Ai: Heeeeyaaaa, did ya guys miss me? Guess not, seeing as I only had ONE review for the previous chapter. And no one polled either. Do you know how sad that made me? -hurt face- But well! I'm a good person, so how about this! I'll extend the poll to the end of August, and everyone shall be let off if I get a minimum of THREE reviews! And just ONE poll. How does that sound? Much better yeah? So if you want more chapters, tell your friends to read this and review! Spread the word!
Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom hearts, because if I did, Axel wouldn't have a freaking GIRL'S NAME. If you play 358/2 Days, you'll get what I mean. 'Lea'. ...What the heck.
Heaving with all my strength, I tossed the very last person onto the top of the 'human tower' we had made with all the unconscious knights. More than twice my height, it looked pretty impressive.
"Okay, time to meet up with the others," Ray said.
"Yeah," I said, or at least, tried to say, before a cold hand suddenly pressed against the back of my neck and slammed me against the wall. "Ow!" I cried out in pain, not expecting an attack. My brother, alerted by the noise and my yell, whipped around, but could not respond fast enough to completely evade as my attacker abandoned me and sliced at him with a swift and accurate sword strike. Ray only just managed to dodge it, but it left a slight cut on his right cheek. I slid to the ground wincing, while Ray touched his newly-gained wound gingerly, frowning.
"An attack from the back… That's a dirty trick, A. Ki. Hi. Ko. Nii. San," I spat venomously, pronouncing each syllable of my eldest brother's name as if it were a particularly bitter medicine. And it was, in a way. He smirked and swung his long blade at me this time, barely giving me enough time to spring to a foot and leap sideways to evade his attack. A roll allowed me to get back up to my feet, But I was panting. That had been too close. Worse yet, he had missed me on purpose. Ray rejoined my side. But even with him to back me up, I felt a little nervous. Akihiko-nii-san seemed like a completely different person from the last time we had done battle with him. I could sense that this would be a tough fight.
"Father," he began, smiling humorlessly and looking at his sword with a fake interest, "has given up all hope on you twins. He had hoped that marriage would allow you to change your ways and rejoin our peaceful society, Sister, but he has realized that his efforts have been in vain. Therefore, as of now, you two are hereby expelled from our Royal Family, and are the most-wanted criminals of our country."
"Who does he think he's kidding?" I asked with a what-the-HECK-did-he-just-say face. "He's losing his marbles. Oh, wait, he'd already lost them years ago."
"Well, on a positive note, that changes nothing from years ago," Ray said sarcastically. Always the optimistic one, my brother.
"Oh, it does change one thing."
"Yeah, it made him crazier."
"Good try, Claire, but I'm afraid not."
"CALIXRE! Calix, Calix, Calix, Calix!! Now say it ten times over!" I was ignored, obviously. I wasn't really expecting Akihiko to listen to me, though.
"We've just been given the order by none other than Father to hunt the both of you down, no matter the casualties… and kill you."
"…Right."
"Now, we're no longer out to capture you. It's to kill, so be ready."
I looked at Ray, and vice versa. "That still changes nothing, doesn't it?"
"Nothing. Except that out meeting with everyone else is gonna be delayed."
"Then…"
"Then…" Ray materialized weapons for me, two twin daggers, and for himself, a large iron hammer, much like the one he usually used. I took the daggers from him and spun them around in circles in my hands several times to get used to the feeling of using them. Although they weren't the Blades I was familiar with, they felt all right. Holding them by their hilts, with the blades pointing backwards, I slipped into my usual battle stance.
"Let's begin."
******
"Clink." A dagger fell from my left hand and onto the ground. Held by the throat and suspended several feet off the ground, I was surely in a pathetic state, but kept a defiant expression on, refusing to let Akihiko see me in pain. The earlier stab wound was serious and had rendered my entire left arm useless. I couldn't even feel it anymore, much less use it. No surprise there. I had felt the entire blade pierce through the front of my shoulder and emerge from the back, dripping with my blood.
Bleeding all over from wounds, including one from my head which caused the thick red blood to flow into my green colored right eye, forcing me to keep it shut, I was suddenly reminded of the first time Ray and I had went up against the same, though younger, opponent. Barely alive, we had managed to escape, but attempting to do so this time round would be impossible, especially with my psychic abilities sealed up. Ray was lying unconscious with his back against a wall, but I was glad that at the very least, he was not as injured as I was.
Akihiko was wounded too, but I could hardly call them serious injuries. He had improved a lot since his defeat to us. We had difficulties even attempting to scratch him.
"Are you finished?" he asked me, bored, and tightened his already crushing grip on my throat. I gasped for air, but continued glaring at him.
"If that's all you've got, then you're pathetic," I snapped with difficulty. But deep inside me, I knew that I was in an even less position to talk. I just didn't want to admit it.
