"No, don't do it, 'Mr Slater."
Mr Slater and I looked up to the balcony above. There we saw a leering face of Xigbar, pointing a crossbow at me. Sniper nobodies surrounded him, and Zexion stood further to the back. He was clutching someone else roughly, and I realized, with a jolt, that it was the blond girl we'd sacrificed to the heartless. She'd become a nobody, so Mr Slater and I could stay together. He summoned a portal and dragged her into it.
A hail of laser beams cascaded upon us, but somehow, an invisible force seemed to block those that came closest to us. Mr Slater shouted across.
"It's now or never! I can't keep this up forever, and I can't destroy those nobodies like yesterday if I stop Luxord from creating a portal!"
As he danced backwards, firing pot shots at the Snipers, I hammered some quick frets onto my sitar. Five dense water-balls shot hurled themselves from nowhere at the nobodies, scattering them, knocking them down. What we hadn't remembered was Luxord, and Mr Slater jumped to the side, to push me out of the way of a spinning die.
Picking myself up, with a fruity selection of four-letter words, I started to play, like I'd never played before: all around me, a cascade of water formed, and from that, emerged hundreds of water figurines, some of musical notes, others of my sitar, others of me. They splashed around the arena, taking hits for us as meat shields, or driving the enemy back. Whilst I continued my raucous cacophony of notes, Mr Slater kept his arcane barrier up high, taking the brunt of Xigbar's shots, but I'd been warned it wouldn't last. He concentrated his gun on blasting whatever came closest to us, but it wasn't enough.
Slowly, the barrier above began to split: some shots of consistent persistency were getting through, and more and more nobodies were appearing by the second. But what was worse was, I couldn't keep up: I wasn't wearing my gloves, and my pale fingers were sore from pressing against the strings, aching from the quick movements. All the while, constant shots and spinning dice were rushing round the arena, gently pushing us into an inevitable defeat. I wouldn't stop. My fingers were sore, and I'd broken skin in more than one area. My legs were tired: if I didn't keep moving, I was done for. But all the while, my liquid creations were weakening, and when Mr Slater dodged behind one, it offered little protection, the shot skimming through its weedy build and striking Mr Slater squarely in the chest.
The battle was lost. I stopped playing. As my lover fell to the floor, his pistol dropping, too, I joined him, eyes watering.
"Demyx… you must help us flee. I don't have the energy."
He murmured, lips barely moving, as I nodded. The nobody army all took place in a perfect circle around us, within two metres. There were over two hundred all aiming the bows at the two people with suits, one wounded, the other on the verge of tears. Luxord and Xigbar stood at twelve and six o'clock of the circle. Xigbar was laughing, but Luxord's face was deadly serious.
"Demyx… he cannot protect you. This is your last chance…"
I shook my head, now crying. I had helped Mr Slater to his feet, both of us glaring at Luxord. Mr Slater was leaning on me for balance, and I screamed out loud.
"I won't let you get in our way!" With that, I summoned a portal. Though it didn't come. "Mr Slater! I can't summon a portal to take us to the safe place!" Tears were streaking down my flushed cheeks, dripping down the contours of my face, the salty taste on my tongue exactly equivalent to the bitter desire I had for our assailants.
"And why is that, 'Mr Slater'?" Asked Xigbar, with mock inquisitiveness.
"Why indeed?" Interjected Luxord. "It couldn't be that your 'secret' den we shared so long ago can't be accessed by one without a heart, can it?"
"I can go there!" I insisted, promising myself that what Luxord was insinuating was a lie, trying – to no avail – to return to the safe place again.
"Through his, portal, indeed you can." Came the cruel reply. My mouth hung open. I had nothing to say, and wished my feelings for once away. Oh, I had a feeling. Numbness. As a heavy force on my shoulder pushed me into a shadowy portal, and I felt myself collapse onto the soft double bed, numbness filled my entire existence, and Mr Slater's pleas for forgiveness were thankfully redundant.
