A/N: Thank you very much you guys for the reviews!
On with the story...
Chapter Twenty-Four: Halloween and Christmas
"Snow?" Gabriel said hearing the snow crunch beneath his feet. Amaterasu and Sora stopped for a moment looking up at the home in front of them. Kairi, Riku, Yomigami, and Gekigami were in back of Gabriel making sure he didn't dash off. "I thought you said we were going to visit the Pumpkin King, not Santa Claus…"
In this world it was better to blend in with the surrounding people, and since this was Christmas Town, what better way to blend in than by wearing stylish Santa suits.
Sora's was a black and white version, Kairi and Amaterasu had their own female version Santa suit with a comfortable skirt, which the latter detested it to no end in sight, no matter how comfortable it was. Kairi's version was red and white, and the other girl's was red and black. The other males in the group had their outfit just like Sora's, for Riku though it was black and red.
"Yeah well… Riku said Santa Claus didn't exist…" Sora said remembering that day like it was yesterday.
"I can't believe you said that Riku…" Amaterasu said sounding rather hurt. "Of course he's real…"
Riku blinked a bit at the words coming out from the girl's mouth. 'How the heck was I suppose to know?' he thought looking back at Sora and Amaterasu running towards good old jolly Saint Nick's home. He looked back slightly feeling a presence behind him. Gabriel made a small little noise and waved at Riku, which was hard to do with one hand.
"You look like a moron…" Riku said noticing Gabriel roll his eyes in discontent.
"When someone waves at you, you wave back, idiot." Gabriel said walking past him.
"Keep talking like that and I'll trip you…" Riku said walking forward to catch up with him. For a man in chains he walked at a pretty good and fast rate. The snow crunched every second as they walked faster and faster to reach the others.
"Is that the best you can do?" Gabriel said cocking his head to one side innocently. He laughed at him and Riku rolled his eyes.
"Don't push me!" the boy whispered harshly. Gabriel caught sight of his amber eyes and laughed off the warning.
"I think I already am…" he sounded pleased at the tone used in Riku's voice, so he decided to mimic it, just for laughs, to him anyway. 'I love messing with him, he's so easy… I wonder what it'd be like if I… I'll try that one later…'
"That's does it!" Riku's fuse was reaching its end, and he was about ready to snap on the chained Chaser.
"Hurry up!" Amaterasu and Kairi both called out to the two guys. "You're gonna freeze out there!" Amaterasu yelled out cupping her hand over her mouth, to give it a sort of megaphone effect. "Don't make me go out there!"
"You heard your girlfriend…" Gabriel said dodging a punch from Riku's movement, and walked a bit faster, leaving Riku a couple of seconds behind. The only thing Gabriel could remember was the snowball hitting his face.
A m a t e r a s u
I sighed heavily looking back at those two. 'I've got to take care of two children now? One was all right, but two? What the hell is Gabriel doing here anway? He said he never wanted to come back here… Something's going on, I can feel it…' I thought to myself watching Gabriel tackle Riku to the snow covered ground.
'You know pretty soon you'll have to go back to your old nature.'
"Until the time comes I'm not worried for right now…" I said inwardly to myself.
'You're lying…' even my darkness knew me better, and I didn't want to accept it.
"Hey!" I looked at Riku, he had Gabriel in a headlock. "Don't kill him, we want him alive!" I ended up running back to those two, pulling Riku off of him. "Stop this…" I said holding Riku back and looking at Gabriel for a moment. "We're going to have to work together…"
"Amaterasu…" Riku said trying to break free from my grip.
"I don't care what he told you…" I said looking back at his amber eyes for a moment. "And you…" I looked back at Gabriel's purple eyes. "Stop feeding crap into his head! It's bad enough already, we've got other issues to work out… don't talk to him, don't look at him, don't even think about ticking him off. The two of you are acting like kids, and I really hate playing 'Mom'… Got that?" For a moment I felt like a mom since I held their hands and dragged them off to our destination.
I don't really care what they thought of me at that point, their fighting was starting to get on my nerves. I could handle it when we went to Traverse Town, and then when we went to the Pride Lands, but this was the third time it happened, and well three strikes and your out.
It was a long and quiet walk back to Santa's workshop, and I was glad to hear silence between the two of them. It was music to my ears, but still I did sort of miss the bickering just for about a second or so.
To the point at hand, being in Santa's workshop, it was like this warm and fuzzy feeling a little kid gets when they're in a big candy shop, they just don't know what to pick. It was still like that for me, it's a feeling I'm going to grow out of, ever, I know that much.
