The Lost
Tai-Shan Tzuzuki lay half-asleep on his bed with his legs hanging off the side of the bed; shoulder length blond hair sprawled out on his blue pillow case wearing his jean shorts and a short sleeved shirt that was at least 2 sizes too big for him.
He'd been waiting patiently for his roommate Leon to come home and so far he'd been waiting for 2 long hours. The young soldier was usually home at the same time every evening but this night he was late, Tai wasn't sure why but he knew calling would be a last resort. Leon hated it when people called him.
In his right hand he held a black phone, clutching the device tightly.
He could feel himself slipping slowly into a deeper sleep and shook his head to better fight against it. This came to no avail as the need to sleep became stronger and he felt his eyes grow heavier till they finally closed.
"RING!"
Jade eyes popped open and the young boy jumped up.
"RING!"
But he unfortunately realized too late how very close he was to the edge of the bed and fell hard to the floor.
"RING!"
'Just one more ring!' He thought frantically.
He stood up and searched his bed finding the cell phone hidden between the sheet and comforter.
He flipped it open and pressed talk. "Hello?"
"Tai-Shan I've got a favor to ask you."
"Leon? Where are you?" He asked with concern.
"Aww, don't tell me you've been worried about me?" Leon said teasing him playfully.
"NO! It's just that I don't know how to work the oven very well and I wanted to make pizza tonight." He mentally kicked himself in the head for offering up such a terrible answer.
"Right," He replied sarcastically. "Anyway, I need you to check on a few friends of mine. They're supposed to have been there by now; and seeing as you haven't called screaming in my ear that there are strangers in the house and I didn't warn you to make more food, I'm guessing they haven't arrived."
"You guess correct." He could hear something that sounded very closely to a sigh.
"This isn't good, look go into town see if you can find them. One's just a little shorter than me, silver hair and jade eyes; the other one is about your height with brown hair and blue eyes."
"Okay, I Got it." He repeated the description mentally before grabbing his coat and heading toward the door.
Despite his attempts to hide it, Tai could hear the worry in Leon's voice.
"I'll bring them back Leon." He reassured the man before saying farewell and closing the phone.
He threw on his coat; walking over to a nearby wall he grabbed his best sword and sheath and tied the weapon to his waist and rushed out the door closing it soundly behind him.
The sun was setting in Twilight Town and that meant only one thing, the Heartless would be coming out soon. He wouldn't have the strength to fight so many of them, unless…
He unsheathed the sword and held it close in the middle of his chest with the hilt facing the ground.
He closed his eyes and focused all and any of his energy to the weapon he held in his hands, in his mind he could remember vaguely his old master; the man who'd taught how to use magic.
'If I had any choice at all, any paths to take but this one you know that I would use it. Please… forgive me Sensei.'
He opened his eyes and watch as the sun finally disappeared behind the horizon, its bright light swallowed up by the dark shadow of night.
Sheathing the weapon back in the silver scabbard the blond looked around the vast majority of buildings surrounding their house; the tallest one was situated right in front. A hotel that had been recently remodeled; he walked into the hotel heading straight for the elevator and pushing the rooftop button.
The ride up to the roof was a long one, since there was over 10 floors in the hotel, and every floor someone would come inside the elevator and try to get downstairs.
After at least 10 minutes of getting stopped at each floor he decided to take the stair which proved to be a good and bad idea. He managed to get to the roof faster, but he also exhausted more energy climbing the stairs.
From this height he could reach the clock tower, after leaping to the roof of the building he spotted the two teens that Leon had described to him.
But as could be expected someone had caught them before Tai-Shan could.
Two Heartless had cornered Riku and Sora now he had to find a way to get them away to safety while trying to fight heartless at the same time.
He could jump down but first he had to find a way to do so. He spotted a brick building in situated in front of the clock tower, if he used the Widow then maybe...
He backed away from the edge and then ran toward the end jumping off unsheathing his sword.
"Spin your web Black Widow!"
The words echoed through the town square attracting both sides to the source of the noise, they looked toward the clock tower just in time to watch as the boy fell from the incredible height.
He held a sword in his hand pointing the tip toward the ground.
Metal chains began forming around the sword from the hilt to the tip, unraveling one strain after another to reveal more and more forming.
