Previously on t h e l i f e l e s s l e e c h:
"Dude, there are like, no directions anywhere."
"Well, we'll just have to start walking around till we find something good."
"Hey guys, how about that really large building that we saw while we were on our way here?"
"Which big building?"
"When we were looking at the silhouette of the building, there was this really large structure that stuck out the most out of the rest of the scenery."
"I say we should check it out."
xxx
"Who is it?"
"It's my mom. What am I going to say!?"
"If you're that nervous about talking to her, don't answer at all."
xxx
"Ignorant child. She has no idea what she'll be walking into."
"Oh, so you know things ahead of time, do you?"
"Of course. But, I wouldn't want to spoil it for everyone else, now would I?"
"Can you at least tell us what that building is that they're about to wander into?"
"Well...you could say it's the entrance to what they're looking for, but at the same time, an accident waiting to happen."
xxx
"Should we take it with us?"
"I don't see why not? It's probably been in this place longer than we have."
"Obviously. Maybe it can lead us to Ansem."
"Is it that smart?"
"Lets hope."
A loud creak echoed as Era was the first to push the door open and step through. The area was dark, but a few bright lights appeared on most of the corners of the room to bring a little bit of shine to the path. Their shoes made a 'clank' sound as if they were walking on metal floors rather than marble, making it easier for anyone else that's possibly inside to hear. None of them could tell if it were a household residence or something else.
"You think maybe we should have knocked first?" Natasha asked.
"I'm not sure if anyone's here right now." Era replied.
"Exactly why we should have knocked."
From the tone in Natasha voice, she sounded a little bit uncomfortable in the building they were about to roam in. There were many stairways and doors they could all look through, but it would take a lot of time if they were to look all together.
"I think...we should split up, guys." Lucas said. "There are like, a shitload of doors we have to look through."
"I feel like I'm trespassing..." Natasha mumbled.
"That didn't stop you before. Why now?" Era thought out loud.
"I don't know. This place just gives me the creeps." She replied, looking up as she held her arm nervously. "I don't know why, but something tells me all of the sudden that we shouldn't be here."
"We should be fine. This town looks harmless. We didn't see anything dangerous, did we?"
"So far, no..."
"Era, I think I should go with Natasha." Lucas cut in. He stepped next to her and put one arm around her in attempt to comfort her.
"Alright then. It'll slow things down, but we do need Natasha to help us." Era approved. She looked around until she saw a metal rimmed door to her right side. Then she glanced over to doors that were a little darker upstairs, and figured out a plan.
"I'll look in the room where these doors lead." She pointed to the door to the right of her. "And you guys can start up in that room upstairs...is that alright?"
Both of them nodded. "Well...meet up with you later." Natasha replied. They then parted. Natasha and Lucas painstakingly went upstairs as Era walked over to the door. Not before putting her ear to it to listen if anything or anyone was there. All she could hear was a long sigh from what sounded like the air conditioning, and she could see a faint blue light going through the gap under the door. As she heard the door above her opening then closing, she turned the knob of her own door cautiously and opened the door only by a crack. Peeking through, she only saw a little part of the carpet and some designs in the wall she couldn't make out. She did see that the glowing blue fog was coming from a giant tube that she caught in the far right. Finally opening the door completely, she stepped through, feeling like she was in a factory rather than a large house; she figured it could be both. The first thing she glanced at was the glowing tube, and she gaped at what she'd never thought she would see during this journey; little hearts. Human hearts or animal hearts, she couldn't tell what kind it was, but either way, they were there; a faint pink color toned them as they floated aimlessly in the bright blue liquid.
She figured it would be a good idea to maybe take a picture of the scene incase she wouldn't walk past here again. She would have to tell and maybe show every little detail she saw to Natasha and Lucas. Pulling out her cell phone (since it had a camera in it), she put in on camera mode before aiming it towards the tube of hearts; not before the cell began blaring its loud ring tone, warning that someone was trying to call. It was Lucas that was trying to get to her, so she pressed the Talk button and put it to her ear.
"What's happening, Lucas?"