Since Kairi had to ask about the naughty and nice list, I felt like leaving the workshop. I didn't want hear again that I was on the naughty list, or that Gabriel has been on the naughty list since he learned how to walk. Surprisingly Sora was on the nice list, since he had told us about this one incident that happened while he was a little kid, courtesy of Riku of course.
"Has Pete come by here, Santa?" Sora asked, his blue eyes a bit too overjoyed to be back, they looked like they were shining or something.
Santa Claus shook his head and thought for a moment. "Try checking in with Jack, I hear he wants to do something big this year for Halloween. Something about a Heartless Dance or something… Whatever it is I'm sure he'll most likely know."
"Okay!" Sora said nodding for a moment, he raised his hand up slightly when he remembered something. "Just let us know if anything happens."
With that we were off to go find Jack Skellington. I haven't heard that name in ages, I'm surprised he hasn't croaked. I thought he'd be pushing up daisy, but after all they are dead anyway, they can't die again.
"Ammi…" for a moment I thought it was Riku, but it turned out to be Gabriel. "Listen, when we get the rest of the spheres you know what's going to happen…" I just looked at him for a moment, and I looked down as we all kept walking. "There's no way around our nature. Well go after him once he learns his true power…"
"If he ever does…" I said sounding a bit happy from that. "I'm not the one teaching him."
R i k u
From one place to another, we're off to go and visit Jack Skellington. Like Christmas Town we have to blend in here too, we've got to look scary. Sora looks sort of funny, but I guess that's okay. Kairi's outfit was that of a witch, it wasn't scary but it was dark looking, by that I mean dressed in black.
My costume on the other hand was this sort of humanoid Heartless disguise, it looked really weird. There was a red heartless symbol on my chest and on my back, and I know for a fact my amber eyes stuck out even more. My whole body was as black as night, in a way I could feel that it was my own darkness changing my appearance in this world. Loose bandages were wrapped around my arm, and thick anklets were around my feet with broken chains on them.
"You look like a Neo Shadow…" Amaterasu said titling her head slightly. I turned to look at her. "Well sort of anyway…"
She on the other hand had a broken Heartless Shadow mask covering one part of her face, with little black wings on her back. There was a small Heartless symbol on the side of her face, and her crimson and amber eyes stuck out more due to the color clash on them. She was dressed in all black too, with a small fang visible on the side of her lip, sort of like Sora's.
Gekigami and Yomigami had dark robes on with demon fox masks on them. They took them off revealing ghostly white faces and what appeared to be no eyes, just black holes. Gabriel on the other hand looked like a zombie, there's not a lot I can say about that.
"Wait hold on…" we were all walking to Guillotine Square when Sora spoke out. "Jack's trying to make another Heartless dance?" as we kept on walking he was still talking again about what had happened on his first adventure. "I really hope a fake heart isn't involved…"
I looked at Amaterasu when he said that, and she looked away from me at a moment. I heard Gabriel snickering in the back, but there wasn't anything I could do about it. I had to keep my cool, but it's hard knowing that he's right there. She sighed for a moment and looked up at Sora.
"I'm sure he's not doing that again, it's probably something else, maybe he's got robotic Heartless or something… Still…" she paused and bit the top of her thumb, closing her eyes tight for a second. "It'd be nice to see them dance…"
Something was going on with her, I could feel it. My own heart felt uneasy around her for brief moments, but I didn't let that get to me. She gave me a small smile and we all kept walking forwards. Kairi noticed Amaterasu's little movement too but all I could tell her was that I didn't know what was going on with her.
With Jack Skellington
Jack Skellington walked out of Dr. Finklestein and as he walked down the steps there was a small crowd waiting for him. It was none other than Sora and the others, they waved and greeted the Pumpkin King with friendly 'hellos'. Jack caught sigh of two familiar siblings and shook both of their hands, catching the two off guard.
"Hi, Jack…" Amaterasu said feeling her whole frame shake from the hand shake. Yomigami laughed nervously under his mask as Jack shook his hand. The two of them seemed to be lost in a distant memory as they had a small side conversation with Jack.
"Hey…" Sora had to cut the stroll down memory lane. "What's this I hear about a Heartless dance?"
The tall skeleton turned around slightly and looked at Sora for a moment with a small frown etched onto his bony structure, but it quickly went away. "Heartless dance…? Oh, that Heartless Dance. It's just something I'm working on for next Halloween."
"A dance…?" Sora asked scratching the back of his head. "Do you mean like a festival?" the brunette asked with a puzzled look on his face. Jack nodded slightly and looked back at the others.
