Usagi: PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE NAZI-WEREWOLF-CATBOY BEHIND THE CURTAIN!
Zakura: what curtain?
Usagi: this one (Throws a curtain over Zakura) So the Netherworld arc is over for now…
Etna: for now? You blew it to pieces!
Usagi: yeah and? We need a break from the action in one short chapter in order to give Kairi a bad time.
Kairi: hey…
Usagi: because she never did tell her mother where she was going.
Kairi: …
Sora: busted.
Usagi: also there might be time for Zexion to explain a few things…ENJOY!
Chapter 15
Family Reunion
Since Gordon's ship had more room than the Highwind had, all the demons decided to use that, except Kyuubi who had to lead the keybladers towards his nobody. And Samehada.
"Why don't you want to go with your friends?" Kairi asked, raising an eyebrow at the fish that had crawled into the gummi ship.
"I want to know how to turn heartless back, so that I can help Isnoade-sama!" Samehada said. "Besides, if I go with you guys maybe I can meet him again too and save him!"
"Sounds noble enough, I don't see a problem with it" Sora said. "He's a fish after all, he doesn't take up that much space. No Trixi!" he suddenly said to the cat, who was eyeing Samehada, licking her lips.
--
Meanwhile our heroes were once again unaware of being watched, and for once it wasn't some random heartless' lackeys, but instead Orochi, Deym and Xehanort stood on a hilltop watching.
At least Orochi and Deym were watching, Xehanort was talking, though no one seemed to pay attention.
"Ah, the End of the World, such a glorious place it is" Xehanort said. "Now that I am a heartless I finally understand darkness rules everything. I once thought logic and reason was everything but there I proved myself wrong when I on my journeys came across a flat world rotating on the backs of four large elephants, that all stood on an even larger turtle swimming aimlessly trhough space".
That suddenly got the other heartless' attentions.
"Four elephants?" Deym asked.
"And a turtle?" Orochi said.
"I think the darkness must be eating away at your brain too" Deym said.
"You understand nothing" Xehanort said.
"Oh I understand alright, you can have fun with your turtle world cause this is where I'm leaving both…or all nine of you" Deym said.
"Really? Are you sure you don't want to participate in my big master plan to take over the universe?" Xehanort said.
"Yeah right, you're only after a guinea pig for your crazy experiments, screw you guys I'm going home" Deym said and started leaving.
Orochi and Xehanort gazed at him.
"And yes I am aware that wasn't a song quote" Deym said, before disappearing into a portal.
"What kind of experiments was he talking about?" Orochi asked.
"Oh you'll see" Xehanort said smirking. "Though…I'd rather test it out on someone more disposable first".
"What kind of creature do you need?" the snake asked. "Could you use some of those brats down there?"
"No, I need someone who won't betray me, but at the same time it needs to be a person capable of producing both a heartless and a nobody. Too bad animals don't often get nobodies... a monkey or an ape would be perfect" Xehanort said.
"Yeah right, if I ever see a monkey capable of creating a nobody I'll let you know" Orochi said, rolling his many eyes.
--
Meanwhile, the two space ships readied themselves to take of, they had decided to lead the demons to Traverse Town before moving on, as they were used to taking in off-worlders who'd lost their homes to the heartless.
Luckily getting out of the end of the world proved to be a far less bumpy ride than it was getting there, even though there were a lot more heartless blocking their way, but at least the Highwind was now running smoothly, and not getting tossed around everywhere.
"So where are we off to next?" Donald said, the moment they passed the border between the end of the world and the normal universe, the demons' ship passed them though slightly slower than the Highwind.
"Though I do think we should get to find Vexen as soon as possible, maybe we should go to Radiant Garden first" Mickey said.
"What? Why? This is urgent! We've got to help Zexion right?" Kairi said.
"Not as important as it is letting your mother know where you are, she's worried sick about you" Mickey said. "I'm sure Zexion wouldn't mind waiting a couple of hours, and then we'll leave soon after."
"You mean you'll leave" Kairi sighed. "She's just going to lock me up again."
"Now now, we don't know that for sure" Mickey said. "After all last time was about you going to a demon world".
"She's gonna get locked up" Zexion said. "Mom's extremely over protective, when she was younger she wouldn't let her cross the street even if I was with her".
Kairi groaned, Mickey just rolled his eyes.
"We're going to Radiant Garden and that's final" he said. "Besides, Nanami would murder me if I waited any longer".
Everyone else gazed at him.
"…I said that out loud didn't I?"
