Chapter 16: Black, White, with Shades of Grey (doubleux3 . youtube . com/watch?v=dRA1olJu1YA)
Memo: I think it will be much more fast-paced, now that all the tedious stuff is done. Welcome to the second half, minna~! Thank you for reading~ Remember! I'm still accepting questions~!
*~*~*
"Excuse me."
It was official--Tifa had torn through every single thing possible in Ansem's study. No book lay untouched, no paper unobserved. Now the last piece was a portrait of the man himself. Tifa moved that, too. And yet there was nothing she was looking for. Sighing, shrugging her shoulders, throwing her hands into the air, she turned around and gave up for good, leaving the room without another word. She left the other four staring at the scribbles on the wall the portrait had revealed.
"What's this doodle?" Sora asked his friends. Nexus didn't even know for sure.
"Hollow...Main...Security...Tron..." Donald mumbled, trying to read anything he could. "Door to..."
"Looks like a diagram or somethin'," Goofy decided.
"Door...to...darkness?" Donald said out loud. Sora's face lit up.
"Oh!" Excited, he jumped and pointed to each letter. "D--T--D!"
"DTD!" Donald and Goofy exclaimed.
This is what they were looking for? Nexus wondered.
"What's up?" Leon asked, entering the study upon hearing the commotion.
"Look at this!" Sora cried, pointing. "This must be the dataspace! The DTD. See? The Door To Darkness!"
"Do you even know what a dataspace is, Sora?" Nexus asked, laughing at his ignorance. He pouted.
"What do you know," Leon said upon further inspection. "But...that still leaves the password."
"Say, fellas, did somebody mention the Door To Darkness?"
Everyone's heads whipped around to see a small, hooded figure in the doorway. Despite the dark appearance, though, nobody was at a loss for his identity.
"Your Majesty!" everyone but Leon cried.
The King quickly shushed the group, peering over his shoulder down the hallway. He shut the door swiftly, then unhooded himself. But before he could do anything else, Donald nearly tackled him in a hug, then Goofy joined in and picked both of them up.
"Long time no see!" Sora cried, grinning.
"Shh!" The King glanced back toward the computer room entrance, still trapped in Goofy's arms. "The Organization might be listening!"
Nodding, Sora put a finger to his lips; Nexus shoved him, giggling. Mickey, after finally being released, got tackled by Donald, but this time he pushed him away and looked around cautiously.
"You mentioned the Door To Darkness?" he asked.
"Uh, yes, sir!" Goofy exclaimed, standing up straight. "Ya see, we're lookin' for the secret password."
"Password?"
Sora, Donald, and Goofy all sighed.
"Oh, I guess you mean like a code," the King finally declared.
Leon smiled, Nexus giggle-snorted.
"Well, the Door To Darkness can only be opened by the seven princesses. There's Snow White, Jasmine, and Belle..."
"Of course..." Leon murmured, walking back toward the computer room.
"What're you trying to do?" the King asked when he was gone.
"With that password, we can get access to Ansem's research data," Sora explained.
"So that means you might be able to find out where he is!" the King exclaimed.
There was a pause, and Nexus flushed bright red.
"Stop jokin' around, Your Majesty," Sora said. "We already defeated Ansem. You know that."
But the King only crossed his arms and replied, "Looks like I've got a lot of explainin' to do."
"We're listening, Your Majesty!" Donald quacked just as Leon entered the room once more.
"Okay...but first, I've got a question..." Sora began, not noticing his friend.
"Hey, isn't Tron waiting for you guys?" Leon stated.
The three boys looked at him, then back to their king.
"Don't worry, I'm not goin' anywhere," the mouse assured them. "If those Heartless attack, I'll stand and fight with everybody here."
"Yeah...we will, too," Sora murmured. He really would've rather stayed and found out what in the world the King was talking about...
"Then let's talk more later."
"We can talk now," Nexus said with a smirk. The King smiled.
"Yep, I've been wanting to talk to you!" he exclaimed, making her blush a little with pride. He then turned to the boys again. "I'll see ya when you get back. Oh! One more thing. Let me give your clothes some new powers, Sora."
"Really!?" Sora gasped.
"You bet! You've done so much--just consider it a thank-you present."
"Thanks, Your Majesty! We're heading off to see Tron now, so wait here for us, okay?"
