Shado: I had hoped to update this on Christmas Day, to make this special for making you guys wait for so long, but I got so caught up playing KH, after some years of being a fan of KH, I finally got the game! Then again, I didn't have enough money until over the summer to get myself a ps2, and no matter where I went in town I couldn't find either KH or KH2. So I decided to put them on the list, and I'll just buy KH2 online with my own money.
So, after some waiting, here's chapter three!
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Chapter 3 The Lost
Sora's P.O.V.
It was around midnight or so, when Aerith raised the alarm. She ran down the hallways of the mansion, waking everyone up with a loud knock on the door. I groaned and stayed in bed, man I was tired. I didn't want to get up. Combining my mind with Roxas' into one was not the best idea. I managed to find out a few things, but nothing that was of much help. That and combining our minds drained energy from who ever initiated it.
Then Aerith came in, shaking me. Instinctively I swatted her away, while at the same time pulling the pillow over my head. I was tired! I felt a different pair of hands grab hold of my shoulders and pulled me off the bed. With a yelp I struggled with who ever held me to the cold floor. Damn it was cold!
"Hey! I was trying to sleep! Initiating my mind to be one with Roxas drained my energy!" I kicked, only to ram my foot at the bed.
"Ow my foot!"
"Sora, if you just calm down then you won't get another foot injury." Cloud scowled.
I sniffed and looked up, instantly blushing. To think, Cloud Strife, who was like an older brother to me, was holding me like a small child. Gah! I'm not child anymore! Cloud swatted my head when he noticed my pout.
"And no pouting. We're in a serious situation right now." he said, pulling me up to stand.
"All right all right." I yawned. "So, what's wrong?"
"Roxas is missing." Cloud stated, turning to leave my room.
I stared after him. It took around five or so seconds to realize what he had said. Oh noes! Roxas is missing?! When or how did that happen?! Quickly I tried to run after Cloud, accidently tripping over my slightly too big pajama bottoms. They weren't mine, they originally belonged to Cloud, his size was the closest to mine so he gave me some of his night clothes.
Anyone who was in the hallway at the time snickered at me as I laid face down on the floor twitching. Cloud stopped halfway through the hallway, turned to my direction and shook his head. My left hand twitched, as I laid there face down. Luckily it wasn't my nose that made the first contact with the floor, but my forehead must have taken some brain damage.
"C'mon Sora, I'm sure you didn't take that much brain damage." Leon chuckled as he pulled me up.
My legs struggled to remain upright, my knees buckling. A bit disoriented, I stumbled and grabbed hold of Leon's arm before landing on my bottom. Within minutes Cloud and Aerith were by my side, waving their hands in front of me. My hand still gripped Leon's arm, I didn't want to let go. Axel came by, unsure what to make of this situation. Everything was so blurry, it hurt my eyes to stare at something longer than a minute.
"Sora? Can you hear me?" Aerith frowned at me.
That doesn't sound like Aerith... I thought.
I sniffed, blinking up at her. My vision saw a different face, one of the faces that Roxas dreamed about in the past five years or so. I realized that the face was the keyblade wielder Aqua, staring at me with a worried expression. She was sort of kneeling before me, her shoulders slouched so she was eye level with me.
"Hey, kid, what's wrong?"
Kid!? I'm not a kid! I wanted to shout.
I looked to my right, then stared up at where Leon was. Only it wasn't Leon's face, I thought it was, but a closer look and I realized it was the other keyblade wielder Roxas dreampt about. Terra I think? Yea that sounded about right. He looked annoyed, as if he didn't want to know what was wrong with me. Wincing, I averted my gaze to the floor. Wait...
Was that sand?
My head glanced all around me, instantly recognizing Destiny Islands. How did I get here? And why was everything taller than I remembered? I glanced at my hands, they were smaller, and more childish. It was as if time turned back, and I was a little kid again.
"Hey, Sora, snap out of it. You're fine."
That sounds like Roxas! My head snapped up to stare at my other.
I blinked. Something was off about him. It was his face, his voice, his eyes, but not the same aura around him. Roxas was always the cautious one, he was the complete opposite of me. This face, he seemed a little more cheerful with that soft smile. It wasn't Roxas' smile. Their smiles weren't even close to match.
"Who...are you?" I tilted my head.
"You don't remember?" the Roxas clone blinked, confused.
"You...look familiar...I can't place a name." I stared into his eyes.
