Usagi: LOOK EVERYONE! DARKNESS OF THE HEART HAS BEEN UPDATED!
Zakura: LIKE OMG!
Sora: SHUT UP I'M TRYING TO SLEEP!
Usagi: o.O… Okay…. Well here comes another chapter which may finally mean the end of Axel and Zexion's nobody lives. Dun dun dun!
Axel: Hurray!
Zexion: … yay.
Usagi: You could sound more enthusiastic.
Zexion: I have no heart, everyone knows that so why bother pretending that I do?
Usagi: oh…good point. Well here comes another…title portal-inspired… chapter:
Chapter 18
The Heart is Not a Lie
"Find anything yet?" Riku asked.
"Maybe I would if you stopped nagging" the cat with his nose down in the desert sand muttered.
"Sorry! I just didn't realize how noises affect your sense of smell."
"… It doesn't. It's just disturb…at-CHOO!"
"Did you get sand up your nose?" Kairi asked, still sitting on Blossom's back while Riku and Zexion (mostly Zexion) tried to find Ienzo's tracks.
"No. I god sadd up my node" Zexion muttered, rubbing his nose.
"He's odd. If I talk too much he can't smell and if his nose isn't working he can't hear anything" Riku said.
"I think he just got sand in his ears too. There's a lot of that around here, and his ears look like sand-magnets" Cornelius said.
Riku cast a quick gaze at him, noting that Cornelius' own ears had to be at least ten centimetres long… But he decided not to comment on it, if Kairi told Sora later he'd probably said he owed him another ice cream or that.
"Great. How are we going to find a tiny shadow heartless in this desert when our track do…cat has sand in his nose" he said instead. "Why are all the cats in this story acting like dogs?"
"Because you and Sora thought it was a good idea to teach Trixi how to fetch. I'm sure Ienzo will show up again soon" Kairi said.
"You're awfully optimistic" Riku said, raising an eyebrow.
"Well when Sora was a heartless he liked to stay around Roxas right? So then Ienzo should want to come back to Zexion eventually" Kairi said.
"Just as long as he doesn't run into someone else before that" Riku said.
"Like who?"
"Someone bad…I don't know, I just have a nasty feeling Xehanort is up to something. Bad… Because he always is, and I should know."
"Hey Riku! Kairi!"
Suddenly Sora came running up to the heartless-seekers, followed by Axel, Ael, Vexen and Kyuubi.
"You'll never guess who we just found" Sora said.
"Axel's heartless?" Riku asked, pointing at the Crimson Jazz heartless.
"Oh? Oh yeah that too… But we also just met Deym!" Sora said.
"I was wondering why Demyx wasn't with you" Riku muttered.
"What did he want?" Kairi asked.
"Nothing really… or it didn't seem like it… but he said Xehanort is plotting something ("Told you so" Riku said) something about making a new more powerful breed of heartless!" Sora said.
"A new breed? What kind of?" Kairi asked.
"I don't know, Deym didn't say, he mentioned that I wouldn't like it, but I don't know what he means about that, who would like a new type of heartless? But he said that was part of the reason why this guy was so easy to find, like Xehanort had asked him to go seek us out or something" Sora said.
"That doesn't make any sense, if he wanted to create a super heartless why would he send his lackeys of to find their other halves? Wouldn't that like… ruin the cause?" Riku asked.
"Unless he was sent to spy on you guys" Cornelius said.
"No way, I'm sure I would know that, he's my other half, got it memorized?" Axel asked. "Heartless can't keep secrets like that from their nobodies….right?" he added, looking at Sora.
"No. At least I couldn't…well I never tried" Sora said.
"Well it wouldn't matter either way. As long as we get the heartless and nobodies back together there's nothing Xehanort can do with them" Vexen said. "So lets just get this over with…but what was the deal about Demyx' heartless anyway? Is he with Xehanort or not?"
"Probably not, but maybe we should ask Demyx about that… But before we do anything else we should probably find Ienzo" Sora said.
"Sora, can I talk to you in private?" Zexion asked.
"Can't it wait?" Sora asked.
"No it can't. Unless you'd like me to tell your girlfriend about…"
"Okay fine. Excuse us for a second" Sora said, and left with the silver cat.
"Now what is it that's so important you have to blackmail me to talk about?" he asked once they were out of hearing range of the rest.
"Better get used to it kid, you're dating my younger sister, it's pretty much in my job description to be mean to you" Zexion said.
"O..k… well if you only wanted to tell me you've developed a sense of humour…"
"Not at all, I think all the sugar that shadow's been eating is affecting me too… I just wanted to check, have you had any of those weird dreams since we left the Netherworld?"
"Technically I haven't really slept since" Sora said.
"Oh yeah…that's a good point" Zexion said, had all of this really happened in one single day? It was a bit hard to tell with all the space travelling they've been doing. "But you haven't felt anything odd, like, I don't know some kind of call?"
"No. In case you hadn't noticed I'm not a heartless… not anymore" Sora said, he was starting to get tired of this conversation already. "Why don't you just ask your own heartless when you find him?"
