kamui-2609: thank you so much! i'm glad you like it :)
Falcon-Jade-Darkness: yeah, i've kinda been slacking with the Cloud/Leon -.-;; sorry. but i'm glad you like Selphie and Hayner. they're fun to write :)
kenkenspatz: hmm... Leon biting Cloud... twould be interesting, but i dunno what Leon would be mad at Cloud about... but if i can find a way to put it in the story, i probably will--thanks for the idea:)
Reese97-10: yeah, one of my friends actually watches Days of Our Lives during summer for some reason... i dunno why though, cuz soaps are so... twisted in ways that are highly improbably and are the cause of many headaches
Vixyfox: O.O i don't wanna be the cause of a massacre! (is that how you spell that word?) plus, it'd make a mess, and i ain't no maid. so... i shall update! wheeeeee! (...i blame the sugar... -.-;)
TomiSama04: Roxas in pigtails... XD never thought of his hair that way, but it would be cute! and the plot... well, i'm not exactly sure when it'll all be exposed, but there's foreshadowing if you want to guess
angel-yuripa: yes, Roxas hasn't seen a Playboy yet. rather sad, actually... i never meant to make him that sheltered but he kinda turned out that way. characters are running away from me, dangit -.-
littlekittykat: yeah, my brother is annoying too. sometimes, i think his only purpose in life is to bug me (but i'm probly overreacting... maybe...) anyways, hope you like this chapter as well as the other ones :)
BlueFlamesRedTears91: yay! i'm glad you've liked all the chapters so far. :D makes an author happy. and here's your plushie--isn't he adorable:)
Arika-of-the-Demons: it should be a gatorade commercial! we'd make millions! and... you bad person! what'd the plushie ever do to you? ...then again, oh well... just be gentle with the Hayner plushie... its the only one of its kind, like a collector's item or something :)
Azzie: yeah, i can't help it. Hayner's just so much fun to be mean to X3
AC-chan: glad you like the plushie! isn't Roxas cute with his lil squirt gun? X3 and Leon's story... hmm... well, you'll just have to wait--sorry
Koneko-Aishiru: no! i unlock you then! Kairi don't haves permission to lockdown my reviewers. (she's just jealous) and as to why Kairi needs Sora... well... it's a major plot thing, so i can't really tell you. sorry. hope you enjoy the chapter anyway, though:)
Kuroi Kokoro: -hands over plushie- here you go :) and yeah, i'd been neglecting LC for a while so... I had to make sure they got in again soon -.-;; glad you liked it:)
ArosxIrukxOxarsLeax: yep, i still need to shed some more light on Roxas's situation at home though, me thinks -.-; it feels too vague for me... eh, i'll get around to it eventually... but this chapter has Sora and Axel:D i loved this chapter--hope you like it too:)
"Hey Zexion?" Demyx asked.
"Hm?" Zexion responded. They'd started guarding again about an hour ago, and so far it'd been rather boring. Demyx hadn't brought his sitar with him this time thanks to Axel who had burnt the strings when Demyx began bothering him again. The depressed sitarist had taken it to a repair shop, but it would take a while to fix it.
"I was in the library earlier today since I was super bored, so I looked through a few history books. And, after a while, I realized that all, and I don't mean most, but all our rulers have been queens–no kings. Why is that?"
"You never heard?"
Demyx shook his head. "Uh-uh! You gotta remember, Zexy, I haven't been a vampire nearly as long as you old guys."
"Oh, right . . ." Zexion muttered before realizing something. "Hey! I'm not old! Compared to some of the vampires I'm practically a newborn!"
Demyx giggled. "But only some of the vampires, right, Zexy?"
"Argh! And I told you not to call me that!"
"And you really thought I'd listen?" Demyx asked, sticking out his tongue.
Zexion glared. "Brat."
"Just answer my question–please, Zexy?"
The silver-haired vampire huffed, "Fine, but will you please stop calling me that?"
"Maybe . . ."
"Brat."
"Old fart."
Zexion glowered. "Do you want me to answer your question or not?"
"Yes! Pleeeeease?"
"Alright, the easiest way to explain this is to compare our hierarchy to ants."