Gabriel avoided as much possible eye contact with the Pumpkin King as possible, he didn't want Jack to recognize him in chains. Sora went back to ask if a guy by the name of 'Pete' had shown up. 'Of course he hasn't…' Gabriel thought rolling his eyes as the boy spoke. 'This place is my district… and the other ones we haven't taken yet. It's a good thing Pete got the one in the Pride Lands.'
Sora decided though that it would be best if the group stayed here for about another couple of days. Just in case if Pete did decide to come and stir up trouble. Gabriel knew that never was going to happen since that was his job. 'Once Sora has the sphere we'll most likely leave right after that… '
The group started to spilt up and just wander around, checking areas within the town to make sure Heartless didn't touch the area. Kairi, Sora and Gekigami went in the opposite direction that the others took, going deeper into the town, rather than where the other group decided to traverse around in. Gabriel of course was stuck with Yomigami, and Yomigami went where ever Amaterasu and Riku went. Gabriel was humming something until he felt a cold stare on the back of his head, he knew it was Yomigami, so he ceased the noise.
Amaterasu's eyes scanned the area around them, trying to feel any presence of Heartless, but there were none within the area. She walked around on her own, slowly retiring from the group for a while. Her mind would drift back and forth from Gabriel and Riku. She was still trying to figure out what her heart wanted, but she couldn't think of anything, it was just blank. Nothing popped into her mind, and that's what most likely scared her, she was indecisive about everything.
'I want to leave…' she thought shivering slightly. The darkness made its way into her heart. Cold streams of darkness ran deeper into her veins, she could feel her heart become, or rather, turn colder and colder with each minute. 'I can't stay here anymore… Why am I even still alive? I should've died a long time ago, on that day…' she shook her head and looked up at the dark sky.
Gabriel was watching her from a distance, with a pleased smile on his face. He looked back at Riku and Yomigami who were lost in the conversation one had with the other. The area was lit by lanterns and several homes had their lights on. There was a very thin layer of fog, and not that many people walked into the area. Gabriel took his chance to talk with his e-comrade for a while. He slid off the bench he sat on and walked cautiously to the other side of the area, luckily the other two didn't notice he had moved.
"Hey!" Gabriel said in a soft whisper. Amaterasu turned around slightly to look at the zombie looking guy. Her facial expression didn't show fear, or excitement, not even disappointment. It looked apathetic for a while. She patted a spot next to her and Gabriel took the offering from her. "What are you doing here by yourself? I thought you'd be talking to that Riku guy and your brother…"
"Gathering my thoughts…" she said simply resting her head against the wooden bench. Her eyes scanned the eyes for any disappearing stars but found none. She closed her eyes for a moment, and her hand curled up into a fist, she hit the bench slightly.
"It's starting to take hold, isn't it?" Gabriel said leaning forward on the bench. He placed his hands on his lap, hearing the white chains lightly clink together. Amaterasu slumped over in her spot and nodded for a moment feeling the pain slowly pass. "You know, there's always a spot open to you with Maleficent." She shook her head and mumbled something rather un-lady-like of her.
Gabriel watched the girl for a moment fight with the dark entity invading her small heart. He felt a bit apologetic about it all, even though he knew he had nothing to do with it. He wasn't the one who told her to take part in the experiment, or to even use the artificial heart during their 'adventures' as he remembered it. She opened on eye and looked at the chained man before her, and he noticed a small smile on her face.
"Why are you here anyway?" she asked in a soft tone. He noticed the gentle tone she used, it seemed rather sweet, but he doubted the tone for a moment until she spoke again. "Do you still feel some attachment to us?"
Gabriel blinked at her for a moment trying to figure out where the question was coming from. He found no valid explanation for it, and decided she was just asking, because she wanted to. He cleared his throat and looked back at Riku and Yomigami who still didn't notice he was gone from their view.
"To be honest…" Gabriel said looking at the little Heartless symbol on her cheek. "Yeah, in a way I still miss you guys. You and Yomigami were my favorite people back at Radiant Garden… I'd be lying if I said no. Do I still feel some attachment to you guys…?" he repeated to himself slowly. "I don't know, my heart doesn't respond to you guys at all anymore."
"Same here…" she said looking down at the wooden material of the bench. Amaterasu felt the heartache subside back into a gentle heartbeat and she sighed in relief. She looked back at the man with the purple eyes and laughed. "It's really stupid to think you'd still be attached to us like that…" Gabriel noticed that there was some hurt buried deep within her tone.