His eyes were softer than my other's. They were the same shade of deep ocean blue, but his was calm and clear. Roxas however, his eyes were the tides of the ocean that wanted you to stay away. This face wasn't Roxas, but I knew somehow this face was the original. But Roxas came from me, he's my nobody!
"My name is..."
Huh?
"I can't hear you." I blinked.
"It's..."
What?
"Say that again?" I frowned, cupping a hand behind one of my ears.
"..." his mouth moved, but no sound came out.
Um...
"I still don't know..." I shook my head, still frowning.
His expression saddened, he must have felt a bit left out. I glanced at the other two, but they weren't there. Everything around us faded, I couldn't even feel the soft sand that I was sitting on previously. Blinking away my shock, I stood up. Now I was somehow back to my normal height, just an inch or two higher than this familiar face.
As I stared, I realized his expression was almost cold, with a hint of guilt within his eyes. It was so unexpected I nearly jumped when our eyes met. The aura around him, was no longer cheerful, it was locked up guilt. He seemed frightened, like Sukai was when he got scared of something. Instinctively I reached out with my hand, he took a step back.
"Don't. You touch me, you'll loose him." he averted his gaze.
"Who?"
"Roxas." he stared back into my eyes.
I stared back. "So I was right...you're not him."
"You of all should see the difference between me and him." he smiled weakly.
"Why are you here?" I asked as calmly as I could, my body was shaking.
"I want you to save Roxas. I can only do so much to help him, but it won't be enough. Please, help me save him." he pleaded.
"I will. But I'm going to need more information to be of some help." I nodded.
"My...friends, they want me back. But to get me back, they have to get rid of Roxas. I can't allow it. I gave my heart up for him, just like how I gave up my soul for you. If Roxas is destroyed, you grow weaker as days pass. Soon you would become very sick, and your illness worsens each day. You wouldn't survive the first month." he whispered, his eyes watered up.
"How can I help?"
"Find him. Use your connection with him to locate him. I will do everything I can to keep him away from my friends. I won't hold them away for long, about three weeks is the longest I could give." he explained, clutching his shirt as if he was in pain.
"Are you all right?"
"I need...to go...he's waking up." he panted, kneeling over.
"Wait, your name!" I reached towards him, he was fading away.
"You'll...find out...soon enough." he smiled weakly, before fading away completely.
"No!" I shouted, nearly jumping forward.
"Sora!"
I openly whimpered, blinking. I was sitting in the hallway again, everyone was standing around or close to me in concern. Glancing around, my body was shivering. From what, I didn't know. It must have been fear, but I didn't know what it was caused from. Maybe it had something to do with a past-Roxas-ghost telling me my future if I didn't find my other. Darn it! I'm too young to die!
"What happened? You started talking nonsense, you didn't respond to anything we said or did." Leon crossed his arms.
"I..."
"You were contacted, weren't you?" Aerith tilted her head at me.
I nodded.
"By who?" Axel took a step forward.
"I don't know. He...looked like Roxas...but he wasn't Roxas. I think I met him, somewhere in the past. But I don't remember." I shrugged, a small frown formed on my face.
"Must have been when you were very little, when you're too young to remember much of anything." Aerith stood up.
"We have to find Roxas. He warned me that Roxas will be destroyed, then my death would follow a month later. He says that it's his friends, Aqua and Terra, that were trying to bring him back by destroying Roxas." I explained.
Everyone stared. I said it so bluntly, that they stared at me confused for a few moments. I guess I should have said it a little nicer, but we have so little time. Three weeks goes by fast around here, we needed all the time we have.
"How long do we have?" Axel stepped closer, crossing his arms.
"Three weeks at the most."
The redhead scowled, averting his gaze elsewhere. I wanted to tell him that we'll find Roxas, but with everyone crowding around me it was hard to focus on just one person. Leon motioned Cloud closer, asking him what we should do. The blond thought for a moment, before glancing at me.
"Still enough time. Sora, you go back to Destiny Islands, you're going to search from world to world with Riku. Axel, you round up anyone from the Organization that want to help us in our search. Leon and I will continue our search here in Hollow Bastion. Zexion and Demyx could join the search of different worlds when they get back with that journal." Cloud organized the plan.
Everyone scattered into motion, Axel quickly headed to the door, most likely to find Marluxia's flower shop in town. Leon and Cloud went to find a map in the spare rooms of Hollow Bastion for a better look around the places they haven't checked yet. Aerith was leading the children to their rooms, a hand behind their backs. I jumped up.