Demyx tilted his head to the side in confusion. "Ants?"
"Ants," Zexion repeated. "You see, ants have queens like us, and in the ant-world queens are the only ones that can give birth. Same concept here. Our queens are the only ones that can turn someone into a vampire."
"What about all the other girls? Like Larxene?"
"I'm not sure about the female ants, but all female vampires have the potential to turn a human into a vampire. However, you only have the right to do so if you're a queen. You know how we can drain a human dry?" Demyx nodded. "Well, girl vampires can only drain them to a certain extent. While we're free to kill humans when we feed, girls have to stop as soon as their prey passes out from blood loss.
"However, girls can hold their blood much longer than us. While we require blood every night, they only need blood every week."
"Ohhh . . . ok, but does the Queen ever go out to hunt? I mean, I've never seen her leave Castle Oblivion."
"That's because she doesn't. When the girls go hunting, they don't drain the prey dry, like I said earlier. When the prey passes out, the girls take a container and collect the rest of the blood that squirts out of the neck. That way not all the blood ended up in them, and the Queen still gets her much-needed blood."
"That makes sense, I guess, but why can't the Queen just go out on her own? Sounds like a lot of work for the girls."
"Heartless."
"Oh yeah . . . forgot about them for a minute. What's goin' on between us and them, anyway? I heard we're enemies or rivals or somethin', but what's the competition?"
"I'm not sure, but I think we're both after seven certain things. I have no idea what they are, though. From snips of conversation I've heard–"
"In other words, you were eavesdropping."
Zexion ignored him and continued. "–we're winning."
"Hey, Zexy?"
"What?"
"What's the prize for winning?"
"I have no idea."
"Oh . . . But–"
"Hey!" a voice called, its owner quickly approaching the two guards. The owner had long gray and black hair pulled back in a ponytail and an eyepatch covering his right eye.
"What do you want, Xigbar?" Zexion asked in an exasperated tone. Xigbar could be incredibly annoying at times.
"Chill, man, I was just told to bring Sora this from the reserves," he said, holding a bottle of blood up high for them to see.
Demyx sighed. "You know, I kinda feel bad for Sora–having to swallow that."
Zexion couldn't help but agree. The blood from the reserves was truly disgusting–you could tell just from looking at it.
"You go ahead and feel sorry for the little man. If it does anythin' for ya, let me know," Xigbar said as he handed the bottle to Demyx and left.
"Well, this will make Sora's day," Demyx muttered sarcastically as he turned the doorknob and stepped inside Sora's room.
-
Axel sighed as he came back to Castle Oblivion. It'd been a boring night. Leave, eat, come back. He would've gone to visit Roxas, but–as stated earlier to Sora–he didn't know when the blond would be back. To do something, he would've taken Sora's letter to Riku and put it in the mailbox or something. However, one thing stopped him from running that errand.
He didn't know where the teen lived.
So he had come back to the vampires' home wearily. He had considered seeing Sora, but Zexion and Demyx were guarding again. And if Zexion didn't let him past the first time, there was no way the silver-haired vampire would let him by the second time.
Somewhere in the world in that day and age, a lightbulb switched on.
I'll go to the infirmary–I did tell Sora I would if I got bored. And well, I'm pre-tty bored right now so . . . Axel left his thought hanging, already aware of how it would've ended.
So the bored vampire headed down and down and down.
Figures, he thought as he reached the basement. Our infirmary is in the basement when it would probably be healthier for the patients to be on the top floor. Maybe Sora was on to something.
Opening the door cautiously, he let his green eyes scan the room. Well, it wasn't really a room–more like a hallway. In fact, Axel realized, it was a hallway. Doors lined the off-white walls. Axel assumed they were the various rooms that held the sick. At the end of the hallway resided a nurse behind a desk.
The nurse had a very . . . er . . . unique sense of style, Axel noticed. As he came closer, he saw she had long black hair in numerous braids–some of them pulled back into a bun with purple sticks in the back (Axel wanted to call them chopsticks). Deep purple eyeshadow and lipstick painted her face as well as dark eyeliner and mascara. Her cloak she had somehow made rather fashionable. The hood had fur trimming and the front zipper went down as far as it could without appearing inappropriate because, no matter how you looked at it, it was definitely indecent as it showed a fairly large amount of cleavage.