"Dude, Era, we step into another hallway, and this place has some crazy shit in here. You have to check it out yourself to believe it!"
"You can't take a photo of it? I'm about to snap something amazing I found myself."
There was a brief pause and some rustling noises on the other end of the phone, that's when Era knew Lucas traded places with Natasha on the phone.
"Sure we can take a photo of it, but it looks even more surprising in person. Remember that we're checking out this ENTIRE place, so we're going to look at what you've seen so far in person too, and you're going to do the same to what we found, alright?"
"Natasha, you sound a little unusual. Is everything okay there?"
Another pause and switch. Lucas spoke in again.
"Era," Lucas started. His voice was in a whisper. "I don't know what in the world is going on with Natasha, but I think it has something to do with that huge scratch she got earlier. I'm worried."
"I am too, but please keep an eye on her…!" Era replied. "I got to get off now so I can take a picture of this thing. I'll call you later."
With that, Era hung her phone up and went back to what she was doing before. Switching her phone back to camera mode, she held it up equally in front of the tube and finally snapped a photo of it. It was a good quality image, but when she looked at the tube again, it had changed into a white color. She wasn't sure if it was a reaction to the flash, if it usually changes color, or what, but she decided to move along to look for something else. There could be a million doors and rooms in this place, and only one could be where Ansem was.
"Where are we now?" Natasha asked. She and Lucas were in a rather large room, if it were actually a room. It was more like a platform they were standing on; the rest was a floor a few feet below them and rows of machinery lined up as walls. The room was dark, but from the help of the glowing neon floor they were standing on and the lighting from the metal lanes ahead of them, it was as though it was a never ending hall they could never walk through. The only place they could walk around was the large glowing floor that seemed like a platform, unless they wanted to try and jump off to get to the lower floor and possibly hurt themselves.
"I don't think we can move anywhere farther than here." She continued.
"Should we take a picture of it like Era suggested?" Lucas asked. He was leaning on the railing with his arms and looking down at the lower floor.
"Maybe. It'd have to be a wide set photo, since this room is like…juggernaut."
"Whoa…" Lucas said, half to himself.
"What is it?" Natasha replied, walking over to him.
"Just when we mentioned taking a photo of this place, Era sent us a photo of what she found." He said, taking out his cell, which was vibrating to cue that he had a picture message. When he opened it, he saw the bluish glowing tube, with the hovering hearts in it. He spoke for everyone when he mentioned that everything in the place would want to be seen in person.
"We should check this out next." Natasha said excitedly.
"After we get more on this place." Lucas said. He turned back towards the endless wide hall of mechanisms.
"We're on a platform. How the hell do you expect we get down there?"
"Maybe there's a ladder or an escalator or something we can use to get down." Lucas replied, looking all around the railing for something they could use to go down into. His cell phone rang and it was Era. Still looking around for what to climb down with, he began to commence talking with her.
"Era, what do you do when there's a giant floor below you and you can't find anything to help you go down?"
"Jump maybe?'
"It's about twelve feet down below us. You expect us to jump that far down? I have reasons to live ya know."
Natasha stared blankly at the chatty Lucas for a moment before looking herself for a way down, but not around the railing. It seemed too obvious; and this place wasn't something you'd see something obvious in. Instead, she checked around where they came inside from, and looked closely to the wall as she paced to the right and left, examining every bolt, nook and cranny she could get her eye on. She didn't find anything at first, but then she noticed there was a small red beam right next to the door they came out of. From a distance, it would probably be unnoticeable, but this close, you could easily be tempted to find out what it was. In fact, she didn't even realize that she was reaching out towards the button slowly with her pointer finger until a swirling noise right behind her snapped her out of her mindless stage. All the surrounding sounds that were around her was suddenly right in her head when she saw the large golden eyed creature from the train once again. Everything clouded as it leaped towards her, its cry, her shocked gasp, Lucas's still blabbing about.
"This place is so huge, who knows which room this Ansem guy is in?" He sighed. "Well, we're still looking for a way down to this lower floor so that we can explore further. There's got to be something at the end of this room."