"What about Sukai? Kairi is off on vacation on a different island, I can't call her up and ruin it by making her babysit Sukai!" I exclaimed.
"Oh calm down, bring Sukai here and I'll watch over him." Aerith smiled.
I relaxed a little. At least my son wouldn't be so bored here compared to when Kairi had to babysit him. I just hope Xentshi wouldn't get into a fight with Sukai.
"Hey! Sora, go back to Destiny Islands to get Riku!" Leon called at me.
With a yelp I ran downstairs, my keyblade appeared in hand to activate the Gummy Ship. When I stood outside, I glanced back. I sighed, and turned back to the Gummy Ship.
Zexion's P.O.V.
The moment I arrived in what used to be our castle, my nose picked up an unfamiliar scent. Holding back a growl, I instantly used my illusions to change our faces and voices to anyone who happened to walk onto us. Demyx glanced at me, tilting his head.
"This place is being occupied. Our faces and voices changed. I'm Xion, you're Saix." I whispered.
"What!? I have to be the puppy!? You know I'm horrible at acting, love." he frowned, leaning over me.
"I know, but they might not know the Organization. You don't have to be exactly like Saix, just don't be yourself all the way." I whispered softly, leading the way to the library.
I didn't like Saix, and I wasn't a big fan with Xion either. My nose told me she was empty, from day one. Later it was learned she was a doll that took form of anyone depending who was staring at her. I should have warned Roxas and Axel about her scent, but they got too attatched to her. In the end, Roxas had to destroy her. He nearly lost himself after that. It was as if he lost a part of his soul, if Nobodies had souls. That theory was still classified as 'Precautionary'.
As we closed in at our destination, I realized that something was following us. I stopped, glancing around cautiously. I couldn't tell whether it was male or female, the scent was strange. It was a bit vile, yet familiar somehow. Too familiar. Demyx widened his feet into a fighting stance, ready for his weapon for any given moment of a fight. He knew when I stopped in the middle of a mission, it was when we're in danger.
I turned, nearly screamed when something glided towards me. Demyx pulled me out of the way as it darted past us. We watched as it stopped and stood five feet away from us. I couldn't help but stare at the creature before us. It must have been human at one time, the way it was shaped. But the skin was black from burial soil, rotting away from decomposition. I was surprised I didn't hunch over and spew my guts out.
But I continued to stare at it, despite my instincts telling me to run. It had armor covered from head to toe, once glorious somewhere in the past. Now it was covered in dirt, no longer shone with pride but with hatred. I couldn't see the whole face, but it was the worst of the rotted skin. The eyes glowed with a bright red hue to them. Souless. That's what I could tell from the eyes. This creature was a souless human body. It moved, but the soul that once occupied the vessel was no longer there.
"What is that thing?" Demyx stepped back, unsure if he should summon his weapon or not.
I didn't know how to answer, the stench it gave off kept me rooted on the spot.
Then it hit me. The scent. It was the same as Roxas' illness, but in the final stages. My eyes widened, nearly gasping of what was ahead for Roxas. Quickly I took several steps away from the creature before us. Demyx stepped with me, his hands twitching in ready to attack if needed to. It wasn't until my sensitive ears heard a slight clank behind us, did I stop backing away. My head whirled around to see another souless creature. With it, stood a female figure with our signature cloak on, hood over her head.
She stared at us, shocked, then tilted her head. My feet were bound to the floor, I knew that if I tried to run, she would attack. The cloaks were the distraction, if I remained still and at least calm, she wouldn't hurt us. Or at least try to. She took a few steps forward, Demyx took a step back. She paused, but ignored him. I remained perfectly still, as she continued to walk towards me.
"Your face..." she whispered, reaching to my hair.
Instincitvely I flinched, stepping back. She tilted her head.
"Why are you scared? Your face is very similiar to someone I know." she said, hands on her side.
"Who are you?" I managed to ask.
"Me? No one special. Just a lonely Nobody in a castle, with no one to talk to but the dead. Then," she smiled. "a woman, came to this castle. She said she needed my help to resurrect someone. She gave me this drawing."
She pulled out a piece of paper, unfolding it. She held it out for us to stare. Demyx took another step back while I cringed. The face was unmistakably Roxas. This explained alot of how Roxas got his illness, but how to stop it? I wanted to run, but I knew that if I did we wouldn't get away with enough information to save Roxas.
"You know him, don't you?" she frowned.