"I will, Sora. And remember--be careful!"
Nexus' PoV
As I smiled at the King, I leaned on Ansem's old desk. The King smiled back, facing me. He made me feel...tall.
"...Sune, isn't it?" he suddenly said.
"Nexus," I corrected him. There was a faint giggle in the back of my mind.
"Right, sorry, Nexus." He smiled bright again. "I always forget which is which."
"It's alright. You're definitely not the only one."
A pause, and then...
"So, Nexus, do you know where Ansem is?"
I sighed. "No, but he's still alive." He had better be...
"That much I coulda guessed. He's determined, that's for sure!"
"Yeah..."
Another brief pause. I could this was awkward for him. There was simply too much to talk about.
"How is Sora holding up?" he asked.
"It depends on what you mean," I replied, shrugging. "I think he's fine. I mean, if he's upset, he isn't showing it. And he's terrible at keeping secrets." I grinned as the King nodded. "And he's held up well in battling, too. So I guess he's okay."
"He does have you to protect him," His Majesty pointed out. I nodded, closing my eyes. But for how much longer?
"What about the Organization?" he then asked. "How much trouble have they been giving you?"
"Actually, zero to none, basically." When he gave me a confused glance, I shrugged again. "A few of them are my friends, and the others thought I was on their side for ages. Unfortunately, the few allies I have keep leaving the Organization. Like Roxas, and Axel..."
"They thought you were one of them?!" He sounded shocked. "How did that happen?"
"Ansem. He made a deal with me. If I could eliminate the traitors, then I could be freed of this awful curse binding me." Another confused look. "Well, I suppose it's not truly a curse, but still. I am anything but free. I would love to be...normal."
"So that might mean that he's with the Organization now, undercover!" the King exclaimed.
"Yeah, possibly. But weren't you, too? Wouldn't you have known? I mean, what about Riku?"
"Riku?"
"Yeah." I frowned. "I saw him a while ago, and he looked like Ansem...the Heartless, I mean."
"Right. But that had to do with a man named DiZ...! Oh!" The King grinned a bit sheepishly. "Same guy, huh?"
"Yup." I glanced toward the entrace to the computer lab. "Your Majesty, what is happening to Riku?"
"...I'm sorry. I made a promise not to tell anyone," the King answered.
"Really? Well, then can you promise me not to tell Sora about what I know?"
"What do you know?
"Everything. Except this fiasco with Riku."
"...Well, I guess I can promise ya that, too! But...since you know everything, what're you going to do about Sora?"
"What about him? He's so naive, Your Majesty," I laughed. "He can't figure much out on his own. Someone would have to tell him about Ansem the Wise. And I'm not unzipping these lips."
"Gosh, I guess you're right."
The final pause. I hated the sound of silence.
"Well, Nexus, what are you going to do after?"
"Huh?" I perked up.
"I mean, when you're free. You can do whatever you want! What will you do?"
"...I..."
I couldn't answer. I couldn't answer! I wanted to scream. The one thing I wanted was to be with Axel, and I had a feeling even then that his situation with Roxas would become nothing but worse. But I wanted to save him, to let him be normal, too. Then we could be normal together. Maybe.
I was starting to feel bad for not answering, so I start stumbling over my thoughts.
"I...umm...I want to have kids?"
DAMMIT! I AM SO STUPID~!
I could feel my face starting to turn red, so I immediately turned and shuffled through loose papers on Ansem's desk.
"I mean--I think they're cute and everything," I quickly explained, wanting to rewind the last minute and a half. "I regret not having siblings, and--"
"I think you'd be a great mother, Nexus."
My words halted in my throat, like vocal whiplash.
"Really?"
"Of course! You've been taking care of Sora and his friends, right? That takes strength and courage and a big heart, which you obviously have."
Except I am only doing this for Axel, I'd only fight anyway, and I only have half of a heart, I wanted to reply.
Suddenly, saving my butt from further humiliation, a strange noise came from the lab area.
"Oh! Maybe they're back!" I cried, jumping up quickly and running in.
Dammit. I am so stupid.
*~*~*
The King didn't follow Nexus into the lab; he could sense her embarrassment, and he decided it would be best to leave her alone for a while to collect her thoughts. Besides, someone ought to check out the town, if the boys really were back.
But they weren't quite yet, so Nexus talked to Leon a while longer until they returned.
