Merlin's Mistake

Sora and Riku looked at each other in horror. The screams sounded like something made in hell. "What's going on?" Sora asked.

"Tine!" Riku yelled. He ran against the door, but cried out in pain as he was thrown back by a powerful electric shock. "Warded" he muttered as he picked himself up off the wet cobblestones.

"What do we do?" Sora asked. He knew some magic, but not as much as Donald and definitely not as much as Merlin, who had undoubtedly set this thing up.

Riku's answer was grim and shaking with anger. "We wait."

Aerith placed the black candles in a circle of six hundred and sixty six around Tine's body. The house was quiet as a tomb while everyone held their breath.

"I will not lie to you" said Merlin. The flickering shadows from the candles played around his face, making him look like he had empty eye sockets (an awesome anime effect). "This is a dark magic spell. Dark magic is not kind and it is not friendly. It is made to hurt and injure. This is a spell that will call fourth---temporarily at least---the hearts that are within Tine. If any are at all, the magic will find them. He sighed and looked at Kairi. "When your heart was within Sora, Maleficent probably would have captured Sora and used it on him."

"Wait a minute!" Cloud interrupted. "If Maleficent would have used the spell, then it can't be a good one, can it?"

"Exactly what I said" said Merlin. "Now, are there six hundred and sixty six black candles placed in a star shape around Tine?"

"Yes" Yuffie said as one of Tine's hands pushed at her face, trying to gouge out her eyes. "Could you HURRY it up old man?!"

"Yuffie!" said Aerith. "Speak more respectfully to him. Merlin's another Guild Leader, just like you."

"Easy for you to say, when you're standing over there" said Cloud as he was hit again and again in the chest by Tine's head. "We can hold her, but I don't know for how much longer…and if she took out that Nobody like Sora says, then we may have a limited amount of time."

Leon muttered some agreement through the bandages. Tine's sneakers made tapping noises as her feet thrashed back and fourth over the floor.

"Make sure she does not knock over any of the candles" said Merlin.

Goofy and Donald held Tine's legs down. Abruptly the girl's screams and curses at them stopped. "Please" Tine said in a soft, scared voice. Her green eyes were beginning to water with fear.

"Let the Second Phase begin" Merlin said in a voice that echoed oddly. He took out a small knife from a drawer. Using it, he cut his finger. "Hmm…Cloud, could you hold her head steady for a minute?" Merlin asked. He used the blood to paint a symbol of a heart on Tine's forehead. Then he placed his right hand on the chest of Tine's white Restoration Committee t-shirt. Then he began to chant. And as he chanted, the tea kettle abruptly stopped steaming. The magical bag that Merlin carried fell to the ground. A pile of books that looked impossibly high fell to the floor, startling Kairi. All the small enchantments that Merlin kept on his house were disappearing as he poured all of magic power into the Heart Redemption Spell. The air began to grow heavy and the candles flickered.

"Uh…" said Goofy. "Maybe we shouldn't be doing this."

"Shh! Be quiet!" Donald hushed him, in awe of the Deep Magic being preformed around him.

"Don't do this" Tine whispered, tears trickling down her face. But Merlin did not stop. Even if he had wanted to, he couldn't stop. The dark magic was in control of the wizard now, and he was lost in its fey attraction to all mages. Abruptly the smoke from the candles became runes. They enlarged and began to glow with a cold green light. They hovered like a halo about Tine's head. She froze in fear. Then the runes flew in a circle and landed on Tine's chest where they sank in like drops of water into dry ground. Tine's breathing stopped and so did her pleadings. All was silent inside the house, except for King Mickey's faint snores. Then, Tine opened her mouth and let fourth a hideous shriek of agony. Her body writhed in their arms, knocking over the candles and at one point actually arching off the floor. Multicolored light crackled around her twisting and turning form.

"It-it hurts!" Tine yelled. She then screamed again. It felt as if there were too many people inside one body. She could feel their thoughts and emotions bumping and twisting, fighting, striving for dominance. Her head was going to explode from all the memories that were flooding in.

Kendra sat on a tire swing outside her house. She wondered what the strange darkness that had been on the horizon of her small island home for the last day was. Perhaps a strange kind of hurricane? Maybe, or it could it be----

Oliver was running for his life. The big boys were going to beat him to a bloody pulp for this one. There was only one chance. He could duck into the alleyway behind the big factories----

Roy wondered when Lt. Hawkeye was going to get back from the South Quarter. She had promised to pick him up some more of those apple pies. To be honest, he had gotten used to her spoiling him---

Agony, mind numbing, heart stopping pain was all that could be felt. It was all that mattered. Tine could feel her body being destroyed and then reformed constantly. She felt the hands on her let go.