"We know his Nobody. Why are you doing this? His Nobody has a family, without him, his family would fall apart." I stated, just about ready to run.
I knew what I said was true. Everything that happened five years ago, our family, living under the same roof, it all had a connection. That connection was Roxas. Not just Roxas, but Sora too. Without either of them, everything would fall apart. Axel would be lost, Xentshi would have to grow up in a different family. I would probably take in Xentshi, but he's so destructive I would always be scared for my daughter's safety. The mansion would be lonely like it was before we all moved in for our safety from the Organization.
Her frown deepened a little. "Then you're here to look for an answer."
"Could you elaborate for us then? We were just on our way to the library." Demys stated. "We'd much appreciate it if you explain a few things."
She tilted her head. "If it makes you feel any better. As you can guess, I have the power to resurrect the dead, but not without a price. Most come back without a soul, like these two." she motioned the two armored beings. "But, if it's a strong soul, they come back. Like the soul of the person I just showed you."
"Is there any way to reverse the resurrection?" Demyx frowned.
She shrugged. "I never learned how. There maybe a way, but I wouldn't know."
I casted a glance at my love, he stared back with worried expression. Something told me that this female Nobody wasn't telling us everything she knew. The way her voice described how she wouldn't know, didn't sound too convincing to me. Apparently it didn't feel right with Demyx either. That concluded my suspicions, she doesn't want to help us.
"Well then, we'd better get going." I cleared my throat.
We turned to leave, when suddenly the two Souless crossed our path. Demyx summoned his weapon, ready to use his Water Clones on them. My hand twitched, and Xion's keyblade came to me in a flash. I turned and stood back to back with Demyx, him holding his ground against he Souless, while I faced the female.
What surprised me was her weapon. Or should I say weapons? In her hands was a scythe, dark with black and purple colors. It wasn't straight, it was curved like Marluxia's, but instead of one blade the scythe had two blades on each side. The front end was, naturally, longer than the one in the back. The blades were faced opposite from each other. My nose wrinkled at the stench of blood that stained the two blades a deep crimson. She swung it in a circle, and I knew that this scythe was a very deadly weapon indeed.
Curved around her shoulder was a bow, which struck me as odd. Instead of dark and deadly, it was the complete opposite. The wood was white, with gold designs of leaves and vines covering from one end to the other. The bow was nearly half the size of the scythe, making it the biggest bow I've ever seen. Strapped behind the bow was her arrows, golden feathers at the end of each one.
Her weapons were so shockingly different, and the complete opposite, I wondered for a brief moment if she had the power of both life and death. It was only natural to see it that way, her scythe looked like it was crafted by the Devil himself, while the bow and arrows carved from a Goddess.
"I can't let you leave, now that you know what I'm able to do. You see, many people sought for my power when I had a heart. Now that I'm a Nobody, who knows how many would want to control and use me when word of this gets out." she hissed.
I glared. "We won't spread rumors about you, we just want to save Roxas! We'll leave you alone, you can trust us!"
"Too late." she growled.
Everything sprung into chaos. The two Souless leaped at Demyx, he managed to block them with his Water Clones. His sitar hummed as he continued to keep the clones alive in a dance, surrounding us as an army wall. Maneuvering my way around them, I lunged toward the female. She swung her scythe in a circle in an attempt to swipe me with both ends.
I blocked with the keyblade, stopping her movement for a second. She was fast, and she parried away from me. But that one second was enough time for me to knock the wind out of her with my weapon. She gulped in air, stumbling backwards but managed to keep her footing. Not giving her the chance to recover, I jumped and aimed for her ribs.
She ducked, my keyblade barely scraping the feathers of her arrows. Using the back blade, she twirled her scythe towards my unprotected stomach.
"Look out!" Demyx called out, distracted for a moment.
I managed to flip a sumersault in midair, but it wasn't enough to avoid the blade. Pain shot through my veins from my left side. Gasping, I landed on my feet with one hand clutching the now bleeding wound. Damn this pain, she must have hit somewhere close to my liver or an important artery.
She smirked. Demyx growled, summoning more Water Clones. These new clones leaped forward to attack the female Nobody. Her smirk turned into a frown, dodging the clones. Within a few minutes, she somehow destroyed all of the water clones in three minutes flat.
Stunned, Demyx stood planted where he was and unable to comprehend what just happened. I screamed at him to run, while I tried to reach him. The female stood in my way, ready to strike me with her two bladed scythe. Growling, I stood my ground and continued to scream at Demyx.