The first ring of chains shot at the ground burying themselves deep inside, the second ring of chains crossed in-between the buildings surrounding them. And the third ring quickly wrapped around the heartless before digging in the ground as well creating a firm hold, the heartless were for the moment unable to move.
The boy flipped in the air landing firmly on a chain that had stuck itself in-between two buildings. Now facing the heartless he stood and raised his sword; making Riku believe that he might use the spell he'd cast before again but he paused, turning slightly to the side and inclining his head to look at Riku and Sora almost as if he'd just noticed the two were even there.
"Go! Get out of here." He shouted to the pair.
"You can't expect us to just leave you here." Said Riku.
"We don't have time to argue about this, just run. I can handle them."
The two hesitantly followed Tai's orders, sprinting off through a maze of buildings. Although they didn't get very far before one of the heartless busted out of the chain web and moved to attack them from behind.
Tai raised his hand in their direction bringing up a criss-cross steel fence that rose to 100 ft. high between the heartless and Sora and Riku. The heartless attempted to burst through the fence and received an electric shock for his effort.
"Your fight is with me not them."
"This won't hold me forever." He replied icily.
"They don't have to." Tai retorted.
The heartless held up a gloved hand and immediately a ball of black smoke swirled in the palm of his hand spreading out to form a spear with a broad blade at the end.
The creature took hold of the giant spear and rushed swiftly toward the teen, his weapon bearing down on him.
Tai jumped back to avoid the attack leaving the heartless to slice at air, this however seemed to be exactly what the heartless had wanted.
The heartless smiled in triumph as the tip of his blade began to glow a blue, he plunged the spear into the ground sending wave after wave of electricity hurtling towards Tai. The current raced toward him, too fast to avoid or escape, trapping him.
"AAAHHH!" He screamed as the shocks racked his body.
The pain was unimaginable, the just as intense. He tried desperately to remain standing but the current proved too much to bear and he crumpled to the ground, writhing in agony.
The heartless chuckled sinisterly while he tortured the boy.
"Music to my ears." He said cruelly.
'I've got no choice,' He thought to himself as he raised his sword off the ground. 'If I don't use its power now I'll lose, and then they'll be captured.'
He raised the katana as high and then pushed it two feet into the ground sending out a ripple that shook the ground around them; almost instantly the current of electricity disappeared leaving one exhausted Tai and two very surprised heartless.
The sword started to hum, its soft song resonating throughout the square.
'Alright now, get up!' Tai gripped the sword tightly feeling the energy from it flowing into his body.
At last he stood and stared the heartless with a satisfied smirk on his face.
"That the best you can do?" He taunted.
"I wouldn't be so cocky if I were you, you've barely even seen a fraction of my power." The heartless replied.
"Likewise, but I'm curious about your friend behind me, he hasn't moved an inch since we started."
"He doesn't like violence, he prefers a more subtle way of fighting and besides I don't need his help."
Tai scoffed. "Now who's being cocky? How strong you are really doesn't matter anymore at this point, you won't win this fight."
His opponent growled with resentment. "I've had enough of you!"
He charged at Tai, his halberd poised to strike and spear the boy through but as soon as the blade made contact with his body it went straight through him.
Tai looked down at his stomach; the spear had gone halfway through his body.
"What?" The heartless stared in amazement.
He turned his head to look at his counterpart as the heartless started laughing. "He told you before didn't he Hakujou?"
"What the hell are you talking about Gai?"
"I told you before," Said Tai staring the man in the face. "You won't win this fight."
The heartless ripped his weapon away from Tai's stomach standing back to look at him.
"You did something." He said with suspicion.
"The moment that I put my sword into the cement, you ceased to be in the world that was Twilight town." Tai explained.
"Then where are we?" He asked.
"We're standing in an illusion Hakujou." Gai replied.
He glared at the taller man in spite. "You knew about this?"
"From the minute he stuck his sword in the ground, just wanted to see how long it would take for you to figure it out."
"You worthless little---"
"Listen," Tai interrupted. "I really hate to leave you guys but unfortunately I have some things to take care of."
With a wave of his hand Tai disappeared leaving the two to figure out how to escape.