Akihiko didn't even seem the least bit insulted, much to my disappointment. "Do you know the reason why I chose to wound you in our shoulder?" he asked me.
"Enlighten me, oh great holy sage." Sarcasm, probably one of my most favorite things in the entire universe.
"Because that was where you had wounded me in our previous duel."
I dropped my glare and stared at him. "Wow, I didn't know that you were such a petty person."
"You don't even know half of the things about me, Claire."
"Calix," I corrected irritatedly and aimed a weak kick at him. I didn't really have very much strength right at the moment, anyway. "But true. And seriously, I don't CARE to know. Now go away."
He smiled sadistically. That made my eyes widen. 'First time I'd ever seen him do that. Definitely a baaaaaad sign.
"How would you like it if I directed 'bad luck' towards this choker on your neck?"
I didn't want to say 'I told you so', but I told you so.
That made me drop my cool front for a threatening one. I growled, "Damn you."
"Your psychic element and other abilities are 'contained' by this, right? The same goes for Ray and his earth element. We've already discovered this. That is the reason why we attached the seal to it when you arrived." He fingered the metal chain attached almost playfully. "So, naturally, we know what will happen to you when we destroy this…"
I struggled valiantly against his grip, but the only result was that his grasp tightened even more, this time that I could no longer breathe.
"You'll die, won't you."
I was released, but in that very same second, the cool sensation of metal left my throat as I felt it snap open. I collapsed to the ground, followed swiftly by my choker, which made a small noise as it did so. The darkness closed in on my one open eye, and I blacked out, unable to resist at all.
******
3rd person POV
The young knight, now the only conscious person in the entire room, smiled with satisfaction. That had gone better than he had expected. Stepping over the body of his younger sister, he made a step towards her twin.
What he didn't see was the reddish-brown haired girl slowly stagger to her feet.
He was just reaching a pale hand out towards the boy's neck when something silver flew past his fingertips and embedded itself deep into the marbled floors. Stunned, he quickly withdrew his hand and looked at it. A thin blade about half an arm long, but sharp enough to cut diamond, it was thrown with such accuracy that it had harmed neither him nor the boy. He instantly knew who it belonged to.
Impossible! He thought, shocked beyond belief. She's…!
He spun around to see the same girl standing perfectly upright, her arm still in the position it had adopted when throwing the blade she had detached from her weapon, now held in her other hand. She let it drop and it faded into black wisps, then immediately summoned a new one. Putting a hand to her right eye, she pushed the hair covering it to the back of her head coolly, also rubbing off the still-flowing blood, and opened the eye to reveal that it had changed color to a brilliant red.
"Hiya. Missed me?" She grinned.
To his shock, Akihiko watched as all the wounds he had previously inflicted on her stop bleeding and slowly close themselves up. "You are not Claire!" he yelled and drew his sword, which he had sheathed. "Who are you?! Speak!"
"Wow, you noticed," the girl replied. "That's right, I'm not. I'm just borrowing her body for a while. I don't exactly have a name, but my Mistress calls me Rune."
"Mistress…?! Claire?!"
Rune snorted. "Oh, please, don't compare my Mistress to that weak girl. I can't believe she actually allowed herself to lose to the likes of you. I may be a spirit, but don't think that I'm on the same level as her. Mistress merely sealed me up into Claire's, no, Calixre's choker with the order to help her if she ever needed some. She doesn't know about my existence, but I'm fine with that. So here I am. I guess… I have to defeat you, then?"
Dark wisps gathered around Rune's empty hand and started to condense before bursting away to reveal an identical Blade to the one she was currently holding.
"I'm not going to go easy on you."
Without waiting for a reply, she flung her weapons at Akihiko. Surprised, he raised his sword in preparation to parry but they suddenly crossed each other seconds away from their targets and struck him for behind instead before boomeranging back to Rune. Akihiko knees touched the ground and he coughed up some blood. He had not been expecting that. The mysterious girl possessing his sister's body was strong. She had managed to slice through his chest amour to injure him without even taking a step. Still, he kept a firm grip on his sword, refusing to give up just like that. He was sure that the only reason why she had succeeded was due to luck. She would not win. He wouldn't allow it.
With these thoughts, he got up and charged at her, swinging his sword, aiming for her arms to cripple her, but all he managed to hit was a levitating Blade instead, used as a shield. "Spin," Rune muttered and it began to rotate quickly, gaining speed at such a rate that he was not even given enough time to pull back. It was spinning so fast that all it looked like was a large grey orb floating in the air. What came as the biggest shock to Akihiko was, indeed, not the fact that his sword, well-known throughout their entire world as 'the sword capable of slicing through anything at all', started to form cracks down its entire blade before fragmenting and breaking down into fine pieces at the very first contact with Rune's weapon, but instead the sheer difference in strength between the both of them. She had managed to defeat him in less than ten minutes without even moving a single muscle. Akihiko realized that Rune had not been lying. His sister was really nowhere near the level of the person temporarily inhibiting her body.
