Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts because if I did than I would've change the ending for the second game. I don't own the creative work of Square Enix or Disney. The following is brought to you by the letter T and the number 12.
A/N: Sorry for the late update. Also, MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Chapter 12: Chills
Xion had been resting for almost a whole hour as Namine and Kairi sat against the wall to keep an eye out for the Organization members while Xion slept. After her near death experience and running up stairs, Namine suggested that they all take a break as Kairi agreed with her while they let Xion recover, but as soon as she woke up, they would discuss a new plan with Xion.
"What time is it?" asked Kairi for the fifth time as Namine checked her watch.
"It's 12am." said Namine with a sigh while Kairi let out a yawn.
"It's already Saturday." said Kairi while she placed her head against the wall. "Two more days until school starts."
"When morning comes, we'll be missing a new episode of 'Quack Attack'" said Namine with a smile. "I should have Rikku record the show."
"She should still be working by this hour." said Kairi while staring up at the ceiling. "Call her and ask."
"No signal here." said Namine with her phone in her hand while waving it in front of Kairi's face.
Thirteenth Floor
"What the heck is 'Quack Attack'?" asked Axel as he sat in a chair next to Roxas as they watched the monitor that shown the three girls on the seventh floor of the castle.
"It's a Saturday morning cartoon that shows at 10 o'clock in the morning." explain Roxas as Axel let out a chuckle.
"They still watch cartoons?" said Axel as he crossed his arms over his chest. "Their good at fighting, but they still act like kids. That's interesting. So, what is that show actually about?"
"Well, I don't know much about it, but from watching it last week…um, it's about this short temper duck that wears a sailor suit or any regular clothes and he tries to live a normal life, but he keeps having to deal with two chipmunks, his three nephews, and one small honeybee that all screw up his normal life."
"Heh, sounds similar to your life." said Axel while laughing for a while, until he sounded more serious. "But instead of dealing with brats and animals…it's the rest of us."
"I guess you're right." said Roxas without looking in Axel's direction as he kept his eyes on the monitor to watch for any response from Xion. "Why do think I left in the first place?"
"I'm not sure." said Axel while he stretched out his body. "Why did you leave?"
"Because I felt empty." said Roxas truthfully. "I wanted something more. Even if Kingdom Hearts could give us back our chances of becoming completely human. What then? What was the reason for me? Why did I have the keyblade? Who was my other half?"
"What did you want more?" said Axel as he watched the monitor with Roxas.
"To find the answers for that question. I knew I couldn't find it, if I stayed with the Organization." said Roxas. "But I think I found what I was looking for."
"You mean in those three." said Axel as Roxas nodded.
"It was amazing to see Namine skateboarding for the first time. Laughing at Kairi's unusual sarcasm and jokes. Being afraid of Xion at some points." said Roxas with a huge grin on his face. "Getting a chance to see what a normal life felt like."
"Sounds nice, but I don't quite understand." said Axel as he sat up. "How can you live a normal life, when you didn't know what to do on your first vacation." Roxas had to laugh at Axel's comment while Axel laughed along with him. Roxas began to remember his time in the Organization to his second Sea Salt ice cream on the clock tower during the evenings with Axel, to his worst times when partnered with Larxene, learning how to use magic, doing good deeds by slaying the Heartless, and remembering the first vacation he had. Who could blame him for not knowing what to do on a day off, which sounded more lame when he asked Axel for advice on what to do. "Your face was priceless that day."
"I know." said Roxas kind of annoyed. "Defeating the Heartless everyday was hard work and I didn't know anything else."
"How do these people live with themselves?" asked Axel as he began to lose interest in the monitor.
"Well, It'd seemed like they would wake up every morning at 6 and spend the whole hour getting ready while having breakfast, then leave their house by 7. The adults would drive to work while the kids walked or took the bus to school. After I left, I wasn't sure what to do. Remember that cubby kid that we met?" Axel remembered and nodded, "Well, I stayed with him and his family until I could find a place of the own. Using some fake IDs, I made up a different person and hacked into the school's computer system and was enrolled and was sworn in as a citizen of Twilight Town. Pence told me that it would be easier if I earn some cash, but once I earn it, I didn't know what to do with it and he suggested that I invest into a savings account at the local bank."
