Maleficent smirked. "Do you think they'd have learned their lesson by now, Pete?"
Pete held up a finger to voice his opinion. "Well, I think—"
Maleficent sighed, massaging her forehead as if she had a headache. "Once again, that was a RHETORICAL QUESTION, Pete."
Pete groaned and walked away, mumbling something about "When I was a steamboat captain I used to get RESPECT."
Maleficent shook her head. This fool is going to be the death of me.
She waved her hands, summoning the doorway that had led the two intruders to the Hall of Remembrance. Asher was the first to step out into the room, looking shaken and tired, but still standing. A few seconds later, Star emerged. However, she looked to be in much worse shape. She collapsed to her knees through the doorway, her head in her hands, trying to hide the tears that caused the light application of eyeshadow on her to run down her face like scattered drops from a black rainstorm splattering against a window.
Maleficent showed a bit of surprise in her eyes. She had expected a bit of a reaction, like with the boy, but nothing like this. Obviously, whatever the girl had learned in the Hall, it hadn't been what Maleficent had intended her to learn. What was Maleficent to do? She certainly couldn't admit error, or else the boy might assume that the lesson was naught but propaganda.
To Maleficent's relief, though, the boy rushed to peel the pitiful girl from the floor. "What happened, Star? Are you okay? Are you hurt?"
Her glossy, tear-filled eyes pierced into Asher's soul. "How am I going to tell them?"
"Tell who? Tell them what?"
Star sniffled. "Brandon's parents! His family! How am I going to tell them he's dead?"
Maleficent flinched. This did not bode well. The girl had obviously not even considered the truth about the Heartless. More than likely, the boy had, but if one of the Keybladers continued to err, the worlds would continue to be out of balance. Maleficent did not care for balance for balance's sake, but she knew that balance was required for a peaceful coexistence of light and dark. With her own castle, she'd met her own ends, and peaceful coexistence would ensure that she was secure in her holdings.
Asher frowned. "It'll be okay, Star. You can do it. I'll go with you, if you want. I can tell them for you…"
Star shook her head violently in protest. "No, Asher, you can't. I have to do it. I just…I don't know if I can take it. I don't know if I'm strong enough."
"I'm sure you are."
Star smiled through her tears. "You think?"
"Sure! You can wield a Keyblade, I'm sure you can handle being the bearer of bad news."
"I…"
"Listen, let's not worry about that right now, okay? We can think about it when the time comes, and we'll figure something out. For now, the important thing is to restore balance to the worlds."
Maleficent raised an eyebrow. So, the boy had learned something. Good.
"Right," Star said through more sniffling. "Let's get to destroying the Heartless here, then."
Maleficent sighed. I suppose it's best if I simply come out and say it. It will ease the girl's suffering…and mine.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you."
Star looked up at Maleficent, her tears beginning to dry. "What do you mean?"
"You plan to destroy all the Heartless in all the worlds?"
"Of course! How do you think I could bring the worlds back into balance."
Asher shook his head slightly, knowing what was coming.
Maleficent scoffed. "You're a fool, girl. You can't bring balance to the worlds by destroying all the Heartless in existence. Do you even know what balance is?"
Star placed her hands on her hips defiantly. "Of course I know what balance is! It's what we'll have once I've fought back the darkness and brought light to all the worlds!"
Asher stepped back. He wasn't an idiot. He knew the witch was getting angry.
"Imbecile! That's not what balance is at all!"
Star shouted back. "Oh, yeah? Well, then what IS balance?"
Maleficent sighed, keeping her anger in check. After all, Star was only a child. "Try to imagine a scale."
"Okay…"
"Now, on a scale, you have two ends, and each end contains an item. Now, imagine a line between the two items. When the two items are of unequal mass, the line is tilted slightly. When the items are of equal mass, the line is horizontal and the scale is balanced."
"So?"
"So, imagine the state of the worlds as a sort of scale, with darkness on one end, and light on the other. If there is too much darkness, the weight of the darkness over the weight of the light brings the scale out of balance. If too much darkness is removed, the scale is also unbalanced, this time in the favor of the light."