"Maybe in our next life…" he started to smile a bit. "Maybe, just maybe, we can find each other again… And somehow let it be like olds times…"
"You said so yourself, for people like us who have committed sins, we don't deserve a next chance…"
"Why are we still alive then?" Gabriel asked watching her amber and crimson eyes widen a bit. He smirked for a moment and laughed a bit watching Amaterasu start to sit up now. "You know you've still got some unfinished business in this life. You made a promise and you intend to keep it, and as for me…" he patted his ex-comrade on the head. "As long as you and your brother are alive I'm going to be around for a long time…"
"It's funny…" she said standing up now. "But I could never bring myself to hate you. I can't, you've done nothing wrong…"
"That's your dark side talking…" Gabriel said laughing for a moment. He noticed the amber tinge in her eyes were starting to grow slowly. "I have done bad things, but you wouldn't know about them, so I guess as long as I don't do anything bad to you, I'm good… Are you really going to stay with them, once the darkness finally takes hold…?"
"That's up for me to decide… But I'll mostly likely be gone before that ever happens…" she said holding her casual tone. It was soft, and for a moment she almost wanted to smile. "We should probably get going though…" she looked forward. "Yomigami stopped talking…"
Gabriel got up and followed Amaterasu, he started sighing in relief. 'I know she wants to come back, the darkness is calling to her, but… I guess that Sora kid has a bright light that won't go out. That's the only thing keeping her here… But that's what is making her suffer. With each day that passes, her heart is losing more and more light, but the process is so slow and painful…' Gabriel still cared about his ex-comrade. He still believed somewhere in his 'heart,' if he could even call a 'heart,' that one day things could somehow be set right.
It seemed less likely with each sphere Sora seemed to collect. His hard work seemed to be flushed down the drain, but he'd work harder than the last time to make the plan a success. For now though, he'd have to wait and gain their trust somehow. Gabriel did know that Amaterasu was onto his case, no matter how nice she was to him. He knew she was still trying to figure him out.
"We're meeting with Sora back in Christmas Town…" Yomigami said watching Amaterasu stop directly in front of him. Gabriel bumped into her on purpose just to make her move a bit more. It was his plan to get Riku just a bit flustered, and it seemed to be working for the most part.
The walk back to Christmas Town was rather quiet, but since Gabriel was in the group the only thing you could hear were Riku and Gabriel's voice getting louder and louder. Amaterasu didn't snap at them, she just ignored them. Kairi and Sora were further ahead of the group, so the noise didn't reach their ears.
"It's snowing…" Kairi said breathlessly as she watched the cloudy sky. White pieces of the crystallized rain fell to the ground, blanketing the ground with fresh powder of the element. She looked back at the others and smiled.
Amaterasu felt her whole body get just a bit colder as she noticed the snow started to come down. She placed the Santa cap further down her head, so that it could cover her ears. Amaterasu heard Riku laugh at her, and she exhaled sharply looking back at the silver haired teen. Their appearance had changed once they entered Christmas Town, and so it was a Santa suit instead of a scary suit.
"Aw, you're cold…" Riku said smiling at his friend. She shook her head and kept on walking. He followed after her with Gabriel right by her side.
"You get use to it…" she said smiling slightly back at him.
Sora and the others were now sitting inside the warm area of a cottage, which would be their little 'motel' so to speak. Mrs. Claus had been generous enough to have the one of the old workshops turned into a spare little room, so to speak. Amaterasu was glad to get out of the cold, since she felt she couldn't enjoy the whole thing without wearing some pants.
"I hate wearing skirts…" she said looking back at Kairi. "I'd be better wearing some sweats or something…" she shivered a bit thinking back to the cold weather outside. Kairi just patted her gently on the back trying hard not to laugh at the scene.
"Hey, maybe Riku can warm you up…" Kairi said twisting a little devilish smile on her facial feature. She smiled at the light blush on Amaterasu's face and knew she had gotten the cold off of her mind, for now anyway. "So how have the two of you been anyway? Are you guys fixing your problems?"
"With Gabriel here…" she smiled slightly looking down at the wooden floor of the little home. "It's been getting there, I mean Gabriel gets Riku to get mad, so I calm him down, and then he talks to me… In a way Gabriel does mostly all of the talking, I just listen to the after part of what Riku has to say."
"Gabriel doesn't seem like a dangerous guy though…" Kairi said looking back at the man with the purple eyes. He sat down talking with Yomigami, apparently striking up small conversation with the older brother of the family. "Did you know him personally?"
Amaterasu sat up looking at Gabriel and Yomigami talk, it reminded her of the past for a moment and she couldn't help but smile at the warmth that touched her heart, even if it was only for a second or so. "I did, we were in the same group…" she said swinging her feet back and forth for a while. "It was me, Yomigami, Leana, Lucifer, and Gabriel. We were in the same squad before we became Chasers…" she said slowly cutting herself off.