"What kind of job did you do?" asked Axel with interest.
"I had a part-time job after school." said Roxas. He remembered that the joy of working hard to earn 50 munny and if he was lucky, he would earn 100 munny for a whole day, just by posting 'Struggle' posters all over town. "My first job was moving this huge cargo crate up a steep hill and into this guy's garage, but even with all that hard work, I earn 50 munny per hour. When summer came I worked for another guy and the job was simple, post as many poster all over town."
"Whoa! Sounds like a lot of work." said Axel. He would imagine a normal person working that long and would probably collapse by the end of the day, but with Roxas. "I bet you cheated."
"You have to admit that my gliding ability and quickness came in handy, but no would take the job because they would've wore themselves out." said Roxas. "But other than that, I would do homework. I didn't like doing independence studies, but I knew that it had to be done. All the other homework were easy to me and I was able to finish them. As the days passed by, I didn't realize that I made enough munny to buy my own place with a single bed, dressers, desk, lamp, TV, home computer, an electric burner, and a mini-frigid. Whatever was left of my munny I used it for groceries. After buying these stuff, I keep going to school while working after school and manage to get household supplies, cleaning supplies, and cooking supplies."
"Tell me about that later on. Looks like your other girlfriend is waking up." said Axel as a joke, but noticed the glares that he was receiving from Roxas. Axel didn't seemed to take his glares seriously, so Roxas just turned to face the monitor.
CO: Sixth Floor
"Xion." said Namine quietly when Xion let out a groan that Kairi and Namine had heard. "Xion, are you okay? Xion?"
Xion slowly begin to open her eye lids, but had to closed them again because of the brightness of the room. She shield her eyes with her hands and once again opened her eyes slower this time then blinked a few times to adjust to the room. She tiled her head to the side and saw that Namine, with Kairi were both smiling at her. She didn't know what happen as she sat up as Namine helped her lead against the wall to use as support. "I didn't think, I see you two again." she grumbled. "What happened?"
"Well in short, you were electrocuted, nearly beaten to death, and almost stabbed in the arms." explained Namine.
"When we showed up. I froze the ground under that girl while Namine dealt with her clones. Then she tried to throwing knives at us but we just knocked them away. I was about to knock some sense into her, but she teleported away from us." explain Kairi.
"She tried to attack us from behind, but I used two of my keyblades to hit her on her shoulders. It's was enough to stun her and probably numb her arms for a couple of hours." added Namine. She and Kairi sat on each side of Xion. "Well, about your plan earlier, maybe we could come up with something better."
"I think that we should just stick with the usual." said Xion. "Collect cards and keep going to the next level, until we get to the thirteenth floor."
"Sounds like a good idea, but we have no cards." pointed Kairi. Namine had to agree with her, they had no cards to head into the next floor.
"It's a good thing that Rikku taught me how to mugged people." said Xion as she flicked her wrist and held up five cards. "I was able to swipe these from Larxene."
"Wow, you're the best." said Kairi as she gave Xion a big hug.
"Take it easy." gasped Xion.
"I'm just so happy." said Kairi as she kept hugging Xion. "Now we can head to the next floors and save Roxas."
"But these are for the next five levels." said Namine. "We'll only get as far as the eleventh floor."
"I'm sure something will happen again." said Xion as she got up from the floor. "Shall we get going, if we finish in time maybe will be able to catch 'Quack Attack' in time." Namine and Kairi both giggled as they stood up. "I'll race you." Xion bolted to the stairs as Kairi and Namine both ran after her.
7th Floor
Namine held the keycard in front of the door as they both lit up that was followed by a single click. Once all three girls entered, they were once again separated from each other as they would battle Heartless after Heartless in the streets of Agrabah while picking up the cards left behind. They soon met up with each other as they used the golden keycard to enter the final room.