"Tell me you can get us out of here so I can beat that scrawny brat to a pulp!" He snarled.
"I can but it'd take a while, by the time we're out we won't be able to catch them."
Hakujou sighed. "The king isn't going to be happy about this, at least Tomako will have to take the brunt of his anger."
"And then we'll have to deal with Tomako, who would you rather face? Him or the king?"
The man thought for a moment. "Definitely him."
Tai-shan appeared on the other side of the fence he'd put up around the square, right near the entrance to the path he'd sent Riku and Sora down. He fell to the floor, his chest heaving trying desperately to get much needed air into his lungs. Something about using that side of his power, every time he came out of it he felt like he was suffocating.
His head was throbbing, his legs felt like jelly and he wasn't sure he had much strength left inside. But if he just used it once more, he held the katana at eyelevel watching as the blackness of the sword consumed another part of it, now only 1/3 still remained silver.
Yet it was a price he was willing to pay.
Relief filled his heart as he felt the familiar energy surging through his body once again.
'Just a little longer,' Tai thought with assurance. 'Just a little while longer.'
He raised his hand and a chain shot out through the building behind him him slipping easily through the fence and flying ahead of him. He grabbed onto the chain letting it pull him forward, he relaxed his arm but his hand held firm; with a sharp tug he lifted himself into the air flipping once before landing back down onto the moving chain. It supported his weight easily though the chain seemed flimsy; this ability achieved by the magic that flowed through the metal it was made of.
'Just hold on.'
Sora and Riku raced through the odd path of buildings stopping at a junction of buildings that had been built very close together every inch of the place seemed topsy turvy.
"This way!" Sora shouted, pointing to a street leading out of the crossroads.
Riku followed him looking behind him for a moment to see if they were being followed, and unfortunately his suspicion was confirmed when he found what looked to be at least 30 heartless coming after them and getting closer!
Riku realized that was what made Sora speed up as well and he followed suit.
"This is bad!" said Sora.
"I know!" Riku replied.
"Uhh Riku what do we do?" Sora asked him.
A second chain rose from the ground this time going over their heads and digging itself into a taller building far ahead of them carrying the stranger from before on top.
"Listen, you have to jump onto the building in front and climb it."
"Are you out of your mind?! We can't jump that!" Riku told him.
"Don't worry I'll help you." Riku glanced up at him with disbelief.
"Trust me." He pointed his finger towards the heartless coming after them.
Two chains split through the group of heartless running after them cutting down the number by at least four or five by Riku's count.
The chains wrapped themselves around Sora and Riku's wrist securing them before dragging the both of them by the arm towards the building at an even faster pace than the one they were at before; the two tried they're best to keep up as they listened to the stranger give them instructions as of what to do.
"When you get to the building, grab onto the chain with both hands and hold on tight I'll pull you up."
He jumped off of the chain landing on one of the buildings beside them, he ran along side of them and the two tried to keep up with his speedy pace.
They reached the wall of the building; Riku did as instructed and grabbed the chain with both hands. He bent his knees, and jumped up the chains pulling him up the rest of the way. Sora had tried to do the same thing but failed somewhat to where he was practically being dragged by the chain.
The boy took pity on Sora and jumped onto the chain, grabbing him by the waist and helping him up the rest of the way.
Once they climbed on top the two collapsed onto the cement roof in exhaustion.
"You can't stop now that building won't hold them for long they'll find another way up!"
"Look," Said Riku standing up shakily. "Thanks for saving us and all but don't you think you could give us a little bit of a break, okay? We're tired."
"Yeah and I don't think I can walk anymore." Sora interjected still lying on the ground, but the stranger still persisted.
"You don't understand, I know these creatures they're not gonna stop until they get what they ----."
A strange dark blue crescent shaped light cut through the darkness of Twilight Town, slicing Riku squarely in the back.
He screamed in pain as it hit falling to the ground, it felt like something was trying to eat its way into his body, his mind, his soul. Probing, and probing splitting through flesh and bone till it hit its mark; soon Riku's body went numb and all senses completely shut down, and he fell unconscious.
The last thing he heard was a strangely familiar voice talking to him in the back of his mind.
"Hello Saiya, oh it's so wonderful to see you again."
The voice let out an eerie and cold laugh, the very sound choking him with fear right down to his core.