Everyone nodded.
--
"What did you THINK you were doing? I worried SICK about you! You could have gotten killed! OR WORSE! What if those demons tried to take advantage of you or something?"
Despite Kairi's protests the gummi ship had landed on Radiant Garden, and her mother was so happy to see her again…or something.
"You could have died!" Nanami said.
"You said that already" Axel said, rubbing his ears. Having extra sensitive hearing wasn't an advantage in this situation. "In a different way but you still said it".
"You stay out of this" Nanami warned him. "What were you thinking?"
"I had to help my friends, mom!" Kairi said. "I couldn't just sit back while they were in trouble."
"You could have gotten hurt!" Nanami said.
"Oh boy, here she goes again" Zexion muttered to those who were capable of hearing, that was currently Sora, Riku, Axel, Demyx and Samehada who just happened to stand close by.
They had met up with Nanami in Merlin's house, Cid, Merlin and Leon were there too, but Merlin was too caught up in his book to even take note of the yelling, the others had long since decided not to upset the woman even more.
"Watch, she's gonna repeat this for at least two hours" Zexion said. "She loves to argue but don't have much to argue about".
Ienzo just nodded in agreement.
"Oh and one more thing!" Kairi said, interrupting her mother's rants for the tenth time, before swiftly picking up the shadow. "I found this".
Nanami stared at it, and screamed. "You brought a heartless with you? Kairi! Of all people you should know better".
"No you don't understand!" Kairi said. "This isn't just any shadow, he's…he's…" her voice seemed to fail her, how was she supposed to tell her this shadow was the son she thought she'd lost years ago? Or without breaking her promise to Zexion, she looked at the cat, who was looking at the ground, then she looked at Sora.
"Uhm, how do we explain this?" Sora said. "You know where heartless come from right?"
"Well of course I do" Nanami said. "Heartless are born from the darkness of people's hearts, anyone should know that."
"Well the thing is…" Sora started again. "That one… was born from the darkness in your son's heart".
At first Nanami just gazed at him like he was some kind of idiot, then her eyes flew up as she grasped what the boy had just said, and stared from Sora, to Ienzo, to Kairi, back at Sora again, then at Trixi who was eating something she hoped was commercial cat food and not a rat and then at Ienzo once more.
"Are you trying to tell me…that this…shadow…is Ienzo?" she said shocked.
"Looks like it" Kairi said, smiling innocently.
"But how…how did he…how do you even know that?" Nanami asked.
"Uhm…" Yeah how would they know? Sure she was able to recognize Sora the first time she saw his heartless form, but they'd been best friends for as long as she could remember, she'd recognized him later only because Roxas said so, same about this, Zexion had told her. "Schemer told me" she said before even thinking it trhough, she could practically feel Zexion's glare, but she didn't look at him.
"Your cat? How does he know?" Nanami asked, now even more surprised.
Zexion gave of an annoyed growling sound, before deciding the game was pretty much over anyway.
"Because I'm not a cat, not a normal one anyway" he said.
"Okay, I would be more surprised at the cat talking but I'm over talking animals a long time ago" Nanami sighed, she didn't even look at Zexion.
"My real name is Zexion, I'm a nobody. In case you didn't know that's what becomes of the empty shell that's left behind when a person turns into a heartless" Zexion explained.
"What kind of name is Zexion?" Nanami asked.
"It's a far better name than Fluffy anyway, yet another proof why you shouldn't be allowed to name anything but your own pets, hardly that" Zexion said.
"Oh great, I recognize that tone. You said nobodies were the shells left behind by heartless didn't you? Then that makes you…" Nanami said.
"Ienzo's nobody. Switch the letters around ma, its not that damn hard" Zexion said, he probably would have used more sarcasm but Nanami quickly snatched him and gave him a big hug.
"I can't believe it, I've missed you so much, but why didn't you say something? Why didn't you say anything?" she said.
"Ach! Mom, I don't have a heart anymore but it's still uncomfortable not being able to breathe!" Zexion yelped.
"Oh, I'm terribly sorry dear" Nanami said and loosened her grip.
"That…is one reason…I never told you" Zexion said and jumped out of his mother's arms, he actually appeared to be hyperventilating. (Usagi: this is why you should never hugged Zexion…especially LiD-Zexion who's encountered Annie Tarb Ginnoyan…)
Axel, Sora and Riku burst into laughter.
"It must have been awful, for you, both…or… if you're both Ienzo…" Nanami said, looking from the heartless to the nobody-cat.