"Namine! Watch out!" yelled Kairi as Namine dodged an oncoming pillar. Xion was standing a few feet in front of them as another pillar came towards them.
"Don't worry. I got this." said Xion as she timed the distance between her and the pillar.
"Wait!" shouted Namine, but Xion had already split the stone pillar in half. Namine quickly used her keyblades to shield herself from one pillar as Kairi arched her back to avoid the other pillar.
Xion turned around when she heard the crashing of the two pillars. The one that came towards Namine was turned into a pile of crumbled rocks while the other pillar floated in the lava behind Kairi. "Sorry, my bad." apologized Xion as she focus back to the huge red genie.
"My Bad! That Pillar Almost Scratched My Face!" yelled Kairi as she threw her keyblade towards a parrot that was carrying a black lamp. Her keyblade missed the parrot as it kept flying all over the place while her weapon reappeared in her hand as Kairi tried to aim again. "Okay let see you dodge this." Kairi then threw her keyblade at the parrot again as it flew pass the parrot, it then ricocheted off the walls until it finally knocked hit the parrot. "Yes!"
The parrot let out a squawk as it dropped the lamp into the lava as Xion pointed her keyblade towards the genie as a beam of light shot through the genie. There was a blinding explosion and all that was left was a golden keycard. Xion took it as she and the girls headed towards the door to exit the room and the floor. All three were in the familiar white room as more stairs lead up to the next floor.
8th Floor
Kairi was the last one to meet up with her friends as Namine used the golden keycard to open the door that would take them to Ursula who was causing trouble. As soon as they entered, Xion was quickly captured by a tentacle.
"Save Xion." sighed Namine while Kairi nodded. Kairi ran at full speed while somersaulted over more tentacles until she finally reached Xion. She drew her keyblade and began to hammer away at the tightly warp tentacle as Xion struggled to get free while Kairi tried to keep her balance as the tentacle moved more wildly.
"Xion, I'm going to cut it." said Kairi.
"Can you hurry. I'm starting to get sick here." said Xion as she felt nauseated. Kairi kept her balance until she leap into the air and as she began to fall she cut through the tentacle. While Xion freed herself, Namine shot a bolt of electricity to the nearest tentacle as she made her way to her friends. Kairi stared up at Ursula as she shot bubbles out of her mouth. Kairi quickly used the Materia and her keyblade to cast an ice beam into Ursula's mouth which froze the bubbles and the her. Kairi could feel her feet began to drag a little as Ursula's body was half frozen while Xion and Namine watched as the tentacles surrounded them.
"Keep it going." encouraged Namine as the tentacles moved more slowly until they completely stopped. "Okay, you can stop now."
Kairi did what Namine said as she let out a long sigh. The frozen witch began to crumble apart piece by piece until their was nothing left except for a keycard. Kairi took it and lead the girls to the door as they continued up the stairs.
9th Floor
All three girls stood in the center of Heartless on a pirate's ship. They didn't waste time as they all spread out and dealt with each Heartless. Xion had finally took care of the last Heartless as her and Namine saw Kairi deal with Capt. Hook. Kairi watched the Captain's moves very carefully as he would thrust his sword towards her a couple of times while she only parried his attacks away. Kairi stood by the edge of the railing as the Captain tried another powerful thrust. Kairi quickly parried his attack and when he was close enough, she threw him overboard. The Hook emerged from the ocean and quickly swam away from a crocodile.
Kairi looked on the deck and pickup the keycard. "Let's go."
10th Floor
"Hey, maybe we can take on Hercules." suggested Xion when they met up at the door.
"But thing didn't go quite as planned." said Namine as they entered the door and defeated Hades to move on to the next level.
11th Floor
"Okay the eleventh floor." said Kairi as Xion took out the last card. Xion held the card into the air as the door lit up and unlocked. "Okay, I'll see you guys later."