"Can I help you?" she asked in a surprisingly low voice. Or maybe it wasn't all that surprising. It would've been far more startling if her voice was high and squeaky.
"Yeah, Miss . . . uh . . ."
"Lulu," she supplied.
"Right, Miss Lulu. I was hoping I could visit one of the patients here."
"Just a moment," she said, checking a clipboard she'd dug out of the other papers littering her desk. After looking it over for a second, she said, "Alright, Marluxia is the only one awake right now, so if you'd like to visit him, you may. His room is number eighteen. Two girls are already in there, so please try and be polite to them as to respect the patient. And no, I don't care if you had a one-night stand with one of them and she was completely pissed. You have to keep the noise down and there better not be any violence," she instructed.
". . . Ok, I doubt we'll have to worry about that last bit, but ok," Axel said, heading back down the hallway. How boring, all the doors look exactly alike. Hmm . . . let's see . . . 23 . . . 21 . . . 19 . . . 17 . . . Wait! Where's 18? Oh . . . this is the side with the odd numbers, so the other side is . . . Axel's face brightened as his eyes came across the number eighteen. Placing his hand on the doorknob, he rotated it and tried to push it open.
It didn't work.
Axel grunted and tried pushing the door open again as his hand turned the knob this way and that.
The stubborn thing still wouldn't budge.
He was about to burn it to save the trouble of dealing with it when Lulu called to him with amusement, "You have to pull the doors open."
Axel sent her an embarrassed nod of thanks and did as she suggested. The door swung open.
The first thing that caught him off-guard was the smell. Marluxia's room smelled strongly of paint. Green paint, he realized as the walls were bright shades of green with colorful splotches in select places. Looking closer, he saw that they were rose bushes in all colors. Red roses, of course, but then there were yellow and white and black roses, too. But why are there only roses? Axel couldn't help but wonder.
"Who–Axel?" a feminine voice asked. Said vampire looked at the rest of the room to see one blonde vampire on a stool, painting more scenery on the walls. The other girl sat on a chair next to the bed occupied by a pink-haired vampire who was clearly ill. His skin was clammy and paler than anyone's should've been, for even a vampire's skin shouldn't be lacking that much color.
"Hey, Larxene, didn't expect to find you here," Axel greeted.
"The same could be said for you," she retorted, crossing her legs.
"Touche, but who is she?" Axel asked, referring to the painter.
Said painter twisted around and introduced, "My name is Namine."
"And you are here because . . . ?"
"Because," she explained, "I have a project in mind to paint all the rooms in the infirmary for the patients. If you hadn't noticed, it's rather dull down here." With that, she turned back around to continue her art project.
"What about you Axel? Why are you here?" Larxene asked venomously.
"Me? I'm doing a private investigation. Got it memorized?" he asked, sitting in another available chair on the other side of Marluxia.
Larxene snorted, "You? Doing a private investigation? Pffft. As if."
"It's true. Not my problem if you don't believe me," the redhead said, leaning back in his chair with his arms behind his head.
"Riiiiiiight, and you are supposedly investigating what?" she drawled.
"The blood from the reserves," he answered honestly.
Larxene blinked in surprise and opened her mouth to say something, but Marluxia raised his arm to her as if gesturing for her to stay quiet for a moment.
"What do you want to know?" Marluxia rasped in an almost-gone voice.
"Marluxia, don't strain yourself!" Larxene hissed. The bedridden vampire merely shrugged his shoulders while the blonde huffed in frustration.
"Is it dangerous–the blood from the reserves?" Axel asked uneasily.
"It–"
"Shut up, Marluxia–I'll answer for you," Larxene insisted. Turning to Axel, she replied, "Yes."
"How?" Axel wondered.
"Easy, it's poisonous."
"And the poison causes what?"
She gestured at Marluxia. "What do you think?"
"Ok . . . does the Queen know about this?" he pressed.
"I'll be damned if she doesn't! Hell, this whole sick charade was all her sick idea!" Larxene fumed.
"Calm down, Larxene," Namine ordered quietly. Larxene sighed and nodded.