"Just say both, it's easier that way" Demyx said. "Besides, same person or not, heartless and nobody can be veeeery different."
"But how could this happen? Oh don't tell me, it was that Xehanort-guy right? I never did trust him" Nanami said. "In fact you would have been wise to stay clear of him the moment he showed up."
Ienzo tried his best to look innocent, Zexion groaned.
"I think you hit head on there" Axel said. "But perhaps Zexy here would like to tell you that story himself?"
Zexion just replied with a cold stare, and didn't say anything.
"Later mom, right now we've got to help Zexion and Ienzo back together, so they can get their heart back!" Kairi said.
"And how were you planning to do that?" Nanami said.
"That's just it. One of Zexion's old friends says he's found a way, so we were planning to go out and see him" Kairi said.
"And exactly where is this friend of his?" Nanami asked suspiciously. "And more importantly WHO is he?"
Zexion groaned again. "Its Even mom, or more precisely his nobody, you remember him right? One of m more "decent" friends I believe you called him?" he said. "As for where, well we don't know yet."
"Oh… I guess that would be fine…but I still don't like the idea of you going" Nanami said to Kairi.
"But mother, I want to make sure he's okay, besides big brother is with me right?" Kairi said.
Nanami just stared at her, and at Zexion and Ienzo, like she considered neither of them to be really responsible big brothers.
"Aw come on!" The next outbreak came from a more unexpected side, more precisely Riku, who'd kept quiet throughout most of the conversation, by order of Kairi. "She just came back from a trip to the Netherworld, the End of the World and back, and do you see a scratch on her? I don't think so! We weren't planning on going on any dangerous mission; we're just going to see a few old acquaintances, there won't be any fighting unless Axel here gets extra annoying, in which case it would be settled between me and him, Kairi would be in higher risks of getting kidnapped from her own bedroom than ANYTHING harming her while we're travelling… and now I owe you both an ice cream don't I?"
"I think I'll let this one slide" Kairi said giggling.
Nanami merely eyed him suspiciously.
"What's your name again?" she asked.
"Riku" the teen replied.
"Well Riky, I think I know how to protect my own daughter?"
"Really? Since the last time you tried to "protect" her she ran of."
"You know what? Scratch what I said, you owe me two ice creams" Kairi said.
"You know what? Ignore what my friend here said, I'll make sure Kairi is okay and if she isn't just hold me responsible okay?" Sora said quickly.
Nanami groaned. "Well somehow I get the feeling she's going to run of even if I try to keep her here" she said. "Fine, you can go, but if anything happens…eyh, are you listening?"
Obviously not, as the teenage girl just started screaming and jumping up and down on joy.
"She gets exited easily… I'm not sure if this is gonna be a happy visit or not" Demyx said.
"Hey, you're way too pessimistic" Samehada said.
Usagi: isn't Nanami such a sweet and understanding mother?
Riku: how should I know, my parents haven't even showed up in this fic. For all I know I could be orphan. Not that I mind…
Usagi: you never had parents, you popped up from a hole in the ground. Everyone knows that.
Riku: ooookay
Zexion: it beats having her for a mother. I'm just glad she didn't get to name me.
Nanami: hey…
Usagi: You'll have lots of time making fun of Nanami's name-giving abilities later.
Leon: were we in the room this whole chapter?
Usagi: yes.
Leon: then why didn't we get any lines?
Usagi: because you were too busy looking at Cid's PC, using the internet.
Since as you know
(Starts singing)
The internet is really really great!
Schrödinger: (appears out of nowhere) for porn! (Disappears)
Leon: what?
Usagi: I've got a fast connection so I don't have to wait!
Schrödinger: (Appears out of nowhere) for porn! (Disappears)
Leon: who was that?
Usagi: there's always some new site, I browse all day and night, its like I'm surfing at the speed of light!
Schrödinger: For…
Zakura: Rabbits. Sorry cat boy, that's what Usagi is normally searching for.
Usagi: that's correct…
Leon: WHO IS HE AND WHY IS HE HERE?
Usagi: he, is my favourite character from Hellsing and he's here because… he's everywhere and nowhere at the same time, who agreed to help me do an Avenue Q reference.
Zakura: so that's who was hiding behind the curtain...
Schrödinger: (sings) the internet is for anime, the internet is for anime. Why'd you think the net was born?
Usagi and schrö: Anime, anime anime!
Zakura: (slaps face) Please review, and tell those two to stop, PLEASE!