"But isn't that a good thing?"
Maleficent fought back another scoff. Even though she was only a girl, Star seemed just as incompetent as Pete. "No. The key to peaceful life is balance. There must be an equal amount of both darkness and light on the scale, so that it is balanced."
"I see."
Failing to keep the sarcasm out of her voice, Maleficent asked Star, "So, I suppose you don't believe me?"
Surprisingly, Star didn't make any affirmative or negative gestures. "What you're saying is that the worlds must have an equal amount of darkness and light…but if anyone has any darkness in their hearts, they become a Heartless."
Maleficent laughed. "Of course not. That's a common misconception. The only reason that a trivial amount of darkness would cause someone to become a Heartless is if there were someone influencing the change. If not, the darkness would simply coexist in the person's heart, along with the light within. Those that turn into Heartless are those who do not just embrace darkness, but allow it to control them. All have within their hearts a power to resist dark temptations, just as all have the power to resist temptations associated with the light."
"But…Asher turned into a Heartless…or a Nobody, or whatever. He's got a pretty strong heart."
"As I said, someone else can influence a change. From my understanding, Asher's change was initiated by Xemnas himself, and a strong force like the one that Xemnas would have conjured would certainly have been enough to overpower almost anyone."
"So…what do I do?"
Maleficent sighed. Must I hold her HAND, as well? "Destroy the SOURCE of the imbalance," she stated matter-of-factly and impatiently.
"Which would be?"
This time, Maleficent's impatience got the best of her. "I don't know. Figure it out for yourself."
With that, Maleficent disappeared down a nearby corridor.
"Such a nice woman," Asher stated drily.
"So…what are we gonna do now?"
Asher looked around thoughtfully. "I think this place is fine the way it is. The weird lady's right. We need to find the source of the problem."
"What do you think the source is?"
"My guess is Remnant."
"So, how do we find him?" Star asked.
Asher shook his head. "It'd be nearly impossible to find him. He'd have to find us."
Star looked puzzled. "But…how do we make him find us?"
Asher smirked. "If Remnant's the source of the problem, then that means he's the source of the Heartless. He's expecting us to destroy them to create balance. So, we just…don't do our jobs."
"But, how will he know where we are if we're not doing anything?"
"Ah," said Asher, holding out an arm as if he was calling to something. "That's where we get to the fun part."
As a Heartless appeared at his side, much to Star's surprise, Axel decided to add his own bit of spice to the situation, even from his position inside Asher's consciousness.
As Asher heard Axel's words in his head, he repeated them with a twinge of arrogance. "As an acquaintance of mine, Saïx, used to say, 'The Heartless ally with who's the strongest.'"
Star frowned. "Asher, I don't know…it doesn't seem right."
Asher's face softened. "C'mon, Star. Please?"
He made a slight motion with his hand, and the Heartless stared up at Star like a hurt puppy. Somehow, under Asher's control, the normally vicious little guy seemed cute and childlike.
"How do we know that you won't lose your heart to darkness?"
Asher looked extremely serious now, the Heartless staring at him questioningly. "I've lost my heart once. It won't happen again. I'm sure of it."
"But how can you be so sure?"
Asher cracked a slight smile in the corner of his mouth. "Like this," he said. He turned to the Heartless. "Well, hello, there, little pal. Are you gonna take my heart?"
The Heartless shook its head.
"Oh, come, now. I'm sure you want to."
The Heartless eyed him from head to toe. It then saw the Keyblade. A Keyblade Master. That heart would be a prize, indeed. However, the Heartless simply shook its head.
"And why not?"
The Heartless then used its interesting shapeshifting ability to take the form of Asher's Nobody counterpart, Xanthas. It took a couple slashes at the ground, then transformed back into a Heartless, lowering itself in a way that made it look like it was cowering in fear. It was an amusing pantomime, to be sure.
Asher smiled widely. "See, Star? They know better."
Star wasn't convinced, but she didn't want to argue. "So, where do we go to do this?"
