Chapter Fourty Four: Homecoming
I dashed through the dungeons, casting aside my tears, searching for Luxord. After a couple minutes, and a number of rumblings throughout the castle, I found him, chained and hanging by his arms, head hanging.
"Luxord," I muttered. "Luxord!"
He looked up.
"You've got to send me back to that day seven years ago. Please!" I shouted.
He looked up. I saw something different in his eyes...
Anguish...
"Please," I asked.
"I... don't have the strength..." he muttered.
"We have to fix this," I muttered. "I'm sorry if I was too aggressive that day. I don't know what these past seven years have been like, but if two days are any indication, it's been a living hell."
He chuckled.
"That's true... if this means so much to you... I'll send you back. This... is our only chance..." he muttered, gathering a yellow glow. I looked down to see myself falling into a yellow portal, like the one I'd fallen into a couple of days ago.
After falling... a long way... I wound up on my back in the Marketplace of the Raidant Garden. The sky was blue and clear; the air no longer smelled of the burning flesh of the dead.
I looked around to see Serenity battling Luxord in a battle of time; a fireball was seated between them, and they clashed with time magic to stop or move it.
"Wait!" I shouted. They stopped, and Luxord dodged the fireball. "That's... that's enough."
"Whadda ya mean? He made you disappear!" Serenity shouted.
"Don't... 's enough," I said. "This kind of fighting will get us nowhere. We need to focus on the darkness, not each other."
"What would you know?!" Luxord shouted at me.
"I've seen a future," I said.
They got quiet and lowered their weapons.
"I shouldn't have been told anything from then, but I..." I muttered. "We have to fight the darkness. Battling each other is simply a waste of our energy."
"Jason..." Serenity said, dropping her staff.
"We have to find Sora and Kairi," I said. "Then... I've something to settle with a Black Knight."
Oryx... the Nobody of Roy.
"You cannot stop the Black Knight," Luxord said. "His armor is impervious to all attacks. ALL attacks!"
"Not quite," I muttered, summoning my Keyblade. "His armor can be pierced by divine weaponry... including Keyblades."
"I'll never let you get that Black Knight," Luxord said. "He's my last chance at doing something meaningful... if you attempt to kill him, I will take your life here and now."
"I've seen what happens when people disappear..." I said with a grave tone, "but seeing as how you don't exist, I'll have no remorse in killing you."
I dashed forward, making sure to watch my feet so that I wasn't dragged into temporal portals, while simultaneously watching ahead to deflect dice and razor sharp cards. I felled him with a single stroke, after which he faded into darkness.
"I have to go find Sora and Kairi," I said, dismissing my Keyblade with my back turned to Serenity.
"Why?" she asked.
"To see if they're all right... after all, we're gonna need their help," I replied.
And to make sure Sora still has two arms...
"I'm coming with you," Serenity said strongly.
"'k," I said. "But when it comes time to face the Black Knight... I have to go alone."
"The... Black Knight?" she asked.
I shook my head.
"Let's go... I'm sure they have leftover Gummi Blocks at the castle, they're just too lazy to put a ship together for us," I muttered, then began walking off toward the castle. I felt my foot snagged on something...
"Ow! I stubbed my toe!" I shouted, hopping and holding my foot. I had stubbed it on one of the stone walkways.
"Watch where yer goin', geez..." Serenity muttered. We made it to Ansem's computer room and, after a couple hours, assembled a fairly simple Gummi Ship.
"Now... to find Sora," I muttered, going up to Ansem's computer.
"How are you gonna find him?" Serenity asked.
"Well... I can find anybody, so long as they're not far from their Gummi Ship," I said. "After all, I put tracers on everybody's ships."
"Everybody's?" Serenity asked, not amused.
"Well... Roy doesn't have a ship that I know of, so that's why..." I muttered, then began pushing buttons on the keyboard. "Aha! Sora is..."