Hi again. I am just here to warn you that I pull a little more humor in this chapter then the other ones and I might take some of the characters a little to the edge of their normal personalities. Mostly it's that this is an alternate dimension bit so, I hope you will understand. Also this is much more of a cliff hanger then the others since there is not going to be any significant time difference from the end of the this chapter to the beginning of the next one. That's why I don't fall into my familiar pattern, if you recognize it by now. Enjoy chapter three! PS: I also use this chapter to tell you my veiws on nobodies. Just thought I would warn you.
A dusty wind rose in front of the mansion gathering papers that had been tossed carelessly aside. The wind pulled them along, snapped them up violently then pushed them to the sky, tossing them up and giving them wings. Up so high they were a flock of white birds, flying away. The wind died and instant after, not wanting to stay in this forbidden place. Darkness formed in front of the mansion. It released it's occupants and disappeared as quickly as the wind had. Namine¢ felt the forbidding air getting under her skin and bit her lip. Even this place didn't want her here anymore. Of course, she wasn't the only one that felt like that.
Axel frowned and whispered his distaste for this place. "It's like the house itself it our enemy", he said a bit louder to Namine, making sure she heard exactly what he had said. He looked at here for a response but found she wasn't going to give him any. She was deep in the abyss of thought. He shook his head and looked up at the forbidding house and almost thought he saw yellow eyes staring at him. He took a better look and saw nothing. This place was really out to get him. "Ok, now refresh my memory, how are we getting in there?"
"I'm getting you in", Sora said, resting his keyblade over his shoulder. "They would figure out in an instant if you came in with out permission, so you have to get inside without actually walking in. And the obvious solution, the dark portals, is out too. They check who ever travel in by them, while they are still coming through. It might work for Namine but we both would not like the results. So we are left with the loop hole." He nodded and turned to the girl in white, waiting for her cue. Axel raised an eyebrow and opened his mouth to try and ask what was going on.
"Now", the blond girl said in perfect time. Suddenly Sora touched both Namine and Axel with his keyblade. Suddenly Sora touched both Namine and Axel with his keyblade. In a moment they both disappeared into thin air and Sora was left in a black and white version of what he was wearing before. However now two key blades floated in the air beside him, waiting to be wielded by their owner. He then floated forward by some mysterious force he now controlled. He slide past the view of the security cameras, bounced in through a window, as if it had been well practiced before hand. Exactly like it had been practiced before hand. After landing inside he slid through the hall with ease and slid toward his goal. Every security camera was noticed and evaded and even the few people that were roaming the halls were deftly avoided. He moved faster at if running a race though he still had no mistakes in his routine. He bit his lip as he moved faster yet, speeding toward his goal. In his head the seconds ticked away toward zero, and he leaned forward to his goal even now. He finally spotted the door he was looking for and was caught by surprise when a dazed man in a white coat came from around the corner. Sora looked around quickly and slid into an open door before the man looked up. He did so and glanced about, peeking up from a book that he had buried himself in a moment before. He looked again then shrugged and moved toward the hiding Sora while his nose was still in the book. From the devotion he was giving it, the book was most likely new and the man probably didn't have much time to himself to read the thing. In the empty room the Keyblade wielder had found, Sora ticked away the time in his head and frowned. He didn't have much time left. He watched the man and took a deep breath, since he had no intention of breathing during this exercise. He had to risk it now. Suddenly he jumped high up to the ceiling and glided over the man reading his book. The man's head popped up after seeing movement and he looked around quickly. He dashed to the open door and found nothing but a broom that had fallen down a moment before. Sora glided to the door and opened it hearing "I'll get you for this Xaldin" Before he shut it behind him.
He breathed then let time run out and he returned to his normal outfit with black and yellow in the main theme. Namine and Axel reappeared beside him and they took in the surroundings. It was a very plain room, all in all, white with pictures on the walls and over the floors. Axel didn't even notice that this was the same room he had picked Namine up in earlier, simply because he was a little occupied. He just had a little problem with information, since right now he had none. In layman's terms he was ranting.