"Well, let's get back to the Gummi Ship. We'll need its computer. We need to go somewhere where there's a lot of Heartless; somewhere we can have a LOT of fun. That'll get us noticed."
Star rolled her eyes. "Yeah. And maybe killed."
"Let's just get on the ship and find a place to go."
"Fine."
With that, Star and Asher took their leave of Castle Oblivion. When they were clear of the castle, they took out the Gummi Ship and got in. "All right," Asher said with a professional authority, "let's bring up a list of nearby worlds on the ship's computer."
He sat down on the swivel chair, turned around, and began typing. As information poured onto the screen, Star huffed in displeasure. Asher swiveled the chair around to look at her. "What?"
"Asher, this is MY ship."
"Yes, and it's my plan. Plus, I'm better with computers."
Star looked very cross. She didn't like how Asher had pretty much taken command of their mission to bring balance and peace with the Keyblades. Sure, he was smart and resourceful, but she'd gotten a Keyblade before him, and she owned the ship, and she started the quest first. His arrogance was probably the worst part of it. Not only was he smart, but he knew it. But then, he wasn't that arrogant, was he? True, he did tend to make a sarcastic comment now and again, but he basically was a nice guy. So, why was she so frustrated?
Asher frowned. "Look, Star, if it's gonna make you that upset, here. You work the computer. Honestly," he said with a childish smirk, "I just like the spinny chair."
That brought a smile to Star's face. If anything else, he could make her laugh. "Nah," she decided, "you do it. You're the expert."
"All right," Asher said, quickly twisting the chair back to face the screen.
Watching the monitor as Asher swiftly maneuvered his way down the list of Heartless-infested worlds, she noticed him delaying at a specific one: Tempest Town. She felt a surge of a strange emotion. What was it? What emotion would she be feeling, anyway? Tempest Town might have been where she'd met Sora, Riku, and Kairi, but…
Then it hit her. Tempest Town was Asher's hometown. It was where Trista was. He was pausing at that world, wondering if she was in trouble. That still didn't explain the emotion she was feeling. After a long hesitation, Asher decided against Tempest Town, and continued scrolling. Star knew what she felt then; it was relief. But why would she feel relief? She had nothing to be relieved about. Unless…no, she decided. It couldn't be. She wasn't like that.
Trying not to sound distracted from his brief hesitation at Tempest Town, Asher casually asked, "So, Star, random question: how old are you, anyway?"
"Oh, I'm sex—" She froze. "Uh…sixteen." Her face was pinker than carnival cotton candy.
Despite her embarrassment, Asher either didn't notice her slip or didn't seem to care. For some reason, she hoped it was just the first one.
"You're pretty young, then. Not that I have much room to talk; I'm only 18."
Hey, he's pretty close to my age. Wait. What am I thinking? Star shook her head.No, I'm not getting feelings for him. He's taken anyway. Must just be hormones, or being cramped up with him. That's it, it's the close quarters.
Asher pressed a button to the side of the keyboard and a piece of paper printed out next to the monitor. He tore it from the printer and swiveled his chair around to face Star. He held the paper out to her. "I've got a couple worlds here that have Xemnas' fingerprints ALL over them. Any of them are fine with me, but you might want to look them over to—"
Suddenly, the monitor blinked and the ship wrenched underneath them. The force of the moving ship had a negligible effect on Asher, who simply felt a slight pull toward the back of his chair. However, Star managed to lose her balance and stumbled forward—directly toward Asher. She fell, her body twisting in the air, finally landing on his right leg, sitting sideways, her knees facing his left. Too shocked to get up at the moment, Star simply looked at Asher, who, to her dismay, seemed amused by the situation. He shot her a friendly smile. "Star, I appreciate the enthusiasm with which you've thrown yourself upon me, but I am engaged, you know."
Her face turned so red that one who saw the scene might have thought that she'd popped all the blood vessels in it. She picked herself up from his lap and tried to regain her composure, to think of something to say.
Asher chuckled. "C'mon, Star, it was a joke. It was an accident. I know you didn't really throw yourself on me. Besides, like I said, you know I'm engaged. I wouldn't give Trista up for anything."
