Kingdom Hearts: System X

By Christine Lennoire

Beta: Bakageta

Summery: "Nobodies that heartless.." and no, I didn't make a grammar error. Hearts are corrupted. Heartless nobodies? Who in the hell is System X? It's from the King... But Ansem... Roxas... Sora... But he's my friend! Kingdom Hearts... Keyblade. They're... smart! They came after me... It's him... They're working together... We have to do something...

a new journey has begun

Chapter Five: Door to Dusk

The air beyond was thick and humid, as they passed onto the road that would lead them to the next door... Electricity cackled around them in an unnatural way. A very unsettling way. Sora noticed the clouds shrouded around them and stopped. "Maybe this wasn't such a good idea, huh?" he asked, pushing away a little bit. The dark power emanating from that cave made him very nervous. "I have a bad feeling..." he said, looking at Kairi and Riku, and then to Donald and Goofy. Lastly, he passed a glance at Roxas, who looked more than a little depressed since their meeting Axel. It was killing him inside.

And Sora wanted nothing more than to end it quickly – but, after that last battle, he had become very aware of the slim chances of that happening. Roxis had given them enough trouble to begin with. Now there was this: a power much stronger than hers, emanating from beyond that road. Could they survive a chance encounter with any of the other System members? Kairi was weak – real weak. She had fought so hard in the last battle, and having never fought before in her life, she was drained. Riku was practically dragging her along. But she seemed to like it.

Resting, that was. Not Riku. Sora kinda cringed at the thought. It was kinda obvious. They were getting along very well. Considering how long the three of them had been separated, Sora told himself that a lot of it was catching up... right. Catching up... Besides... moving on, Donald had used up a lot of MP and energy. Goofy was still well rested and Lae looked like she could go for another round, but – could he count on either Roxas or Axel to fight? If Axel couldn't, Roxas would obviously choose to protect him instead of fighting. Sora knew that. And he didn't know if that was worthing taking a chance on.

Lae sighed. "I don't have a clue if it's a friend or a foe, and right now, I don't think we're in the right condition to be taking such chances. It could be their leader for all we know, and I don't think we could even run fast enough to get away if we needed to. Besides, we have to protect Sora and Roxas yet. They won't come after Axel's body or me, since they already have his and my hearts. Still... maybe we should try the Door to Darkness. That might be safer at this point, even with all the heartless coming at us. At least those things are dumb and easy to kill."

Kairi stood up on her own and nodded. "Yeah, besides – we can't just sit here and wait, can we?" she smiled. Sora grinned back, glad to see she was getting some strength back into her. For a long time she just forced herself along. Now she actually looked alive and awake and moving. "Or maybe we can...!" She grinned, having a new idea pop into her head. "Why don't we go back to Radiant Garden for a while? We could rest up, train a bit, and then return before anything too terrible happens! Besides – they need Sora for their plan to work, and they don't have him! We do! So they can't really do anything about it!"

"She has a point..." Riku said, smirking. "I think we could all use a little training. I don't know about you guys, but I felt pretty pathetic back there, fighting that girl! And she's only number five! If it's anything like the Organization, then they just keep getting stronger as you go up in the numbers!" he said, shrugging. Axel looked at him and gave another one of his hollow laughs.

Axel had been silent for a long time, and suddenly, he took action. "Not necessarily. With us, it was in the order we arrived, you know? I mean, Roxas was the last, but he certainly wasn't the weakest. That was number nine, Demyx." he said, thinking. "She could be the next strongest – only because I think number one is usually the strongest." he added, pensively. Roxas listened intensely. He was interested in what he was saying, but he was also still searching for traces of the old Axel in him.

Lae touched the door to the chamber and shuddered as a dark shadow began crawling up her arm – attempting to swallow her whole. "W-what!" she shrieked, jumping back. The shadow let go and retreated back into the chamber. "What the hell was that?" for a while, all she could do was shake. The others ran up to her to make sure she was okay. Sora examined the door with his keyblade at his side, ready to attack if he needed to. It was sure a stranger, but most dangerous type of power. He put away his keyblade, certain that it wouldn't leave to attack them if they didn't come in contact with it first...