"Well, that's that!" Sora exclaimed upon arrival.
"Look," Leon said, pointing to the computer monitor. On the screen there were little dancing sprites of Sora, Donald, and Goofy.
"Cute," Nexus muttered, a little jealous.
"Tron...hang in there," Sora murmured to himself.
"So, where do we start?" Leon asked, readying the computer. The image changed into a search engine.
"I know! Let's access the DTD!"
As Leon began to do just that, Sora casually glanced around the room, peeking into the hallway.
"The King's checking the situation in town," Leon said, as if reading the kid's mind. "He'll be back soon, so don't worry." Suddenly he stopped. "Hey, look, it's asking for a password."
"That's easy," Goofy declared. "It's..."
"Sora!" Sora shouted. Leon started typing again.
"Donald!" Donald wakked.
"Goofy!" Goofy ended.
"That's...to the point," Leon said, typing it all up.
"Well?" Sora asked as he hit the "enter" key.
"That did it," he replied. "We're in. I have to go into town. Need to see what that last shakeup did."
"You're not gonna check out the data? It wasn't exactly easy to get!"
"I'm coming right back. Hey, Sora--why don't you get started on loading the data and copying it down?" Sora gave him a "are you really serious right now?" look. "It's just a few keystrokes. Easy, right?" Walking out of the room, Leon clapped Sora on the shoulder, then waved.
"I can help you," Nexus offered, but Sora was already tinkering with the keyboard.
"Did it work?" Donald asked literally seconds later.
"Hey, these things take time, okay?" Sora whimpered. Nexus rolled her eyes, gazing out the lab window. Just past there...
"Whoa..." Sora gasped. "It's doing something!"
"Huh?" Donald and Nexus both said, both for different reasons. Nexus was just in disbelief that Sora could be so naive about technology...
"I think it wants to know what we wanna know," Goofy said.
"Riku and Kairi!" Sora cried, typing in their names. The screen began to load, but it ended in the words "Data Error" in bright red caps.
"No way..." Sora threw himself away from the screen, frowning deeply. "Even Ansem's computer doesn't know..."
"Sora..." Nexus murmured, then stopped as Goofy moved to type something.
"Whatcha doing?" Donald asked. He didn't sound worried.
"I thought I'd ask the computer if it can tell us about them Nobodies," Goofy replied.
Sora turned and shot a dirty look at Nexus. Suddenly he hated her. He just KNEW she knew something about his friends. She definitely had something to do with it. Ever since they met that guy in Twilight Town...
But the actual appearance of data distracted Sora and intrigued him enough to make him walk over to the computer again.
"What's this?" he wondered out loud. A grey box with the Nobody symbol was on the screen.
Suddenly a red box popped up again.
"The data is corrupt," a computerized voice stated.
"What!?" Donald quacked angrily.
"How about the Organization?" Goofy suggested, typing. "There!" A progress window popped up, then another red one.
"The data is corrupt."
"Stupid computer!" Sora growled, slamming his fists on the keyboard. The windows shuffled around.
"Sora!" Goofy cried.
Suddenly a window with data popped up. There was a picture of a middle-aged blonde-haired man. Nexus glanced at the screen once, then went sickly pale. Her hands started to sweat. Sora noticed her nervousness.
"Who's this guy?" Sora demanded.
"Well, I see ya got things workin'!"
Nexus' PoV
Seeing as how twenty minutes ago I kind of hated him, when the King entered, I was relieved. Had Sora really noticed my expression? Not that I could've hid it. Ansem...
"Oh, Your Majesty!" the doofuses all shouted, and the King shushed them again.
"Good goin'," he said, walking over to us. "The computer should tell us the things we need to know."
"But it keeps on sayin' the data inside's all ker-skuffled," Goofy told him. Gosh, how did Goofy have a career again?
"All we got is a picture of some guy we don't know," Sora added, his eyes glancing at me.
The King, as I feared, recognized the man and jumped in surprise.
"Ansem the Wise!" he exclaimed. The boys exchanged glances, both confused and amused.
"Come on, are you teasing us again?" Sora asked with a crooked grin.
"Did you forget what Ansem looked like, Your Majesty?" Donald said.
"Of course I do! And this is him! I'm positive!" the King shouted, pointing with enthusiasm.