The redness in Star's face didn't dissipate as her embarrassment at the situation, for some reason, began to be replaced by a touch of jealousy.
Asher frowned. "What? Was it something I said?"
Star turned away.
Asher shrugged. Obviously she just didn't have a sense of humor about her own embarrassments. Well, who could blame her? It was an embarrassing situation.
Star tried to change the subject. "Why'd the ship take off like that?"
Asher swiveled the chair around to view the monitor. "Looks like our ship's got a mind of its own, here."
"MY ship, you mean."
Asher chuckled again. "Yeah. YOUR ship. It's chosen one of the worlds on our list on its own, from the look of things."
"Which one?"
"Let me see here…Oh, no."
"What?"
"Well, according to this…the ship's going to a world we've already been to."
"Really? That's odd. Which one?"
Asher's displeasure was evident. "Feudal Japan."
"What's wrong with Feudal Japan?"
"One very annoying dog-wolf-person…thing."
"What?"
"Don't ask, Star. You weren't there until later. You'll see what I mean. But I do wonder why we need to go BACK. I mean, you killed Naraku."
"Yeah. I wonder what else could be wrong?"
Asher shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine. Listen, Star," he said, getting up from his chair, "I'm going to go try to get some sleep. Would you be nice enough to set an alarm to wake us up when we get there, if you're going to sleep soon, too?"
Star smiled. "Sure."
She heard a creak as the door to one of the small, closetlike rooms that served as bedrooms opened and shut. After the light clunking noise of the lock activating, she heard a thud, and ran to the door. "Asher?"
There was no response. She heard another thud, and this time some muffled speech as well.
"You worthless freak. Why did you have to make a joke out of it? Damnit, what the hell's wrong with you? Why isn't she here? I need her…Trista, please…Please…"
The banging noise stopped, replaced with sobbing.
Star knew the code for the door lock, and opened the door. Asher didn't notice. He was sprawled out on the bed, lying facedown, sobbing quietly and tearlessly. "Please…Trista…"
With Asher's Organization XIII robe off, she could see that although he did wear a pair of jeans underneath, but he either didn't wear a shirt or discarded it along with the robe. She wished that he hadn't. She could easily see that nearly half his upper body was covered in large, splotchy bruises. "Asher?"
He didn't turn his head to acknowledge her, but he did stop sobbing. "Oh. Hello, Star."
"Asher, are you…okay?"
"I bet if she knew…she wouldn't want to be with me."
"Knew what, Asher?"
He turned to her and smiled wryly.
"Asher, those bruises…are those from all the fighting we've been doing? You should do something about that. Maybe wear some sort of armor under your cloak or something."
Asher frowned. "What do YOU think those bruises are, Star?"
"I…I don't know."
"Punishment."
"Punishment? For what?"
"For what I do wrong. I've been selfish. I've been immoral. I've been stupid, I've been weak. I need to punish myself for it."
"Asher…you gave those bruises to yourself?"
"Don't play stupid, Star. You don't do it well. I know you were outside the door. You could hear me."
"But Asher…why?"
"You've heard of people cutting themselves, right?"
"Yeah…"
"Well, this is my cutting. I'm much to frightened to break my own skin, so…" He broke off.
Star walked over and sat next to him on the bed. He didn't get up. "Asher, I…" She held out her hand, but stopped just above his back. "I…"
"Are you afraid to touch me, Star? Are you worried I might do something bad? That I might joke about it? That I might tell you not to? That I might stop you?"
"Well, I don't want to make you upset."
"How would you make me upset?"
"If I touched you, then…"
"Then what? Touch can mean a lot of things, Star. It can mean love, affection, anger, dislike. It can be pulling someone closer, or pushing them away. It can be sexually stimulating, or it can just be comforting. Some people often mix those last two up, you know. Is that what you're afraid of, Star? Are you afraid that if you touched me, I'd automatically assume that we're going to have sex?"
"No, Asher," Star said, finally deciding to slowly stroke his back. "I'm afraid that I'd want it, and that you would, too."