"Something's definitely weird about that." Sora said, patting Lae on the shoulder in a comforting manor.

"Creepy, ain't it?"

Everyone jumped at the sound of Roxis' appearance. She smiled brightly, as if she was pretending to be their good friend. "Uncontrollable rage and pain radiants from him..." but then she stopped, deciding that that was all she was going to say, and no more. Roxis pulled out the orb from earlier and set it on the ground before her. "Are you ready for round two? I am..." She grinned wickedly and a strange light began to radiate from within the orb. "Behold my true power!" she shouted, leaping up into the air. The ground leaped up with her, creating a platform for her, high above them.

She had changed. The black robe that screamed "Organization XIII" style was gone, and replaced with a brilliant silver robe similar to the silver color of the Eternals' markings. It was only half of a robe, really. The robe stopped at her knees, revealing black pants and black boots. The sleeves were longer though, and flapped in the wind as she stood there. "I see your awe. I am flattered, but here is the moment of truth! Fight me!" Sora pulled out his keyblade and Riku and Kairi followed suit.

Roxas pulled out both of his, but he stayed back by Axel, who made no move to help them. "Awwww, how cute! Not to mention that this works to my advantage. I take it you won't be fighting, Axel?" She laughed wickedly. "I suppose not. We drained you pretty good, huh?" Axel looked at her curiously, and then pulled out both of his chakram and laughed that hollow, horrid laugh he had picked up since he had lost his heart to the System. Roxas looked at him, both shocked and confused.

"Who said I wasn't fighting? I'm feeling a hell of a lot better since then, and just because I don't have a heart doesn't mean I have to be heartless. These are my friends. I can't feel the love and companionship for them, but that doesn't mean that I don't know it's there! Got it memorized?" he taunted, spinning his chakram in a dangerous way. Roxas smiled and took a fighting stance. "Get ready for the fight of your life lady!" Axel shouted, running at her with a sudden burst of speed, and in an instant, the battle had been initiated.

The orb changed everything, though. It weakened them and strengthened her, but how – none of them were sure. It glowed red every time they attacked her, and green every time she attacked them. Finally they came up with a plan. Roxas and Axel pulled back and Roxas began whispering something into his ear. Axel grinned and nodded. "HEY LADY! YOU HAVEN'T HIT ME YET!" and then he threw his chakram at her. She made a move to block the attack and protect herself... and left the orb unprotected.

Roxas struck the orb as hard as he could with both of his keyblades causing it to crack and smoke. Roxis howled and doubled over in pain. "DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'VE DONE!" she screamed in agony. "I made that out of my own... blood." And like the orb, she began to smoke, and fade away. "I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU, I HATE YOU, I HATE YOU!" and she disappeared into the air and so did her orb. Roxas looked at the spot where it had been and sighed in relief.

"That's one down!" Riku said, smirking.

Sora laughed. "Only four more to go!" Everyone rejoiced... except Lae. She stood back and watched with a careful eye, examining the situation. She kneeled down and felt the spot where the orb had been... it was freezing cold, which was weird, since the smoke had been so hot...

"Guys, don't get carried away just yet. Even if she is gone, we still have plenty of problems of our own. The first, and most important, is the Door to Dusk. Something is majorly wrong with that... that... whatever it is. Don't you see? We've only just begun. My lack of a heart allows me to step back and see the facts. Perhaps this is a was of keeping us out... and that will not do, since we must rescue the other two princes." Axel also seemed to follow her in her train of deep thought, but had a much different idea.

"Or maybe it's keeping the prince IN. She said something about the way uncontrollable rage and pain radiates from him... well, he's good and well angry. He may have tried fighting back, and they might have locked him in." Axel said, looking at the darkness.

Kairi got up from the ground, where she rested after battle (yet again) and smiled. "Well, maybe we could go to the Door to the Darkness. Maybe if we can get in there, we can find one of the other princes, and just maybe he'll remember something Axel hasn't." Lae looked at Kairi and seemed to think on it for a second before nodding her head.

"Yes, that sounds like a good idea. We don't have any other real clues at this point. But... I think we need a long term plan... what will we do after we find him? Where do we go from here?"