"What's Natasha doing?"
"She's behind me looking for-" He turned to glance at Natasha but she wasn't there. "…Natasha?"
"What's the matter?!"
"She vanished!?" Era asked, nearly shouted. She was in a different room this time. It was very small, yet it was bundled with a lot of junk that Era could possibly be looking through for hints of where Ansem could be. All there was in the room were little chairs, a whole lot of drawings and blueprints of some things she had never thought about until now, and a portrait of a man in laboratory uniform and silver hair. He was rather tan, making his gold eyes stick out. Era was studying it as she talked with Lucas on her cell once more.
"Era, I swear, she was right behind me a second ago, examining the wall for anything that could be of use to us."
"You could have kept an eye on her while we talked!" She replied, scratching her scalp nervously. "Who knows where she could be now?"
"I really doubt this, but she might have gone out of this room to look elsewhere."
"Then leave the room too! We can't keep looking through this place if we lose Natasha."
"Alright, alright! I'll look for her right now, don't worry about it."
"Good. Do that." Era replied before pressing OFF on her cell. She gave an exasperated sigh as she kept staring at the portrait. "Goddamit, Natasha. What happened?"
As much as she didn't expect a reply, she kind of hoped that she heard Natasha's voice in reply. But she could be far away from Era and more close to Lucas at this point, so Era left Lucas to find her. Her curiosity got the best of her once she decided to take the portrait off the wall and look at the back of the frame it was in, oblivious to the writings on the wall where it hung, but she did notice a particular person's name written on the back of the frame.
Ansem the Wise apprentice: Xehanort.
"This is a portrait of one of Ansem's apprentices?" Era asked herself. Something told her that just by seeing this on the back of the frame that he was nearby; and possibly this Xehanort or any other of the workers. She would tell Lucas and Natasha about it later, if they found her. There was another door that she hadn't checked out yet, and she would look through there, hoping that she was close to the group's solution to the town's problem.
Opening the next door, the room looked nothing like the room she was just in. In fact, she was walking on a glass balcony. Below her was a large platform, and further down below it was a long hallway, lined up with machinery and other things as the walls. It looked like the hall never ended. Then she remembered Lucas's recent conversation with her. This was the room they were just in. But they weren't there anymore, so she decided to check it out for herself. Luckily, there was a long ladder up from the balcony to the lower platform, but it was still a long height from there to where she stood, and she hoped the ladder was stable. Slowly lowering her feet, she began to step downwards toward the platform, to see that there was another door wide open, one that Lucas and Natasha probably entered and exited from earlier. The ladder actually seemed pretty stable, since it hasn't shook or flinched since Era began climbing down it. She was about a few steps away from the floor, few enough that she could jump down on to it without any problems. Lucas was right about the whole 'endless wide hall' he mentioned, this room was more like multiple floored endless hallway, filled with mechanisms she's probably never heard of. For a possible laboratory, this place seemed bigger in the inside than it looks on the outside. She even wondered if they would easily find their way out. The next thing she wanted to do was to see how high the platform REALLY was from the other floor below it, but after looking down, her question was instantly answered. It was a deep drop from where she stood to the bottom floor, and she doubt that anyone hasn't been down there before.
She felt a slight draft pass her by from her left and she looked towards the left side of the railing, finding a thick black rope tied around one of the bars that was long enough to reach the bottom floor; the odd thing was, however, that it wasn't there before, and if it was, how did Lucas and Natasha miss it before? It just seemed to stick out the most out of all of the rest of the items.