"Mind elaborating?" Axel asked curiously.
"Look, when someone gets too out of control and she doesn't want to have to go to the trouble of slaying someone and lowering our numbers even more–they get conveniently 'sick,'" she explained. "She puts them on blood from the reserves, and after a little less than a month, the vampire is deemed 'sick.' Admittedly, the vampire is sick, but it's all her fucking fault!"
Axel was in shock. "But . . . but then . . . Sora . . ."
"Sora's on blood from the reserves?" Marluxia coughed out in his hoarse voice.
"Yeah . . ." Axel answered slowly, the impact of Larxene's words still echoing in his head.
"Marluxia, don't talk," Larxene demanded.
The pink-haired vampire, however, ignored her and whispered, "Larxene, give him your container."
Axel blinked in confusion. "What?"
"Sora can't fall to this weak state. Larxene, give it to him," he ordered.
"Give me what? What do you mean by container? And why do you care so much about Sora? You've never even really met him!" Axel questioned. And he would have continued asking things if Lulu's voice hadn't buzzed through the intercom (which Axel hadn't noticed before on the ceiling).
"All visitors are asked to leave at this time. Visiting hours have ended. If you refuse to leave the patient's room or decide to put whipped cream over the security cameras again, you will be subjected to be punished as I see fit. Right, Larxene?" she sniggered.
Larxene merely rolled her eyes, but stood up. Namine also began cleaning up her mess.
"You put whipped cream on the security camera?" Axel asked, mouth agape.
"Don't sound so shocked, and alright, Marluxia–I'll give it to him. C'mon, Axel, you and I have gotta talk," she said firmly. Axel could only go with her as she grabbed his arm and pulled him out the door.
"Give Namine a little time to clean up!" Larxene hollered at Lulu. The nurse glanced up from her paperwork and nodded.
"Out of curiosity, what'd she do to punish you?" Axel couldn't help but ask.
"The bitch cut my hair," Larxene answered hatefully.
Oh yeah, I forgot that vampires' hair doesn't grow. Huh, so her hair'll be that short forever? Man, that's gotta suck. Axel thought, subconsciously reaching for his own fiery locks.
"What did Marluxia want you to give me?"
"This," she said, reaching into her trench coat and pulling out . . .
"A milk jug?" Axel said unbelievingly as she handed it to him.
"Yep, now stop bein' so damn shocked already."
"Larxene, why do you have a milk jug?"
"You mean you never heard how that self-righteous bitch up there that calls herself a queen gets her damn blood?" Larxene asked incredulously.
"Well, ah . . . no," Axel said, scratching his head.
Larxene rolled her eyes. "Well, if I ever want to be in the loop of vampire society, I guess I know I won't be coming to you."
"Would you just tell me already? It's supposed to help Sora, right?"
"Yeah, with this you can collect blood for your friend. When your prey passes out, put this to their neck and collect the remaining blood for your friend. Then visit him and give it to him. That way he'll get some healthy blood and won't get sick nearly as fast."
"What–you mean he'll still get sick?"
"Yeah, he won't be able to fight the crap from the reserves forever, but he's only supposed to be imprisoned for a month, right?"
"Yeah."
"With a steady stream of good blood, he'll still be healthy enough to escape going to the infirmary when they let him out. The Queen may be a bitch, but she can't prove Lulu wrong when it comes to who's sick and who isn't," Larxene explained.
"Wait, Lulu's the one who–"
"Lulu is the only certified doctor for vampires throughout this entire group. No one has the authority to question her when it comes to somebody's health–not even the Queen," the blonde said with a grin. "But, I better get going. I have some things to do," she said as she began strolling away.
"Alright, and Larxene? Thanks!" Axel called to her retreating figure.
Abruptly, Larxene turned around and yelled back at him, "Don't thank me! Thank Marluxia! If he thinks Sora shouldn't be in the infirmary, he has a damn good reason! So you better make sure that kid stays healthy!"
Axel chuckled as she left. "Got it memorized . . ."
-
Sora sighed tiredly. His stomach was still feeling queasy from the foul liquid he'd had to drink earlier. Plus, he had a growing suspicion that Kairi had installed air conditioning in his room and had it up at full blast. Shivering, he rubbed his arms.