"You said that Deym said that you wouldn't like it right? Did he mention anything about us at all?" Zexion asked.
"Not exactly…what? Do you think Xehanort wants me for these experiments?" Sora asked, raising an eyebrow. "He knows there's not a chance in the world that I'd work for him."
"I know, but it's suspicious. Why would you hear the call of the heartless? Even if you did…" Zexion started, but suddenly froze in the middle of the sentence.
"What is it now?" Sora asked.
Before Zexion had time to answer, a shadow heartless suddenly ran onto the scene and hid behind Sora's foot, he still had spots of cream on his face and looked quite scared.
They're coming! He cried.
A giant behemoth heartless suddenly charged right through a pair of large rocks.
At least…it looked like a behemoth... only half his body appeared to be covered in some metal armour, and on one of its horns…
"Is that a laser gun?" Sora asked.
"What in the name of kingdom hearts is that thing?" Zexion asked.
A couple of moth-like heartless appeared behind the behemoth as well, Sora was pretty sure he'd seen the moths in the Netherword before.
"Are those demon heartless?" he asked.
"Those in the back are but not even a demon heartless should have a freaking laser attached to its horn" Zexion said. "If you ask me, it looks like it's been attached by a mad scientist!"
"Vexen?" Sora suggested.
"Dude, he's a bit eccentric but not insane" Zexion replied.
The behemoth roared and appeared to be charging up its lazarz…sorry, charging the laser, but before it got time to fire, three neoshadows flew at it from the side, and each of the moth demon-heartless were attacked by a group of aerial knockers.
"Heartless fighting heartless? Now I'm definitely confused" Sora said.
"How about we just get out of here before one of the groups win and go after us" Zexion said.
So they sneaked of while the heartless were fighting.
A while later the whole party gathered back at the broken space craft.
Vexen had taken them into another part of his laboratory, where he had a large machine fuelled with light eco, which according to him was going to make the process of merging heartless and nobody easier. It had several pods attached to it.
"And you're telling me that with this machine it won't hurt?" Axel said. "I have problems believing that…"
"If you want to live your life with no heart and followed around by…. GLADOS PUT THAT FIRE OUT… that pyromaniac be my guest, but I've already tried it on nr 12 and if she thought it hurt I would be severely injured by now" Vexen said.
"You tried it on Larxene?" Riku said in surprise, as a fire extinguisher came out of the wall and sprayed the table that Ael the crimson jazz had put on fire.
"She didn't tell you?" Vexen asked. "That was the main reason I asked her to go really… though it would probably be more right to call her Relena now, (AN: I'm not sure if there was a final fantasy character named this once, if so its unrelated since I don't know her, I just thought it fitted X3) we found her angel star heartless a few months ago and decided to give it a try."
"Angel star?" Riku said again, sounding even more shocked than the first time, which could be because of the surprise or the fact that he suddenly felt a jolt of electricity two seconds later.
"What's so surprising about that?" asked Larxene…or Relena, who was now standing in the doorway. "I heard about Demyx's heartless from GlaDos on the way here and if you ask me, him having a hardcore rocker humanoid heartless is stranger than mine was."
"Relena was cuter too" GlaDos added helpfully.
"How can you tell? You're a freaking computer installed in this place" Vexen sighed.
GlaDos didn't seem to want to reply; instead she started humming a song about science and being alive.
"Either her hard drive was fried when the ship crashed or Erol was more sadistic than I thought" Cornelius said, as he stared on the computer screen that was now showing cakes again.
"Now who wants to go first?" Vexen asked, looking over at Zexion and Axel.
Axel quickly pointed at Zexion, Ienzo popped in, and pointed towards Axel.
Ael put a computer monitor on fire but Vexen didn't seem to care, only GlaDos hurried to put it back out.
"You guys are such wimps" Kyuubi said and laughed.
"Okay, then you go first" Vexen said.
The heartless fox froze, and both he and Buxyuki stared at Vexen. "You serious?" Kyuubi asked.
"Ask Buxyuki, do I ever joke about such things?" Vexen asked.
The demon foxes stared at one another, then back at Vexen.
"That's…really not necessary" Kyuubi said.
"Do you want to be complete or not? If so get in the machine" Vexen said, tapping a hind paw impatiently.
"This is animal testing!" Kyuubi accused.
"Get in the damn machine I'm tired of this arguing!" Relena said before kicking both foxes into a pod attached to the machine.
"And it seems Larxene's other is just as moody as her nobody" Axel sighed.
"Lets get this over with before he burns….or freezes the pod" Vexen said and pushed a button.
"What does that machine do anyway?" Sora asked.
"It's a gas, completely painless, and while they're both in it at the same time they should be…er… put to sleep at the same time. But they'll come back soon enough" Vexen said.
Suddenly something inside the pod started making noises, and it was making cracks.
"While we're at it… how big was Kyuubi's heartless in his regular form?" Vexen asked.