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"Riku!" Sora shouted. He got up and rushed over to his fallen friend, Sora turned him over shaking him by the shoulders and calling his name in an effort to wake him.
"Riku! Riku! Riku come on please wake up."
The stranger walked behind Sora watching as he tried to wake the silver boy up.
"I'm sorry to do this." He said softly, Sora was unable to hear him focusing all his attention on Riku.
So he was unable to stop the stranger from hitting him on the side of the neck with his hand knocking him unconscious. He fell to the cement beside Riku and the stranger raised his sword towards the sky saying the spell of chains once more.
"Spin your web Black Widow."
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Sora lay asleep on a large canopy bed, long sheer silk blue curtains hung from the top of it falling and rising swiftly with the morning breeze, blue cotton sheets covered the bed with the matching comforter lying on the floor having fallen during the night when Sora was tossing and turning.
One leg hung off of the bed while the other was tangled in the blue sheets.
The room he slept in had shelves filled to the brim with dusty books, a few weapons hung from the walls most of them looking worn or battle hardened.
Tai stood in the doorway watching him sleep with curiosity, his arms folded against his chest.
Sora's eyebrows creased in slight frustration and for a second and he thought that the teen might wake up, but Sora just turned to his side a smile gracing his lips as he found a comfortable position and resumed sleeping.
Tai heaved a heavy sigh letting his arms fall to his sides, turning towards the door to leave the room.
"Tai." a faint voice called out his name startling him, turning his attention back to the room.
He looked around cautiously trying to find the source of the voice but nothing seemed out of place. He looked at the bed; the brunette still lay tangled in the sheets asleep.
He furrowed his blonde brows disconcerted. "Oh Tai." the voice called again this time sounding clearer, making his heart skip a beat.
"Come here Tai." the eerie voice was light and serene but it held a soft growl underneath it that sent shivers up his spine.
'Come on now Tai, you're just hallucinating.'
Maybe about the voice he thought, but he couldn't deny that he felt something in the room. 'Guess it doesn't hurt to check.' Tai said to himself taking an unsure gulp and walking up to the bed.
He pulled back the drapes but all he found was Sora lying sound asleep, he sighed in relief.
"Hey Tai." He released a soft gasp turning to see Leon standing in the doorway.
The man gestured with his hand for Tai to come to him. With one last look at the sleeping boy Tai left the room and closed the door.
"How's Riku?" Leon asked him; at the mention of the other teen's name Tai's expression became cold and angry.
"He's fine." He said curtly. Leon raised his brow in disbelief.
"Did you check him?" He asked.
Tai nodded in reply.
"What are you going to do when they wake up?" He asked changing the subject.
"Can't wait till they wake up, I'm going to have to leave now. Get Sora up and get him ready, I'll take care of Riku."
Tai nodded and went back into the room, Sora had changed position and was now lying on his stomach; turning in his sleep had made the sheets wrap around him even more and Tai contemplated unraveling him but decided to let him wake up in the cocoon he'd unknowingly made for himself.
He crawled onto the bed, rolled Sora over onto his back and proceeded in poking him to wake him up. Sora didn't respond at first but then he let out an annoyed moan and turned to his side falling back to sleep. But Tai didn't give up he rolled him over again and started lightly shaking the brunette's shoulder to wake him.
"Just five more minutes Riku." He moaned.
Tai sighed and his head shook.
Then he noticed just how close the boy was to the end of the bed and smirked, an idea sparking into his head. He crawled to Sora's right side bent down to his ear.
"SORA!" he shouted, Sora yelled and leaped up at the sudden noise or at least he tried to. Being so entangled in the sheets he struggled to free himself and ended rolling off the bed and falling hard on the floor.
"Ow." Said sora.
Tai had to stifle his laughter as he watched the boy fight with the bed sheets to release him before he was successful in doing so. Sora crawled up to the bed and laid his head down panting. It took him awhile before he finally noticed there was someone else on the bed.
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Sora looked up to see a boy, about his age from the look of him, lying on the bed. Green eyes were lit with a mischievous kind of amusement; short blond bangs fell to side of his face drawing more attention to his oddly light complexion. The boy could almost pass for a girl as pretty as he was.