Kairi entered followed by Namine as well as Xion. Xion examined her surroundings as she remembered where she was. "Twilight Town." said Xion out loud. She stood on Market Street and scanned the area to find any signs of Heartless. She found one by the one of the markets and quickly slew it. When she did more appeared out of nowhere. She twisted and turned in every direction while casting fire projectiles as more and more appeared. Xion's body lit up as her keyblade turned into a white pulse blade as she started to teleported from one end of the Heartless and swung her weapon from sided to sided until she shot out five rays of light from her body. There was not one Heartless left as Xion started to pickup the cards that littered the ground.
All three girls continued the same pattern over and over again until they finally met up at the final door. "So, hello again." waved Kairi when Xion was the last one to arrive. "Ready?"
Namine and Xion nodded while Kairi held the card up to the door as it lit up. Once they entered they stood next to a two story mansion that was surround by a brick wall and a black gate that blocked the entrance in a opening of a forest with a grassy ground. It was an amazing sight until they suddenly felt a cold chill in the air. "Great, him again." said Xion sounding annoyed as the pearl black Corridor appeared and disappeared leaving behind Vexen to face the three girls again.
13th Floor.
"There's Vexen." said Axel as he stood up from his chair and stretched his body while scratching the back of his head. "I'll be right back."
"Wait, what?" questioned Roxas.
"I've been ordered to take out Vexen. Zexion was drained of his powers and was killed, we have reason to believe that Vexen sent his creation to take care of Zexion." explained Axel as he pat on Roxas head and ruffed up his hair. "You be good now, you're big enough to make your own decisions. Besides, there no one here that'll get in your way."
Axel than left the room leaving Roxas all by himself as he summoned his keyblade to get free from the thorns that held him down. "Thanks, Axel."
11th Floor
All three girls faced Vexen with their keyblades drawn while Vexen never even bothered to create his shield "What's he waiting for?" whispered Kairi to her friends
"Maybe he wants to talk first." said Namine in a clear voice so that everybody could hear her. "Isn't that right Dr. Even?"
"Dr. Even?" question Xion as she thought for a moment. She remembered that they were all in the library in Ansem's castle looking up old documents on his researchers that worked with him. "Your one of Ansem's former apprentice."
"Exactly, but I would rather discuss the fate of Roxas if you three continue to pursue him." said Vexen as he grinned at the confuse looks coming from the girls. "Do you three even know how he got a hold of Ventus' journals?"
"What are you talking about?" asked Xion.
Vexen's grin grew wider as a cold mist surrounded his left arms until his shield fully appeared in his hand and cover his whole arm. "You think I'll just tell you?"
"Then I guess we have no choice, but to beat it out of you." said Kairi as she and Vexen both shot ice projectiles at each other that exploded creating falling snow. Xion leap into the air and shot fireballs at Vexen as he easily dodge and block with his shield. He grinned at Xion as she shot a hug fireball at Vexen which he reacted to by jumping back while creating a ice sculpture of himself which the fireball hit instead of him. As the snow kept falling he was able to see Namine's keyblades being hurled towards him as he brought up his shield to defend himself while Kairi tried to sneak up from behind. Namine made sure that Vexen was occupied while Xion wait for an opening to attack as Kairi finally attacked from behind Vexen. She slashed her weapon across his back, but was surprised to see him shatter into pieces of ice. He reappeared behind Xion and with a hard tackle from his shield, he left a trail of ice as Xion flew forward. Vexen brought his shield up once again to defend the oncoming keyblades while Kairi went to check on Xion.
"Are you okay?" asked Kairi as Xion slowly got to her feet.
"Look Out!" said Xion while pushing Kairi to safety as she flipped back in time to avoid a icicle that shot out of the ground. Xion drew her keyblade and charged at a grinning Vexen as he kneeled down to touch the ground that instantly turned to ice. Xion had lost her balance as well as Namine while Kairi stood her ground as she began to skate towards Vexen with her keyblade held off to her side. When she neared Vexen, she held up her weapon to attack, but Vexen released a cold mist off his body that froze Kairi as he knocked her away from him with his shield. Namine had finally saw an opening as she sent her keyblades towards Vexen as one hit his right shin knocking him down to one knee while another hit the back of his left shoulder. Once he was down on his hand and knees one last keyblade slammed on to his back knocking the breath out of him while he was down both Namine and Xion went over to Kairi's side to help her up.