"What in the world was that?! You poke me with your oversized house key and 'Bam' I'm floating in an abyss! You think that just because your some 'Keyblade Master' That you can do anything you like?! What does that mean anyway?! That you get to take your little blade and chuck it at anyone you like?! If I did that, hey they'd lock me up so fast that my head would spin! Or I'd call myself the 'Fire Master' and get away with it?! No way! They'd call it homicide! But suddenly you do that to me and it's all right, like nobodies don't matter! Well you know what?! We do! And I'm sick of all that discrimination that is going on because we don't have hearts! You think it's our fault?! No! We get the short end of the stick and suddenly we become the stones to step on all because we don't have emotions to hurt! Well you know what?! Even if we only pretend, that gives you no right to just go ahead and do whatever you like! Hear me loud and clear buddy?!" Axel took a deep breath and glared at Sora, squeezing his hands into fists with rage. Flames were almost visible in the air after he finished his speech.
"Done yet?" Namine looked at the man in the dark coat with a sigh and moved over to him. "Just be happy that these walls are sound proof. Otherwise we would have lasted five seconds into your monologue. Although I do agree with some of it. The point is, I'm sorry I didn't tell you. There wasn't much time and we had to go in at that exact moment. You see?" She looked up at him with a calm, but reassuring gaze that made Axel calmer, but annoyed. Seeing that the girl smiled and turned to Sora. "I take it you did well. Thank you"
Sora rubbed the back of his head and grinned. "Ran into a little bit of fun but I got through it. What are we gonna do now? You didn't tell me much after giving me those blueprints. Where exactly is Roxas?" Axel opened his mouth with anger smeared across his face but then closed it. He wanted to know the exact same thing.
Namine bit her lip and looked down. "He is in the lab. They created an entire world to run experiments on him in there. It's modeled after a place called Twilight Town. Ever heard of it?" She watched them both shake their heads then continued. "Well, never mind, you don't need to know that. What you do need to know is that we need to clear the place of the scientists and get in to the simulation. I'd like to use Sora again but he needs to recharge, right?" He nodded with a sheepish grin and the blond girl smiled softly. "That means we have to get there ourselves. Lucky for us most of them will be out for so reason or another. A lot like to get lunch at this hour and that just means we have to deal with the head scientist. I can get us in but we still have deal with not being detected. Axel, you'll be easier to get through because, now that you are in you could pass as a member of this lovely organization. However Sora isn't the right size for that and he's easy to spot at any distance. So we have to make this fast." She strode over to the table and flipped over six of the pictures lying there. On the back of each was a piece of a map of the hallways and she had drawn a line leading to an X marked 'Lab'. She gestured to it as the two came over for a look and said, "This is the path we take. It's the long way around but it doesn't have many cameras in range. The ones that are can be evaded easily. Memorize it, I won't be able to help you."
"Wait, you are helping right?" Axel asked with heavy suspicion in his voice. "If this is turning into a repeat of last time I'm getting out now. I want to know that you are in all the way, and I can't deal with anything else. Got that memorized?"
Namine looked up at him coolly and said calmly, "I put my time into this and part of my soul so I am not backing down now. The reason I am not going with you is to distract anyone that is in there and get the door open for you both. I can still be seen since they don't know anything yet. Once we all get in we are probably going to have to force our way out and you both will have to do most of the work, I'm sorry to say. But I am not backing out. Satisfied?" Sora waited patiently as they both let out some steam and passed some time by looking at the map. They were both worried about the exact same person and it was starting to get annoying. He was just glad he was able to get out of the way.
Axel frowned then looked at the map. He scanned it for a while then said, "Memorized. When do we go?" There was a bit of a bite in his voice as he spoke, and Sora took a step to the side and took the six pieces of papers with him. If they stayed that close to the man any longer he was afraid they would spontaneously combust.
""In four minutes. I have it down to a science at this point. That's long enough to miss the guard that wanders around here about now. Start counting the moment the door closes behind me. And don't make any noise while it's open" She turned toward the door then turned her head back for a moment, smiling softly. "Good luck you two", she said then opened up the door and closed it behind her. Axel crossed his arms and stared at the door and Sora watched him warily.
"One, two, three..."
---
Namine walked up to the cold metal door of the laboratory with a calm step. Her eyes flickered to the lock on the door, then typed out a series of number on the keypad next to it. She waited patiently as the green light turned on, telling her that the microphone had turned on and alerted the man inside to her presence. She was dimly aware of the electronic eye of the camera watching her, as did her father. The speaker turned on and a voice rang out to her.