"Hey you're that kid from last night."
"Good morning, you sleep like a zombie." Sora blushed at his comment.
"Yeah, sorry guess." He replied releasing a big yawn. "I'm still exhausted from---"
Sora gasped as the events of last night flashed into his mind. "Riku!"
"Its alright he's fine, he's resting in my room."
Tai slid off the bed and heading towards the door, he stood up starting to follow him but she stopped before she reached the door.
She turned her head slightly to the side to talk to him without stepping away from the door.
"You might wanna get dressed first." His suggestion caused him take in his appearance, he blushed again realizing he was dressed in just a small tee and a pair of shorts much like his own but a little smaller.
"I hope you don't mind, I figured you wouldn't be comfortable in sleeping in your regular clothes so I changed them." He explained opening the door and stepping through.
He sighed as he looked around for his clothes, spotting them neatly folded on a desk.
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Leon sat in his room by the bedside checking Riku's vital signs, when Tai had brought him in he had told him to let Riku sleep in his room while Sora slept in Tai's.
Leon had told Tai to watch over him all night and in the morning they would switch places.
When they had Riku was still asleep. He'd expected Sora to sleep like a log he normally did but Riku?
The way Tai described the attack on the two particularly intrigued Leon as well…
Well at least he's still breathing. He said inwardly, but still he worried.
This wasn't the plan, he was supposed to find them before the heartless could. And now Riku had paid the price for his mistake.
Flashback
Leon sat in his desk chair looking at the monitor if front of him displaying the King of Disney Kingdom, Mickey.
"Sorry for calling so late." Mickey apologized.
"Don't be silly, besides I always go to sleep late. So what's so urgent?"
"Well you know how I told you there'd be a meeting soon and I needed you to come?" Leon nodded. "Unfortunately there's two more people I need you to pick up on the way and take with you.
Normally I would be getting them myself but I think it's better if I let you and Tai wait for them. There are some things here that I need to sort out."
Leon understood perfectly what Mickey was asking but it raised his curiosity for the mouse King to be so vague. There was something more going on than just a few missing stars.
"When are they arriving?" Mickey let loose a nervous grin.
"Uhh, tonight actually."
"What?!"
"I know it's awfully short notice and I'm really sorry but I'm afraid it couldn't be helped."
Leon took one glance at his watch and immediately wished he hadn't, it was already 5:45 and the sun was already setting. As far away as he was from town he wouldn't get to them before the sun was down.
"You will be able to get them, won't you Leon?"
"Don't worry, they'll be at the meeting. Is there anything else Mickey?" He asked.
"No that's all, be careful on your way back." Mickey replied.
The two exchanged goodbyes and with a flicker Mickey disappeared from the screen leaving a very confused Leon behind to sort out his cryptic message.
Mickey had most definitely been trying to tell him something. And the way he answered his last question let Leon know that whatever it was could only be said in person.
'…There are some things here that I need to sort out.'
It was too much to consider now, he'd have to mull over it later.
He reached a hand into his jacket pocket fishing out his silver phone and dialing Tai's number.
'Tai will probably reach them sooner than I can, hopefully they'll be safe till he can get to 'em.'
End Flashback
'The sooner I get him to Mickey the better, maybe he'll know what to do.'
Leon turned his head partially towards the door knowing that Tai was there silently watching him.
"What is it Tai?" The sandy blond shrugged his shoulders.
"Nothing, the other one is up and getting ready. He should be in the garage soon." Tai told him.
"Hmm, good you know you can call him by his name." Leon said teasingly, Tai rolled his eyes.
"Whatever."
Leon turned back to the bed sat Riku up against the bars of the bed, then he pulled him onto his back carrying him towards the door, Tai moved out of his way and walked behind him to the garage.
"So... how's he doing? Your friend I mean." Tai asked.
"He's pretty much fine he still hasn't woken up yet, but I was under the impression you could care less about his condition." Leon replied raising an eyebrow at Tai, Tai however turned his gaze towards the floor suddenly finding the design of tile very interesting.
"Just natural curiosity that's all." He said hurriedly going ahead of Leon and into the garage. "Huh, right." Leon mumbled continuing towards the garage.