"Luckily that wasn't cold enough to break you in half." said Namine as she and Xion with Kairi's help scraped off some ice that stuck on her clothes.
"You'll pay for this." said Vexen in a harsh tone as he looked back at the girls with his neck cracking like broken ice. He fully stood up and spread his feet apart as he held his arms above his head. Namine noticed the mist coming off his arms as his arms turned into a gray metallic blue like ice. He then brought his arms down as the girls heard the wind howl like it was winter and saw Vexen created a softball size snowball between his hands as he held his arms in front of his abdomen. Suddenly a sphere erupted off the snowball and surrounded him in the center as the now dome spread further out.
"This can't be good." said Xion as she cast a fireball projectile towards Vexen, but the fireball went out once it came in contact with the dome as it grew wider. Xion tried again, but made a bigger fire with the same result. Namine tried her keyblades and hurled them towards Vexen, but they all froze once they passed through the dome and fell to the ground. Namine didn't know what to do the dome got bigger and bigger. Xion then surrounded herself in flames and cast a big flamethrower that swallowed the dome as she thought that this was it, it's finished, but saw the flames turn blue and went out. The dome grew bigger again as the mist touched Xion's out stretched hand.
"AAHHH!" screamed Xion as she fell backwards and checked her hand that had some frost on her skin. While Xion was rubbing her hand to warm it back up, Kairi didn't know what else to do as she turned to Namine who had the same expression. What can they do? Not only did their powers penetrated the icy dome, but their keyblades couldn't as well. Out of desperation Namine held out both her arms and shot electricity as Xion also did the same casting fireballs while Kairi wondered if she should do the same. She and Vexen both have controlled over ice powers and if she was to cast her ice powers at the dome, would it do more harm than good? She watched as her friends tried their best to do what they could to break the dome, but she knew that if they kept that going their powers could backfire on them. All three girls backup as the dome grew again while Xion drew her keyblade and lit it on fire until the metal turned red hot. She hurled it towards Vexen, but like Namine's weapons it also froze.
"No used." panicked Kairi as all three girls backs touch the brick wall with Kairi, Namine, and Xion all line up. Namine tried to think of something that would work, but she was also panicking like Kairi.
"Kairi, I'm going to cast another flamethrower towards Vexen." said Xion sounding very calm as she began to weave her hands in motion that would surround her in fire. Kairi turned to her friend with a confused look on her face. What was Xion planning? Her flamethrower did work the first time, why would she tell her that? "At the same time I want you to cast a ice beam toward Vexen on the count of three."
"One…" said Namine as a faint mist came off of Kairi's arm with the Materia lighting up.
"Two…" said Kairi in a shaky voice as she felt her whole arm going numb while Xion had form flames around her body.
"Three!" said Xion as her and Kairi both cast their powers at the same time. Both the fire and cold came in contact with each other as they both shot through the dome. Vexen eyes grew wide as a icicle emerged from out of the girls power as the icicle penetrated through his left thigh. All his concentration was lost as his dome broke apart as the three girls all breath a sigh of relief.
"Help me!" yelled Vexen as his whole left leg began to freeze and spread throughout his body.
"His powers are having a negative reaction." said Namine as she knew that there was nothing they could do.
"What will happen to Roxas?" asked Xion before Vexen freeze over. "Tell me."
"He'll become Marluxia's pawn and… " before he could explain two fiery chakrams flew into him as he scream out in pain.
"No, no, no, don't tell them." said Axel from behind the girls with a murderous grin on his face. "Now how should you die? Should I let you freeze over? Or do you need to lighten up?"
"Axel, what are you doing here?" said Vexen as his breathing became heavy.
"I'm here because I've been ordered to kept you from talking too much and for killing Zexion." said Axel as the girls turned to face him.