Riku sighed. "We can go back to Radiant Garden, just like Kairi said earlier. We really do need training, and perhaps we could even check out the other worlds to see what's going on there and start closing the doors." Everyone seemed to like this plan and quickly agreed.

"And the next step after that... is to see the King! Maybe he has some new clues. He knew more than most of us at the start of this journey. And he has many ways of finding stuff out. We should check in with him too, while we're at it!" Sora said, grinning proudly at the thought that he had finally come up with a good idea. Kairi smiled at him, which threw him of... but only a little bit! He blushed slightly, grinning sheepishly. Everyone also agreed on this and they began their trek back to the Crossroads, and the last door: and their last chance of finding out adding a new member to their party before things would heat up about the Door to Dusk and whatever the darkness surrounding it was...

Kairi skipped the whole way and Riku just laughed as Sora tried imitating the girl's skip in a mocking way, only to have her catch him and hit him over the head quite painfully, making Riku laugh even harder. Lae fell in to a content silence and Donald and Goofy were talking excitedly about seeing the king again. Lastly, Roxas and Axel stayed behind the most. They talked about memories they shared and Roxas got Axel caught up on the facts they knew so far.

Axel tried to remember something else from when he was captive. The only thing he could recall was Demyx being dragged out of the room an hour before he was, and the screams of pain he heard. "That must have been when they removed his heart, now that I think about it..." he said. Roxas nodded sadly. "I don't remember anything from when they did that to me. Remembering now how he screamed... I wonder how I could forget something like that." he said, trying a weak attempt at a smile.

Roxas sighed. "Don't worry. I'm going to set things right. After all, I have them to thank for the chance to see you again. Because they manipulated us, I guess none of the Organization really died. It all went according to their plan, huh?" This makes Axel turn pensive and he becomes completely silent. "Plans, huh? I don't know how they could have possibly planned that all out. In Castle Oblivion, it was a mess... everybody betrayed everybody and... I guess everyone died, though, but..." he became thoughtful.

"You sure have changed. Without your heart, you're much more kind and intelligent and pensive... it's wonderful!" Axel gave him an odd look and scrunched up his nose. Roxas laughed. "It's scary... I like the old Axel better." Axel fell back into a peaceful walk and tried again, in a slightly better attempt to smile as if he was happy. If he had a heart, he would have been so happy... he knew that, only from his memories of feelings.

"Hurry up guys!" Donald shouted back at them.

"Yeah, huh huh!" Goofy laughed. "We're almost there!" Axel and Roxas exchanged nervous glances and ran to catch up to the others who were waiting for them at the entrance...

"My plan worked like a charm... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Fools won't know what hit them. But what the heck... I've hurt them enough. I'll give them a prize for such good behavior. This is turning out to be quite amusing actually. Who would've guessed that these idiots could actually put up a good fight."

"Hey, you've had your turn! Until Mr. Emotional comes under control, let me have some fun with them. I bet I could beat them without your dirty tricks. Wee can't get that stupid kid's heart yet, but they don't know that. You calm him, and let me get the kid. Besides... you'll get more praise that way." The first figure seemed to think it over and then nodded.

"Fine, but it's only because you're not strong enough to do it, and the Superior and his two lap dogs won't/" She scoffed and huffed off.

The second figure, a male, laughed. "Of course... he's way too much trouble. I'll deal with the little kiddies and their two heartless dolls... then I'll get Sora and Roxas and together, we'll finish this off and complete our one goal and mission, once all four doors are open..."

Both figures began to laugh evilly...

Bum bum bum! Okay, I didn't get much feedback last time – okay, so I posted this chapter really fast – but, I really would like at least 10 more reviews before I upload the next chapter. I really want to know if you guys like this, and get some ideas as to how to improve. Praise is good too! I promise it won't inflate my ego too much... . So, I'd also like to hear what some of you think I have planned or who the fourth prince is. Some people's thoughts made me laugh. Your opinions on my plot and choice of characters is also appreciated.

Okay, well that's all from me. I hope you enjoyed.

Christine Lennoire