"Huh?" Donald croaked.
Suddenly, Sora grabbed the King's arm roughly and began dragging him away.
"Sora!?" I snapped, but he ignored me. Probably still angry.
"Excuse me? Could you come this way, please?" he told the King.
Soon we were back in Ansem's old study, standing in front of the portrait of Xehanort Tifa moved earlier. Sora finally let go of the King and pointed haughtily at the painting.
"Look, THIS is Ansem," he declared, confident. "You know, the guy we all worked reeeally hard to defeat?"
"Oh, that's right--I never finished explaining," the King said. He glanced at me, and I shrugged. I was NOT going to help him. No way.
"What?" Donald prompted.
"Well, the man in the picture is definitely the one who tried to take over Kingdom Hearts--the one you fellas defeated," the mouse began, and the boys nodded. "But, what you actually fought was his Heartless. Ya see, he wasn't really Ansem. He just went around telling everybody that he was."
"You mean..." Sora started, but never finished his sentence. Donald and Goofy made little contemplating noises, then all three jumped.
"Whaaaat?" they shouted.
"We went through all that trouble to defeat an impostor?" Sora cried.
"Yep. A fake. But he still had to be stopped."
"Aw, I can't believe it..." Donald groaned, bowing his head in shame. I don't understand it, though. They still did their job. It's not like they did anything wrong.
"Uh, I'm kinda confused," Goofy said. "If he's a fake, then what happened to the real Ansem?"
"Well, that's just what I'm tryin' to figure out," the King replied. "Ansem the Wise should know all about Organization XIII's plans, and what's been happening to the worlds. I'm pretty sure he'll give us some help. Ya know, I came close to finding him once..."
"You'll find him, I'm sure," I told him, and the King smiled.
"Hmm?" Goofy looked at me, intrigued.
"Don't tell me there's more...I'm lost enough as it is!" Sora snapped.
"Well, let's see," Goofy said. "Some feller named Ansem, who wasn't really Ansem, became a Heartless. Does that mean a Nobody got created when that happened, too?"
"Yup! And that Nobody is the leader of the Organization."
"Whaaaat?" Again with the unison anguish...
But the King ignored them and stared at the portrait.
"I know I've met this fake Ansem before, and I've seen the leader of Organization XIII, too," he said. "Hmm, kinda felt like bein' around the same fella."
"You're tellin' me," I murmured under my breath. Sora, thankfully, didn't hear me.
"So, where did you meet this guy?" he instead asked His Majesty.
"Gosh...I can't remember. Ansem the Wise--the real Ansem--must know the imposter's true identity. That's why I've got to find him and ask him about it." The King suddenly smiled at me. "Because the person I know that knows refuses to tell me."
Blushing, I replied, "Eh, well, you need to see the man again anyway. I'm just giving you something to talk about."
Again, Sora was ignoring me.
"You...!" he growled, staring at Xehanort's picture. "You started all of this! Because of you, Riku and Kairi... Oh! Your Majesty, do you know where Riku is?"
"He's..." The King drooped his head, his eyes at the ground. "I'm sorry. I can't help."
"Really, Your Majesty?" Sora asked, trotting around into the King's face. "Are you sure?"
"I'm sorry, Sora."
"What about Kairi? Organization XIII might've kidnapped her."
The King suddenly got all his energy back and whirled around, shocked.
"Oh, no!" He stared at the painting once more. "Sora, Nexus, Donald, Goofy. I was plannin' to go get help from Ansem the Wise. But--now I know I forgot the most important thing. Helping others should always come before asking others for help. We're safe and sound--and free to choose! So there's no reason we shouldn't choose to help our friends."
When we nodded, the King threw his short arms out. "Let's look for Riku and Kairi together."
We were about to reply when a loud explosion interrupted the party.
"Outside!" Sora shouted, gazing toward the hallway door.
"Sounds like we gotta start by helpin' out here!" His Majesty said, and we set out into the corridors as quickly as we could.
*~*~*
It was one thing to be racing down the hallway to help their friends. It was another thing to run into their enemies and having to help them, too.
"Heartless! Leave the white ones," Maleficent commanded her fleet of Heartless, which were losing to the Nobodies they were fighting. "Turn your attention to Sora and his friends!"