"Wait! Wait!" begged Vexen as Axel held up his hand and put his thumb to his middle finger. "I can explain!"
"Goodbye." said Axel snapping his fingers while Vexen's body lit up in a pillar of fire as the girls stared in horror until Vexen's had faded. They stared speechless as Axel walk up to what was left of Vexen's body and kick the frozen parts.
"WHY DID YOU DO THAT!" yelled Kairi once she found her voice.
"What's your problem?" asked Axel sounding annoyed. "What could you've done to save him? Nothing."
"He's right." said Namine as the rest of remains faded away. "When you two combine your powers, the water managed to go through the dome, but once it turned to an icicle and stabbed Vexen in the thigh, his powers were drawn into him and imploded inside of him. That's why he started to freeze."
"Gotta go. Don't kept Roxas waiting." said Axel while flicking another keycard to the next level towards Kairi that she easily caught as the Corridor appeared behind Axel.
"Wait-" said Xion, but Axel was already gone. Namine checked the grounds and found a single card as they continued towards the exit since there was nothing else they could do on this floor. They arrived at the exit door for the room they stood in as Namine held up the card to unlock the door.
13th Floor
Roxas had finally managed to get free from the thorns as he made his way towards the door. He had to meet up with the girls to at least help as best as he could. "If only I knew how to open the Corridor." said Roxas as he continued down the empty halls of the castle.
Meanwhile
Axel reappeared in the room where they kept Roxas, but wasn't surprised to see him missing. "This should be interesting." said Axel as he let out a small laugh, but found it strange to be having a good time. "Wait, I'm enjoying this."
Somewhere Between the 11th and 12th Floor
When the three girls emerged out of the exit door, there stood a dark-cloaked figure that was stepping down from the top stair to confront them. Kairi gasped as she remember who this person was. It was the same girl that attacked them before, a dangerous adversary. She moved like a predator as her eyes were bright with anticipation and rage.
Blocking the next level up, she stood waiting for only one of the three, a long-handled Wutai sword held before her. Once she stepped down from the last step they all circled each other until they stopped with the girl's back towards the golden door while the other three stood next to the stairs.
"You two can go on ahead." said Xion as Kairi and Namine began to worry about her and her decision. "I'll deal with her."
"Are you sure?" said Namine as Kairi agreed with her.
"We promised that we wouldn't leave you alone." said Kairi as Xion only smile at her friends.
"Don't worry, I'll be alright." said Xion as she turned to Kairi. "Besides, I have you two. I'm never alone. Go, I'll meet up with you later."
Kairi wasn't convince, but went up the stairs anyways while Namine examined the girl that stood before Xion. "Be careful. We'll be waiting on the other stairs on the next level."
"Here you'll need this." said Xion as she handed the keycard to Namine. Namine thanked her and went up the stairs leaving the two combatants alone. Xion took out her MP3 player and scanned through the playlist and found a song that she could listen to as she placed the ear buds into her ear and turned the volume down low enough to where she could still hear the song as she finally turned on the 'repeat' and place the device in her pocket while adjusting the wire so it wouldn't be in the way. Once Xion was ready, she stood alone facing the hooded girl while fully drawing her keyblade.
Using her free hand the girl remove her hood, then lifted the long-handled sword she bore as she stood in the same position as Xion. A smile crossed the bearer's pretty face as she swung the weapon before her in an idle, casual gesture, beckoning Xion.
Xion was amazed at the details of the girls features, everything about her was the same as Xion from her fighting stance, hairstyle, eye color, and even her smile. "Heh, your greatest enemy is yourself." said Xion as she slowly advanced to meet herself.
To Be Continued…
A/N: Again, I would like to say sorry for the late update, but I'm just living my life. So, the reason being is that I'm far behind in school, but when I have free time I'll work on the next chapter, so just be patient. If you liked this chapter or this story, please Review, but no flames. Next chapter, "Me, Myself, and Xion." See ya.
Preview:
"Roxas, Look Out!" shouted Kairi.
Coming Soon.