Should I climb down it? Era thought to herself. She began to walk towards the rope and examine it. It seemed tightly bound around the railing bar and was thick enough to hold her weight. It would be nice if there was a ladder instead though. But since there was nothing else to offer at this spot, Era decided that there was no other way to go but down. She went over the railing, feeling like she was about to do a crazy stunt on the top floor of the skyscraper building, and grasped the rope nervously. Descending down this rope seemed more risky than climbing down the ladder, and she was extra wary about how she slid down. Since it was a rough surfaced rope and rather prickly to start with, she'd have to go down extra slow. The lower she went towards the other floor, the more that she felt tinier in this hefty building. She finally made it down the lower floor and her shoes made a loud clack as if the floor was also made of glass. All the material the house was made of you couldn't possibly believe at first sight it was trusting. Deciding since she's made it this far, she decided to call Lucas once more. Then she had just realized an idea; why didn't she just call Natasha's cell phone when they realized she was missing. That was exactly what she was about to do. Punching in the numbers, she waited desperately for an answer. After seven seconds or more, the other line answered, but it was defiantly now what Era had expected. Instead of Natasha's cocky and diligent voice, she heard a large number of what seemed like animal cries, though she couldn't understand what kind of species it was. They sounded like those homicidal aliens that'd you'd see in horror movies, but this was coming out from Natasha's cell, and it was on, so something was happening right at the moment. As hard as she believed it was, she actually did make out a few words from the freakish monster outcries, though it was hard it make it out. From what she heard, there was more than one of whatever it was shouting on the other line speaking as well.
"THERE SHE IS…!"
"LOCK IT…!!"
That was all Era could make out. They said 'she' so they could possibly be talking about Natasha, and Era's heart raced when she thought she heard her voice not to far away from the mystery voices. Her tone sounded weak though, and it was more of a mumble than regular talking. In fact, none of her usual bravado had sounded in her voice that moment.
"H…lp me..pl….ase.."
Her voice was rather blurred, but from what Era heard, she could easily make out what she was saying. She needed help, immediately. But where was she, and where on earth Lucas was trying to find her. Beginning to walk down the large hall, which was still considered endless, she then dialed Lucas's cell.
"Come on, Lucas, answer already…!" She nearly yelled at her cell phone. There was still a dial tone, and then a click.
"Era, I still haven't found Natasha yet." He said bluntly, as if he expected her to ask her if he did.
"Yeah, I know you didn't, Lucas. I just called her cell. It sound's like she's being attacked!"
"Attacked? By what?!"
"I don't know. Another one of those Heartless things! Their voices…I couldn't make them out."
"Heartless? They're here too?"
"Possibly! But where are you right now?"
"I'm in this long maze of a hallway, Era. I feel like I'm going in circles, I have no idea where I am right now. What about you?"
"I'm on the lower floor you two had trouble getting down on before, feeling like I'm walking a road to nowhere." Era replied.
"What the h- How did you get down there?!"
"There was a rope to my side. Apparently you two didn't see it."
"We'll have to check it out together soon, but in the meantime, lets look for Natasha. We have to hurry if it's as bad as you make it sound."
"Catch up to ya later then." Lucas replied. Then the phone clicked.
"Those three don't look like they're enjoying their adventure." Vexen joked. He was back in the room with Zexion and Lexaeus, still watching the flashback of Rexa's past life.
"Does she even know what she's running into?" Lexaeus asked with scorn, as if one of the two ladies was dumb to begin with.
"Who? The Tasha girl or Era?"
"Both of them." Zexion answered. "Lexaeus does have a point. They're trespassing into a building unaware that they're actually expected."
"And the boy?" Lexaeus asked.
"Him too. He's actually in more peril than the girl he's searching for." Zexion explained, a finger resting on his chin. Vexen didn't bother trying to hide his smile.
"Rexa hasn't thought much of this, now that I just realized." He said. "She used to think out loud, but its as if she's not watching herself anymore."
"That's because…" Lexaeus was about to elaborate. "The deeper she got into her flash back, the more she was prone to actually feel what Era is feeling, as if she's been reincarnated or inside her body. Now she's reached that limit, and can't have a thought in this until she wakes up."
"That's deep." Zexion replied, glancing smugly over at the taller and built Nobody. "So when will she wake up?"
Lexaeus took his time to answer, a long pause right before his answer. "Not too soon, but not too long either." There was only silence after that. Zexion went back into his deep thinking phase as Vexen looked elsewhere, but when he turned his direction to something else, he couldn't help but chuckle.
"The poor girl."