Kairi noticed the pained look on her face, but Amaterasu fought off the pain just a little while longer. Amaterasu excused herself from Kairi and she opened the door and walked outside. Kairi watched her from the window, she was sitting by herself on the malfunctioned merry-go-round that sat out in the middle of the area. Kairi sighed for a moment and noticed Sora follow after her, since he had gone outside a while ago.
Sora and Amaterasu
"Hey Ammi…" Sora said joining her on the merry-go-round. "What are you doing here by yourself?"
"Well I'm not alone anymore…" she said noticing that Sora was laughing nervously when she finished saying that. "Why aren't you inside?" she asked watching some snow fall off of his cap. He said it was because he was looking for any possible places for the memory sphere. Amaterasu knew it was a lie, since the sphere was located within the keyhole of that world. "What's the truth?"
"Fine…" he said breathing in for a moment. "I can't really stand that Gabriel guy being there…"
"He's not such a bad guy…" Amaterasu said smiling at the Keyblade wielder. "He's a pretty funny guy if you get to know him." She noticed the bewildered look on the young boy's face and she laughed at him for a moment. "I mean, he's just acting like he always does… I know how he is… He doesn't mean half of the things he says, he just likes messing with people. Right now, he's like a cat with catnip…"
"He's high?" Sora asked tilting his head for a moment. Amaterasu shook her head and laughed at the thought of her ex-comrade being high. She noticed someone coming out of the little home and Sora turned around. "Hey it's Riku… that's my cue!" Sora said smiling sheepishly and running back into the little home. Amaterasu blinked for a moment and sighed, watching her breath float into the air, and disappearing.
Riku leaned against one of the beams from the little machine and she looked at him for a moment thinking of what to say. The only thing she could think of was Gabriel somehow coming into the equation, and make Riku a bit mad. Riku turned to look at Amaterasu and he smiled slightly at her. She returned the warm smile with one of her own.
"How do you like Gabriel?" she knew the answer to the question, but she wanted to hear it for herself. Riku growled and Amaterasu laughed a bit at his reaction to the question. "He's really okay, I mean…" she took off the cap and twisted it in her hands. "He's just like that I guess… He likes messing with people, but he means no harm in it. Trust me, I think I would know…" she said closing her eyes for a moment. "You'll get use to him, while we keep on looking for the spheres… Besides Sora's the one in charge of him now."
Riku sat at the edge of the machine and looked back at Amaterasu watching her eyes again for just a small moment. He was glad, just sitting there with her, and he didn't want to say anything to ruin the whole thing.
"Amaterasu…" she looked down at him and titled her head to the side. "What are you doing out here in the cold anyway? I thought you said you were freezing… Yet here you are sitting outside…" she sat next to him this time.
"I just needed some time to think…" she said feeling some warmth enter her body now. "Besides I knew that if I came outside you'd come outside too…" she said softly, watching more snow fall down on the ground. "I, uh… Well… that and because, I want to take you to Curly Hill, you know the one in the other town…" she said shyly. She laughed nervously and Riku just patted her on the head.
Riku pulled her up, "Then let's go!" he said throwing the girl off guard. "Unless if you want to take someone along with us?" she shook her head and stood up placing the cap back on her head for a moment. She outstretched her hand, and within moments a dark portal materialized within seconds. "Ladies first…" Riku said hearing Amaterasu laugh at the phrase.
"Hey, they're leaving…" Gabriel said noticing the black portal disappear. He smiled looking back at Yomigami for a moment. He and Yomigami had decided to step outside, and Amaterasu had probably sensed them. "It's been a while since she's done something like that…" Gabriel said not really caring what Yomigami had to say about it all. "I know you don't like the fact that he acts like him but I mean come on… He makes her happy."
"Since when in the hell were you an expert on this?" Yomigami asked pushing Gabriel around for a moment. Gabriel laughed for a moment and stumbled back to regain some balance.
"I'm thinking this is the reason as to why she's alive now…" Gabriel said looking back at Yomigami. "But ultimately that's going to kill her too… I know you're still worried about what that voodoo priestess said…"
"Don't bring that crap up." Yomigami said acting defensively towards that pain in the past. "Look is that the only reason why you haven't done anything to him? Because of what Tia said?"
"That's the reason why I let myself get captured, sort of anyway… What about you? Why haven't you gone after, Riku or even Sora?"
"It's not time…" he said looking away from his ex-comrade. "You know that…" he said harshly.
A/N: You know what to do one review please!