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Darkness engulfed Riku as he lay on the brink of eternity, not thinking nor moving just floating. His eyes shut since there was no point in opening them, for there was nothing he could see in this strange place; he felt as if he were in water, almost as if he were at the bottom of the ocean where there was nothing but darkness.
He thought that maybe he should be afraid, terrified even but he wasn't, he couldn't shake the feeling like he had been here before.
Wherever here is that is.
"Come on now don't just lay there Riku." He heard a voice say to him, he opened his eyes but all around was nothing but the darkness. He closed his eyes but yet again the voice spoke to him this time sounding more familiar.
"Riku quit being lazy and get up!" It said to him.
"Kairi?" he asked.
"That's right and you better get up or else Riku!" She demanded. "You can't give up now you still have more work to do, and Sora needs your help, you know that silly baka can't take care of himself." He chuckled smiling softly at her words.
"You're right."
"Have I ever been wrong? Don't answer that, just get up."
"Hai!" He replied.
Suddenly he felt himself being lifted slowly in the darkness, feeling himself rising higher and higher. A strange tingling enveloped his body, he felt a light pressure on his face like snowflakes falling down on him except the feeling wasn't cold.
He opened his eyes finding himself no more engulfed in the abyss, no in fact he was bathed in light.
Riku raised his hand to his face shielding his eyes from the bright sun that beamed down upon him.
Once he got used to the light he looked around realizing he'd woken up in a field of daisies; like the darkness he was normally used to the field seemed to go on forever. He sat up and the realization that his clothes had changed dawned on him.
He wore white leather gloves, a dark gray V-necked shirt and a long black jacket. Black pants, and laced up dark blue boots that went up to his knees covering the bottom portion of his pants, each bore a small buckle at the top of them.
A sense of déjà vu' came over him as he took in his appearance, it was an odd feeling kind of like---
That weird tingling he'd felt before.
He thought that to be the only plausible answer, but the why still bothered him. He pondered this for a moment but then a glimmer of light in the distance in front of him caught his eye; he stood up and began walking towards it.
It was hard to walk, his entire body felt slightly heavy almost like there was something in the air something he couldn't see only feel.
Regardless he kept on walking soon he got used to the odd pressure, finally close to the source of the glimmer he'd seen earlier.
He looked down to see a silver pendant its chain caught on a daisy realizing it had been light from the sun shining off the metal of the pendant that had caused it. He picked it up and held it in his hand to get a closer look; the pendant had a small gem on it, the color of jade shaped like a heart.
It was just like the one he'd seen before in his dreams.
As he gazed upon the small necklace a memory flowed into his head.
A young boy sat by an open window sill, his short silver hair flowing with the gusts of wind coming through.
A content smile gracing his face, his jade eyes stared out towards the outside.
Blue and white pajamas adorned his small form, the same jade pendant wrapped around his neck.
Riku gasped, shaking the mental image from his mind; that felt almost familiar to him.
But what was that? Who was that?
A loud sound broke through his train of thought like that of a big engine, that was when he began to take notice of a huge shadow coming over the entire field engulfing him as well; he turned jumping back in surprise as he did when he saw a huge hovering mansion coming towards him.
The closer it got the louder the sound, so loud he had to cover his ears as it was beginning to give him a headache; finally the house stopped moving and the sound coming from it slowly quieted to a barely audible hum.
As he stared at the abnormally big house he noticed that he could hear faint voices, angry voices.
'It sounds close so they can't be too far away.'
He circled the large house taking in some of its strange features, most of the bottom was covered by some odd metal that wavered and shifted over it like water, every so often the movement of the metal would still and formed five huge holes at the bottom blowing out a gust of hot air before closing up and moving around again.
The entire house was made out of a mix of metal and wood, at some parts like the bottom there would be the liquid metal that covered it, and most of the other parts were made of wood.
"What an odd house." Riku mumbled.
He turned his attention to the top of the house as he searched for the source of the voices, he could hear them getting louder as he got closer.
Till he stood in front of balcony where he could see two men arguing very animatedly at each other, one of them was tall and thin he looked maybe thirty or forty, blue eyes and pale skin with jet black hair.
His face bore a fatigued expression so Riku guessed they had been at this for a while. He wore a white button up shirt with dark grey slacks, rather simple attire.