"Namine? I thought you liked dropping by on Fridays. And in the morning too. Or is my memory going with my hair?" The man on the other end peered at her with a curious but pleasant tone. Time had worn away at him too but that was less obvious except for the deadening of his bounce, and the calm that had covered his energy. A slight graying, not simply of his once brown hair had taken place. He seemed gray somehow, having been trapped in the gray surroundings of the lab so long. She could see it, though sometimes it seemed like others couldn't. Of course she couldn't right now, pesky door, but that was what she would see after he let her in.
She looked up to the camera and smiled. "I thought it would work better since I'm planning on going out a few days to work on some projects. I hope that is all right with you." She looked cheerful and pleasant as always completely masking her real feelings inside. The door before her immediately slid open to let her in, so she stepped inside and walked over to her father and smiled. "Yes then?" She giggled softly, almost sounding fake but her smile made up for it, in her lips and in her eyes. Nothing that pure could be bad.
"Of course. It does get dull up here sometimes, and these surprises do make me feel so much better. I'm glad you come up her all the time, it is only luck that you are allowed her at all. Then again I did have to fight for that like anything." He smiled faintly, looking gray still. He rose carefully, like a squeaky door opening and trying not to make any noise. His features, well worn, had a slight light in them seeing his daughter and that light didn't fade as his body fell limp onto the metal floor of the lab. He didn't crumple, he wasn't distorted, he simple went to sleep standing up and breathed easily once on the floor.
The blond girl's smile faded slightly as she turned her father over and put him in a more comfortable position on the floor. She quickly made a pillow of his coat and pushed his limbs to his sides. She then turned to the screens around the chair and sat down, as she reviewed the information given there. She tapped on a few buttons smoothly and a picture of Roxas came up as he tried to escape yet again. She bit her lip as she watched him evade the newest disaster that the man on the ground had put to him, by sheer chance. At least, that is what it looked like. Still how could 'sheer chance' roll in one person's favor so many times with out fail? Tears trickled down her cheeks as he 'escaped' once again, with the image of Namine smiling beside him. She may have created that little glitch but she still wished that she could be in there with him now. She took a deep breath and smiled faintly. Well, she would be there soon. A flashing light appeared on the corner of one screen, alerting her that there were people outside. She changed the view to show the two people, smiling as she did so. She opened the door with a few well-timed clicks of the keyboard so that Axel and Sora could come in.
Axel was the first in and his eyes whipped over to the body on the floor. "So much for girls being nice to their fathers", he muttered quietly. Sora elicited a much more interesting reaction, since, as soon as he saw it, he hit the back wall and almost broke a bone or two doing it. That and a perfectly timed yelp made it very amusing to the girl in the chair.
"He's not my father though", she told them, turning back to the technology in front of her. "He thinks so though, and so does everyone else. I had to take the arrangement at the time, otherwise I probably wouldn't be alive today." Sora was about to ask a question when the girl continued, cutting him off. "If you want to know what happened, he figured out that I have the ability to change memories. He wanted that ability and I, being rather young and untrained, couldn't take that out of his head easily. I eventually changed it enough so that his stubborn head got what he wanted but I was still safe. He thought I was his daughter and he had just discovered a way of erasing people's memories. That's what I lead everyone to believe by becoming the cute daughter and never failing to visit 'daddy' at work to make him feel better about what he did. Stupid organization that it is" She tapped a few last buttons and turned the chair around to get a look at what she created. A portal of swirling blues and yellows came into being, waiting merrily for the three of them to enter the world that had been created. She turned back to the two people, satisfied that the portal was well in hand. "So, shall we go?"
Axel watched her and said quietly, "Is that why they call you a witch?" He grinned, as she looked down, embarrassed. "I see." He then strode toward the portal and murmured, "I'm coming for you Roxas." The blue and yellow portal swallowed the man without much thought and much more pleasantly then the portals of darkness the nobodies could create. Sora walked after him carrying his Keyblade on his shoulder. He was gonna see his 'other'. Once they were both inside Namine followed slowly, looking around the lab one last time. Her mental checklist went over her things to do one more time and she nodded to herself. They would not be disturbed. She turned back to the portal and let it take her inside, and leaving nothing behind.