"What have you done, you stupid old man?!" Aerith demanded.

"Now who's talking disrespectfully?" asked Yuffie. She had give up holding Tine down and all of them were watching her writhe and scream. Donald had covered his eyes and was facing a corner.

"This has to stop" said Goofy.

"I…I agree, it's too much, she's in pain" said Cloud. Even Leon, who hated Tine, was pale and speechless at the suffering before his eyes.

"She should be in pain, or the spell wouldn't be working" said Merlin in a saddened voice. He sat in a chair and poured himself a cup of tea. This spell rips the memories of the hearts inside of a person out into the open, along with the heart itself. In Tine's case she has a large number of hearts inside…so I'm afraid her ordeal is just beginning. Then Tine screamed again, and began to call out---in many different voices at once. It was like hearing an entire crowd of people talking at the same time.

It took Cloud Strife's entire SOLDIER training to keep from running away at that moment. It was the most unnerving thing he had ever seen.

"P…please!" Tine screamed in her multi voice. "I'll do anything! I'll…help you! I'll…join the Keyblades….just stop this pain!" she clutched her chest and screamed again.

Yuffie gave a large gulp that sounded suspiciously like a sob. She wiped her eyes. "What the hell were we thinking?" she asked in a teary voice.

"We indeed have Kingdom Hearts among us" said Merlin from his chair. Everyone glared at him.

"I'll go and…I'll go and get Sora…he is s-sure is taking a long time" said Kairi, wanting to get away from the screams and shrieks of pain inside the house.

Donald shook his head. "Merlin warded the doors against Riku…they can't get back in---" and that was when the doors burst off their hinges and onto the floor, revealing an enraged Riku and a tired looking Sora.

"We wait?" Sora said suddenly, as the screams grew worse. "Are you crazy, Riku? We wait? I didn't wait when Kairi needed to be rescued!"

Riku turned to Sora and pointed Way to Dawn at him. "Don't think that because I was interrupted from killing you, that I have forgiven you Sora. I still am angry with you. Don't compare this to Kairi."

Sora shook his head, rainwater cascading from his hair. It had become a downpour now. "She's your Kairi. Let me help you, Riku. I'll make up for what I did."

Riku looked at Sora for a while…then nodded. "Let's do it. I need some help anyway."

"How are we going to get in the doors?" asked Sora.

"Easy" said Riku. "When I was Maleficent's apprentice, she taught me a bit about wards. There are two types. Type A Wards prevent magical entry into a certain place. Type B prevents physical entry. But Type B has a weakness. Type B can be nullified after repetitive force.

"So you mean….?" Sora asked.

"Yes" said Riku. "If we keep smashing into the wards that Merlin set over the house, then we can get in…eventually."

"Eventually?" Sora asked. "What happens while we're doing it?"

Riku sighed. "Sora, don't tell me that after all we've come through, you're afraid of a little pain, are you?"

Sora grinned. "Not really!" they both charged the ward with a battle cry.

"AAAAHHHHHHH!" they both screamed as they were shocked again and again by the Type B Ward's magic. Sora hacked at the door with the Kingdom Key and Riku used his fists. They could hear the screams of anguish getting stronger.

"What…the…fuck…are they…doing to her?!" Riku cried out in rage. A red aura formed around his fist. He smashed through the ward and through the door with his fist. Sora saw that Riku had managed to open the door and joined him at the entrance.

"Uh…Riku…" he said, but Riku was staring at Tine on the floor. The place was dark except for the flickering light of a few black candles that hadn't been knocked over by Tine's thrashings and convulsions. Sora looked at Riku and gasped. Riku's face was terrible in the flickering light. He looked like a demon of shadows. And before Sora could get over his surprise at the way his friend looked, Riku acted.

Before anyone could do anything, Riku moved across the room like a flash of light. He grabbed Merlin out of his chair and slammed him into a cupboard, knocking over tea cups and other plates and things with crashes.

"Hey!" said Yuffie, readying her shuriken. "Put him down, pal!"

Riku glared at her with all the hatred of the darkness itself. Yuffie at down in her seat and looked at her boots.

"WHAT….HAVE….YOU…ALL…DONE?!" Riku roared like a god of hell.

And everyone knew that Merlin had made a grave, grave mistake.