got nothing planned after this so don't expect anything too soon. Besides, I have to update my .hack and Harry Potter fics…