"A lot bigger than that pod…maybe we should step away" Demyx said, he was already at the other end of the room.
Before anyone had time to react more, the pod exploded, into what looked like a huge load of fur.
The expanding demon pushed the ceiling up at least two metres, before ripping it completely apart with one of its tails.
After just a few seconds, a full sized demon fox was standing halfway into halfway above the room, he'd only just avoided breaking the machine itself but he'd stepped on two pods in the process, there was now only one left. The fox smirked; he looked much like his own heartless except the fur was now a crimson red colour, other than the white tail-tips and the underside of its belly and face. It had black markings around the demonic red eyes, as well as darker tips on the ears and legs.
"Did you really have to respawn in your full size? Couldn't you have just stayed a little cute fox?!" Vexen yelled. "NO respect…"
"To be honest with yah, I hate that form" Kyuubi said, and stuck his tongue out.
He started shrinking again, but instead of turning into a small chibi-fox, he turned into a humanoid form, similar to the ones they had seen on the other bijuu.
Kyuubi's human form was still quite furry, at least his upper body was covered in fuzz. The only clothing he wore was a pair of black pants, and he still had fox-ears, and the nine tails, one of which he quickly tied around his neck making it look like a fur-scarf.
"It feels good to be back. I wasn't able to use this form as a heartless" he said.
"You could have at least had the decency to use it before you came out of the pod" Vexen sighed. "Well at least ONE pod is still intact. Who wants to go next?"
Zexion, Axel and Ienzo stared at the machine; Ael was still putting the same monitor on fire.
"So… will getting my heart back mean that I can also get out of this freaking cat-body?" he asked, looking to Relena.
"I don't have feathers anymore do I?" Relena said.
"That is true" Zexion said and sighed. "Well, shadow-boy, lets give it a go."
Usagi: No more NekoZexion? That makes me a sad panda…
Zexion: so… me getting my heart back transform you into a panda bear?
Usagi: not my point.
Sora: and what the f is with those cyborg heartless? You're not going to keep on introducing new characters and don't explain where they are from again are you?
Usagi: Sigh…fine. They were inserted as a last way out… I wasn't planning to have them this early but now that they're here, I might as well tell more about them.
A new group has joined the battle. Or well technically they have always been there…demon heartless remember? But you're now seeing some different members of the party.
Might as well add a list of the groups we have now:
The Main Party- Self explanatory.
Organization XIII- What are they up to anyway? I'll probably add a part about them in the next chapter, just so we can see.
Deym- Lone heartless not working for anyone, just out to have fun and quote songs.
The Demons (Namely Etna, Flonne and the bijuu)- Currently looking for a new home. They probably won't be seen much in a while.
The Smurfs- playing around in their little mushroom hous…WAIT A MINUTE??? Forget I said anything.
Xehanort- Ruling the heartless and plotting eeeevil things. Does Xemnas know about this?
Xemnas: why wouldn't I?
Usagi: figured as much.
Demon heartless- Oh yeah that's what I'm talking about. The behemoth that Zexion and Sora met is a modified heartless, it wasn't born like that….or well…obviously not BORN like that but you know what I mean. He was made that way by a mad scientist, what mad scientist? Well it's obviously not Vexen.
Vexen: We've established that already. I'M NOT A MAD SCIENTIST!
Zakura: didn't the Netherworld go boom?
Usagi: Yes it did, but that doesn't mean all the demons went boom. They're still there, plotting revenge and turning ordinary heartless into laser-shooting cyborgs.
Sora: why are they attacking us then? …and why did the other heartless protect us?
Usagi: Because. You guys are important to Xehanort's plan, he's already hinted at that back in chapter 10.
Sora: eep!
Usagi: and the demon heartless are obviously not on Xehanort's side, seems they realized you were important and went to finish stop Xehanort's plan by killing you.
Sora: double-eep!
Kyuubi: (shrugs) demons. That's what they do. They backstab you.
Sora: geez. Why did we even try to help those guys.
Usagi: if it helps, the guy who made these heartless isn't among any demon you've met before…but I guess you would know already neither Laharl, Etna or Flonne are capable of creating half-robot heartless.
Laharl: what do you know about that? I can be smarter than you think…
Mao: yeah right. If you were so smart you could have saved our world from being pushed of to the darkest side of the universe!
Almaz: it was quite dark already…
Mao and Laharl: Shut up!
Almaz: eep! Sorry.
Usagi: and in case you wonder, the "moth-heartless" that showed up with the behemoth were demons from Disgaea 2 and 3 turned into heartless. Nothing special about them.
Laharl: heartless demons are nothing special? Usagi, meet your average heartless (picks up average shadow)
Usagi: Bob! There you are (Takes shadow)
Laharl: …
Mao: Does she name all the shadows in this fic?
Sora: seems like it… And that guy's not even a character it's just…a shadow.
Usagi: so? He still needed a name.
Shadow-Ienzo: I'm for identifying shadows!
Shadow-Sora: So am I!
Sora: I'm disturbed...
Usagi: Do review!