"Run you fool! Run!"
"But..." he just about cried.
"I SAID RUN DAMN IT!" I wasn't taking no for an answer.
He bit his lower lip, before opening a portal and ran through it. Confused, the female Nobody stared as the portal started to close. With her and the Souless distracted, I silently opened a portal of my own. I didn't know where Demyx ran to, but I had to reach the library. Quickly I went through and made it disappear before she turned around.
When I walked through the opening, I found myself in the column that I knew the journal was in. Keeping the blood stained hand over my wound, I kept my other by my side, ready to summon the keyblade if needed. I had to keep at least one hand clean, so that the journal didn't get ruined when I pulled it out of the shelf.
As I reached the end of the column, my eyes scanned for any sign of the black little book with white hearts on each corner. Most of these books were tall and thick, while what I was looking for was small and somewhat thin. I caught the spine of something similiar, and reached towards it with my clean hand.
Gently as I could, I pulled the book out of the shelf and checked the cover. A sigh of relief escaped from me, as the white hearts stared back at me. Quickly I put the journal in my pocket, and just when I was about to open a portal something attacked me from behind. Screaming I fell, still covering my wound. Gasping, I strained to glance over my shoulder to see a Souless standing over me.
It stared back. It was probably ordered to keep me in the castle until she found us. Slowly I pushed myself up, legs trembling as I stood. The impact did some real damage on me, I couldn't give the Souless a proper fight with my keyblade. So instead I willed my magic, and threw three fireballs at it.
The creature was stunned by the counterattack, it didn't have time to move away or block. The three fireballs hit their mark, setting the Souless on fire. It's shriek echoed in the library, and possibly throughout the castle too. Quickly I opened a portal, stumbling through it and closing it before the thing could comprehend what it just saw.
The escape was sudden, I didn't have time to will the portal to take me a different world. All I knew that I was heading to some other world, away from what used to be our castle. As I reached the end of the black corridor, I stumbled and fell through the opening. The wound was still bleeding, and my back hurt like hell.
I feel onto something hard, it felt like bricks. The cold ground was wet, rain dropping over me. Barely able to keep my eyes open, I tried to make sense of my surroundings. I saw something what looked like a red pillar in front of me. Beyond the red pillar were what seemed to be a large forest, bamboo trees here and there. Knacking my head for what little infmoration I had, I tried to think of where exactly I was.
All that came up was that I was on a road, in the rain, next to a forest, and a red pillar next to me. I groaned in both annoyance and pain. The damn wound won't stop bleeding, and I was sure that the impact on my back broke a few ribs if not discs. It hurt so much, I cried. It was probably the first time I cried in five years. I never cried, until the day of Zaixou's birth I never did.
And now it was unbearable. I couldn't move, everthing in my body hurt. Still somehow I managed to raise my head to scream. I didn't know why I screamed, but there was nothing else I could do. My voice was mixed with Xion's, my illusions was fading a little. In the end it sounded more like Xion's scream than of my own, her voice was a much higher pitch than mine.
Then I stopped. I was too weak to continue screaming at the wilderness around me. My head fell back to the black bricks. The tears fell and mixed with the raindrops, I couldn't hold back the pitiful whimpers from my throat. It hurt so much, I needed help. But how can I call for help? I was stuck in the middle of nowhere, and no idea what world I was in.
Just when I could barely keep myself awake, I felt something. I felt through the bricks that something was coming towards me from behind. As it drew near, I heard the clattering of hooves of what was maybe two horses cantering towards me. They were about a good two feet away form me when they stopped. I didn't have the strength to raise my head to glance at the two riders who stepped down from their horses.
My pitiful crying didn't cease when one of them kneeled before me. By now my illusions were no longer in affect. As I lay on my wounded side, my uncovered eye was barely registering the face next to mine. It looked like a woman, with black hair cut just below her chin. Just when I felt relieved, I heard a sword being drawn.
I visibly flinched. She stood up, frantic over something. I couldn't hear what they were saying, I was too close to pass out. As I closed my eyes, only one thought crossed my mind.
Goodbye, Demyx.
Shado: ...Um...I can explain...actually, I can just show you in the next chap on what happened to Zexion. Meanwhile, try to guess what world he landed on! I gave some major hints there, so uh, just guess! Maybe that would distract you guys from throwing rocks at me for this chap! *bows* Ehehe...plz don't kill me.
Review plz!