"I told you, didn't I?" Rune said, snapping the prince out of his train of thoughts. She felt him attempt to conceal the fear beginning to creep over his heart. It was well-concealed, so much that even an extremely sensitive person would not have been able to sense it, but having borrowed Calixre's body, she could also use her abilities. "That I wouldn't go easy on you. 'Going easy on someone'… That phrase doesn't exist in my dictionary."
And I'm going to kill you.
Echoing through his mind, projected mentally through the use of Calixre's telepathic skills, Akihiko was quick to realize that Rune was not lying, once again. She really was going to kill him, no matter the relation he had to her host. Raising her weapon high, she then plunged it down.
******
Calixre's POV
It was cold and pitch-dark. The darkness was endless. Strangely enough, I could see myself perfectly well, but not my surroundings. Only blackness.
Where am I?
That was the only thought I had ringing in my head.
Is this my dream?
This doesn't look like any of my dreams. Not even the ones in which I manage to peek glimpses of the future.
No… That's right, I died. So this can't be a dream.
Akihiko-nii-san broke open my choker. So… I can't still be alive. But I'm not depressed at all.
Is this supposed to be Heaven?
I don't like this place. I want to get out. It almost felt like I was a helpless four-year-old again. At that thought, a spark of some sort suddenly appeared in front of me and slowly grew to become a small fire. There were images being reflected in the middle of it. As if it were a television screen, and I was being shown what was currently happening where I had last left off.
I saw my body get up. I was stunned, no doubt.
I saw the battle between my brother and 'myself'.
I saw my brother lose.
All the time, I could hear voices flowing into my head. These… are their voices. The voices of Akihiko, and 'myself'. I could hear every bit of their conversation. I learnt that the reason 'I' was moving was because of Rune, whoever she was.
"And I'm going to kill you."
I widened my eyes. Rune… she's going to kill Akihiko. I watched as a Blade made it's way to Akihiko's chest. It really wasn't, but to me, it seemed as if time had slowed down.
"STOP IT!!!"
I was panting, but also a little surprised at the words that had forced their way out of my mouth. Rune's hand froze.
"Quiet. Stay out of this." It was strange, hearing my own voice speak to me.
"Shut up… No matter how strong you are, this is my body, and you are not going to use it if you're going to kill someone. Don't get me wrong, it's not like I forgive him or anything," I spat viciously, "but I'M going to be the one to kill him one day, and not some spirit borrowing my body. Now… Get out."
******
3rd person POV
The ever sharp Blade stabbed into Akihiko's chest, who let out a cry of pain and blacked out almost instantly. He was now losing a lot of blood. Rune pulled it out without even so much as a glance at the unconscious knight.
"I did you a favor. I didn't kill him. I intentionally missed his heart by inches. He'll need major surgery, but you'll be able to have your own sweet revenge against him one day." She licked the blade clean of blood, then slowly walked over to where a purple metallic choker lay and picked it up. Rune slipped it around her neck, then snapped it shut. "I'm going back to sleep now. I hope I won't have to wake up for a while now…"
True enough, the instant she finished her sentence, her eyes closed and her body toppled to the ground, all the previous injuries inflicted on Calixre returning once again. But instead of hitting the solid floor, she collapsed into the arms of her twin.
"I just woke up, but I saw everything too," he mumbled. "So you've finally found out… You were unconscious when Rune was sealed into your choker, so you didn't know anything about it happening, but I wasn't when my 'guardian' was sealed, so I know about his existence."
Ray heaved Calixre to her feet and slung her uninjured arm over his shoulder to support her. He stole a glance at his heavily bleeding brother but the sound of running footsteps far off in the distance made him look straight ahead again and take off running towards the direction of the footsteps, somehow managing to drag his sister along behind him without much of a problem.
"But the fact that Rune's awoken…That means that it's almost time now."
Author's Notes:
Well if you read whatever's up there before the disclaimer, then you know what to do. PFFT, C'MON, WHAT'S STOPPIN' YA?! REVIEW WITH YOUR DYING WILL! (coughsorry,beenreadingKatekyoHitmanReborn!latelycough) HOW MANY REVIEWS (and polls) I GET WILL AFFECT HOW LONG IT TAKES ME TO POST CHAPTER 14!!
I'M SERIOUS! (Really.)
IF YOU DON'T REVIEW I'LL umm... INVADE YOUR HOUSE AND THEN I'LL... -gets kicked in the head by Calix from behind-
Calix: Ignore her. But review or Ray and I'll 'disappear' mysteriously for the umm... next five months.
Ray: We're not joking.