The other one was almost the exact opposite of the first, he looked maybe five or six years older than Riku.
He was a little shorter than the other, dark brown eyes with long fiery red hair that fell down his shoulders accenting his lightly tanned skin. He wore a regular white tee shirt and blue shorts that went down to his knee cap. Much more sporty than his counterpart, in fact the two seemed like exact bipolar opposites.
Riku's first thought was to ask the pair questions but he found himself intrigued by their heated conversation.
"This idea is not going to work Virgil!" The elder one shouted.
"And yours will?! Correct me if I'm wrong Dimitri but we don't exactly have all the tools to make your machine work, and even if we did there's no telling that it would actually do anything."
"Well correct me if I'm wrong but aren't you the one who said we should do everything we can to get out of here?"
"I said that a very long time ago D, besides I'm very content with just staying here anyway."
"With HIM out there?!" Dimitri shouted. "With him constantly coming after us?"
"He hasn't come after us in a while!" Virgil shouted back.
"That doesn't mean he won't which is all the more reason to finish it and destroy him!"
"And exactly how do you expect to do that without a---"
The two men paused, and simultaneously looked down at him, his eyes widened slightly with surprise at being so quickly caught.
The younger of the two narrowed his eyes and then gasped in shock his eyes opening to the size of saucers.
"It couldn't be!" He exclaimed.
The other man looked at the younger one and hit him hard on the head.
"Oww!" He yelled glaring at the elder in pain, rubbing his head and glaring angrily at the man.
"Who are you?" The eldest asked Riku.
"My name's Riku." He said.
The man looked almost disappointed in his answer while the other one looked plainly bewildered.
"I'm Dr Dimitri Velshdein, This man is my colleague Virgil."
Dr. Virgil waved his hand flashing him a silly grin, Riku politely but nervously returned the gesture.
"Exactly what brings you here?" Virgil asked him.
"Well I'm not exactly sure how I got here; to be honest I don't even know where here is." He replied.
"Well then!" Virgil shouted, disappearing from the balcony and coming back with a rope ladder. "We certainly can't leave you here stranded all by yourself." He threw the ladder over the side of the house and it fell against the balcony and dropped down, dangling almost tentatively in front of Riku.
Riku stared at the ladder unsure; the ladder wasn't like normal ones.
The planks were made of the same liquid metal as the house was, but this seemed much more unstable since the planks metal didn't look altogether steady. The rope the metal planks were tied to had a marble shaped glowing ball that stood in-between the rope and metal it seemed to keep the planks in place, even as they wavered and sloshed about.
"Come on now don't be shy!"
Riku smiled nervously and grabbed a hold of the rope, he took a deep breath and placed his right foot in the first step, Riku let out a sigh as it solidified underneath him and began climbing the steps with a little more assurance that he wouldn't fall through it.
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"I don't think this is a good idea Virgil." Dimitri said lowly, hoping the boy coming up the ladder couldn't hear them speaking.
"Well what do you expect us to do? Leave him here by himself, with that thing out there?" Virgil hissed.
Dimitri scoffed. "I can't believe you just turned my own words against me."
Virgil sighed heavily and pulled his friend away from the balcony as he could see that Riku was getting closer with each step as they spoke.
"Look you know as well as I do that we both want to find out for sure if it's really him; come on you can't deny that you haven't thought about it. He looks like him, dresses like him, talks like him."
"That doesn't mean he's him!" Dimitri spat.
He turned towards the door to go in the house but before he could turn the handle his friend spoke.
"Will you torture yourself forever D? It wasn't your fault; don't you believe that at all?" He asked, hoping to get a response or some form of an answer from him but Dimitri said nothing.
He heard the door open and turned to see Dimitri standing there, his head turned slightly to the side towards Virgil.
"No I don't because it was my fault Virgil. He's dead and nothing we say or do, no one we see that looks like him is going to change that. We screwed up, we made a big mistake but I'm going to fix it."
With that said he walked into the house and shut the door not bothering to help Virgil welcome the young man in.
But Virgil wasn't surprised, usually when the subject of the past was brought up, particularly that, Dimitri wouldn't speak to anyone at all he'd shut himself in the house, and close off to anyone.