Why is it so fucking cold in here! Sora thought as he shrugged on his trench coat. And Axel better give Roxas that letter. And Roxas better give it to Riku. Hell, I don't even care if it gets to Roxas, but Riku better get it one way or another!
Inattentively, he began playing with an iron chain around his neck. Attached to the chain was a clunky, silver crown. Some had told Sora in the past that it looked as if it chafed at his neck and hurt him. Sora would only reply with a smile, saying it was fine.
When you're sad, they say to count your blessings. Hmm . . . Well, I'm certainly bored enough. Let's see . . . Leon, Axel, heh . . . definitely the trip I had with Riku and his friends. Damn that was fun–got in trouble for it, but like they always say "A good friend will pay bail, but a best friend will be sitting next to you saying 'Damn! What a ride!'" Too bad Axel wasn't there for most of it. Come to think of it, that saying really doesn't match the situation all that much. Oh well, but I got Kairi all pissed from it, too. What else . . . oh! Demyx didn't bring his sitar today–I think he said it was broken or something? Whatever, at least I don't have to listen to his sad attempts at music. Oh yeah, then there's the basics like clothing and shelter although I really couldn't give a crap about the shelter here. Goddamn air conditioners . . . didn't even know we had electricity here. Oh wait, we have to for that TV downstairs. I wonder who watches that thing anyway–it's a piece of crap from the 80s'. Come to think of it, I never really did like the 80s' though they certainly were a welcome change from the 70s'. Goddamn hippies . . . yeah, I'm so sure wearing tie-dyed shirts and growing your hair long is really gonna help the environment.
And thus Sora continued his mind rant, covering numerable topics in the span of five minutes, but then the five minutes came to an end. Once again, Sora was left bored out of his mind.
Snuggling into his coat, he thought Riku better get that damn letter . . .
-
"Have you found anything yet?" Yuna asked.
The three girls had their own apartment though it was rather messy at the moment. Currently, the teenagers were looking through a huge pile of papers they'd had in their home for quite a while. For what? Well, they'd figure it out when they found it.
"Nah, we've done most of these already," Rikku said as she glanced at another sheet of paper.
"Wait, take a look at this," Paine replied, holding up a paper for the brunette to see.
"I wanna see!" Rikku cried, reaching for it. Paine, being taller, easily held it out of her reach and handed it to Yuna.
"What's it say?" Rikku asked, practically jumping up and down.
Yuna's eyes flickered across the page before she said, "Um . . . Don't we know a Sora?"
"Yeah! He was that kid Ti–" Rikku was halted in her speech as Paine's hand was quick to cover her mouth.
"He's a vampire from Organization XIII. We met him at the retreat," Paine answered, giving Rikku a warning look.
"Right, he was that spiky-haired guy, wasn't he?" Yuna wondered. Paine nodded.
"Mmmff!" Rikku struggled against Paine's hand and arm.
"Hm? Oh, sorry," Paine said, taking her hand away.
"Yunie! What's it say?"
Yuna handed the hyperactive girl the paper. Taking in the words quickly, the blonde's green eyes lapped up the information behind them.
Looking up from it, she said, "So we've been reduced from awesome monster killers to petty thieves?"
Yuna giggled. "It's not exactly that simple, Rikku."
"I know, but it'll prob'ly get too complicated for me if I think of it as anything more," she admitted sheepishly.
"We go in. We get what we need. We get out. We give it to Maleficent." Paine's eyes flashed as she said, "I don't want any of us to get caught there."
"Right," Yuna agreed.
"So what're we waiting for?" Rikku yelled enthusiastically.
Paine gave her an amused look and replied, "Food, I ordered pizza."
YAY! plot! foreshadowing! i LOVED writing this chapter:D (don't get me wrong, all that fluff earlier was fun, but some plot had to come in sometime)
and Yuna, Rikku, and Paine made this chapter too! and now Lulu's here too! and we gots some Organization members too... fun fun:)
so... review? i'll give you a plushie of... either Zexion or Demyx in an ant costume (i'm lacking sleep right now and i can't think of anything better -.-;;)