"Uh-oh!" Goofy exclaimed as the Heartless began to approach them. Luckily, they were beyond prepared, and the enemies were defeated--both the Nobodies and the Heartless--in no time flat.
"Where's Maleficent?" came a familiar voice. The four (the King had run on ahead) turned to see the three fairies from before flying toward them.
"Looks like she ran away," Sora replied.
"Well, that was PRET-ty lame of her," the blonde said, pouting.
"I guess we picked the wrong side," the silver-haired one agreed.
Swiftly and methodically, the three fairies turned in toward one another and started babbling. The others exchanged glances and waited for them to finish. But as they carried on, it seemed like they were arguing, and they definitely weren't getting anywhere with it.
"Umm, hey...if you're looking to pick sides, why don't you pick Leon's?" Sora suggested. "They can always use help."
The girls whipped around abruptly.
"Does this Leon have any treasure?" the brunette asked slowly.
"Yeah, lots of stuff!" Donald replied. Sora and Goofy looked at each other, frowning.
"Perfect!" the blonde cheered.
"Come on," the silver-haired one said, and they started to leave.
"Who ARE you?" Sora asked at last.
"Oh, we're nothing worth mentioning," the brunette insisted.
"Just three treasure fanatics," the silver-haired added.
"Later, taters!" the blonde cried, making a peace sign with her fingers cheerfully. And just as quickly as they came, the fairies poofed into thin air.
"Did Leon...really have any treasure?" Sora asked Donald, and by the snicker the duck gave, Sora knew he lied.
"Sweet!" Nexus cried, dancing for joy. "Now they're on our side! Congrats, Donald!" She patted the duck on the head childishly. "You weren't totally useless for once!"
And before he could reply, she skipped off toward the postern.
.........
"We don't have time for you!" Sora shouted at the Dusks in the postern. With a powerful swing and help from his friends, he destroyed them all and continued on his way. Then a burst of light blocked his path, and a man appeared, wielding the longest sword any of them had ever seen.
"Whoa!" Sora gasped. He'd never seen anyone like this man before. He had long, grey hair; deep, hateful eyes; and wings on his back. He was certainly original; even Nexus was intimidated.
"Sora, it's Sephiroth!" Donald quacked.
"Ain't Sephiroth the one who's supposed to be the dark part of Cloud's heart?" Goofy asked. Nexus stood there in shock, wide-eyed. She didn't want to piss this guy off and end up as a kabob with his sword.
"Did Cloud tell you that?" Sephiroth asked, amused more than anything. "Then he must understand now."
"Just what are you gonna do to him?" Sora cried.
"Nothing. Cloud is the one who hungers for Darkness."
"He said he's got a score to settle with you."
"I see..." Sephiroth turned and began to walk away. "He wants to meet me again. Then I should give him what he wants." He began to float into the air, glowing ominously. "That last bit of light is always the hardest to snuff out."
With those last words, he disappeared, leaving a chill over the group.
"C'mon, let's go find the others," Sora finally said, and they continued.
For the first time in his journey, Sora finally realized how different things had become this time around, and how childish things seemed before.
Nexus' PoV
We had just left the postern after meeting Sephiroth--who by the way, was SCARY--and we then came upon Leon and Aerith. I wondered why the girl was there, since there was no muscle on her to help fight. But when I saw Leon get knocked in the face a good one, Aerith healed him immediately with such agile quickness that she gained some respect points in my book.
"Sora! Behind you!" she shouted to us, pointing.
Just when I thought we'd killed all the damned things, more Nobodies showed up again, this time with pinkish scarves and big hips. Were they trying to be me?
Sora and I turned to fight them, and he mistakenly reached out to grab one and nail it good. It stopped, grabbed him by the wrist, and dragged him away, twirling him around like a doll, and eventually it threw him a good few yards. He landed poorly, but Aerith healed him.
Then I realized: these Nobodies belonged to Demyx.
"You okay?" I asked Sora, holding out a hand. He shoved it out of his face.
"Yeah, fine," he growled, running off.
I pouted, watching him struggle to fight the Nobodies off.
All these Nobodies make me wonder if the Organization isn't around... I thought, frowning. Maybe even Axel.
Soon, thanks to lots of magic, the Nobodies were gone.
"The King's in the bailey," Leon shouted to us. "You better head over there!"
"Got it!" Sora shouted back, and we proceeded.
I thought I was ready for anything.