Which made Virgil sad, if Dimitri never faced his fears and pain how was he going to get over them?
"Umm, excuse me can you please help me?"
Virgil turned around and saw the source of the distress was Riku; he'd had trouble getting onto the balcony and ended up getting tangled in the rope ladder.
Virgil grabbed a hold of him giving a hard tug but the ladder was tied around his leg. Virgil managed to untie but he had trouble getting him over and ended up making them both fall over onto the balcony floor; Virgil got up and dusted himself off, taking a moment to look at the young boy now that he was much closer to him than before.
He still wore the same clothes from that day, and that necklace.
It has to be him, there was no other explanation. Why else would come here? Why else would he be wearing it?
"Sorry about causing you so much trouble." Riku apologized.
"What? Don't be ridiculous it's no trouble at all. I'm always happy to help someone in need."
He said with a smile, Riku returned the smile half-heartedly as he looked around for the other scientist.
"Oh, you'll have to forgive Dimitri but I'm afraid he's taken to his room for now, he probably won't come out till later in the evening."
Virgil could tell by Riku's expression that the boy was slightly disappointed, he was as well.
"Why don't you come and rest as well," He said opening the door beckoning him to come inside. "I imagine you're very tired."
Virgil thought Riku might protest but he accepted the invitation, walking towards the door.
"That does sound nice; I actually do feel a little tired."
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"The Gummi ship is ready Leon once I open the garage we are cleared for take off." Tai was at the controls putting in codes and coordinates for Leon, he had told him they were to leave immediately and Tai had tried the best he could to be quick about it but with Sora watching him it sure didn't make his job any easier.
After 15 minutes Sora had proceeded to try to push any and every button he could find to figure out it's exact function.
After the first 30 minutes Tai was convinced Leon had sent the boy to annoy him to test his patience, which he had very little of.
After 40 minutes Tai had grabbed some rope and tied the hyper boy to a chair in front of the control board so that he could watch him and make sure he didn't mess with anything.
But even this didn't slow him down, Sora had somehow managed to get a pair of scissors and untie himself from the chair. Now he was annoying Tai non-stop which only fueled Tai's resolution to get the ship in the air as fast as he could so that he might retain what was left of his sanity.
'Just what the hell was this boy on? Probably that drop of coffee that idiotic Leon left in his mug, I pity the poor fool that gives him a whole cup!'
"Hahaha, 'Cleared for take off' you sound like ones of those weird pilots." Sora said laughing uncontrollably. "Ow!"
Leon had come up behind the boy and hit him on the head.
"That's because he is a pilot Sora. Tai is the one who built this Gummi ship."
"With the help of Donald of course." The blond youth added.
Sora's eyes grew to the size of saucers. "You know Donald?"
"Well I wouldn't say I know him, I haven't seen him in a while so he probably wouldn't recognize me. But yeah he taught me how to pilot the Gummi ship and use magic." He replied.
"You mean magic like that spell you used on those heartless last night?"
Tai froze, his fingers were shaking slightly with the effort to hold them steady over the keyboard, and his eyes looked down at his hands clenching them into fists, his face twisted in an angry grimace.
Sora was worried by Tai's reaction and reached to put his hand on his shoulder but Leon stopped him.
"I think that's enough questions for one day Sora, get in your seat it's time to leave."
Leon's words were firm and left no room for protest, Sora went to his seat and began the tedious task of strapping himself in.
"You knew you were going to have to face him sooner or later, what better time than now?"
Tai shook his head, his hair ruffling as he did.
"It isn't that it's just... What am I supposed to say to him? He told me to never use that spell, to never use that power but I did it anyway. He made me promise him Leon."
"You did it to save their lives Tai, you didn't have any choice." Leon said.
"He won't believe that."
"Sure he will give him some credit, trust him Tai, and trust me." Leon put one gloved hand on Tai's chin and turned his face towards him. "He'll understand."
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A:N Working on the third chapter I promise you, and I'm trying to read some fanfiction so I can get pointers and check out some new techniques on how to write my story. Please Read/Review people I need your input to know if I'm doing well.
Oh and if you wanna find out what Leon and Tai are talking about read the next chapter when they go to Disney kingdom. Check ya later
Kingdom Hearts Rules!