Hey! Sorry for the wait, but here's another chapter. Enjoy! (and don't forget to review)
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
~ Waltzing Stars ~
The brilliantly tainted clouds float by slowly in the darkening sky, covering and uncovering the small sparkles that have begun to appear. Below, people rush here and there, most of them heading home after the long day. The horns blowing in the traffic and the hum of the engines of vehicles create a rhythmless music under the dim golden light of dusk. A small bird, without a slight care for all this, flaps its wings and glides over it all. Watching with a cheerless expression from behind a fence on a quiet roof is a boy with two toned blue hair. A gentle breeze blows through his hair and causes his tattered scarf to flutter a little. He turns away.
Within the last two days, Kai has tried almost every place in the city he could think of in hopes of finding Lux. He has had close to no sleep and if anything else there had been close to nothing to fill his stomach either. He even began to question his reasons for searching so hard for her. He had only known the girl for roughly a month, yet something inside just would not allow him to give up. Every time he considered the thought of giving up, the images from his dream would pop into his mind and his heart would throb with fear. He asked himself the question of why numerous times but no matter how many times he tries to answer that, he could not come up with an answer.
Feeling a little less tired, Kai heads for the stairway. It is now time for him to resume his search for her.
'Where are you, Lux…?'
...
The wind whistles as it enters a dark space through a narrow gap. Game noises originating from some handheld device could be heard in this dark space and is occasionally coupled by some rough turning of pages of a magazine. Light is scarce in this space. As the two carry on with their activities, a youth sitting in the corner looks up towards the opening in the roof. The wind whistles again as a pair of iridescent, heterochromatic eyes flutter open.
An august demon drops into the warehouse through the opening in the roof. As he straightens himself, the two occupied youths turn to face him.
"Any luck on the Knight, big bro?" asks a small boy as he pauses his game.
The small boy waits a few moments for the reply but it does not come.
"Guess that means a no?" the boy continues to watch him.
"No, I have not found him yet." the demon tells him.
"Well Zane said that Ventus-" the boy is cut off.
"Ventus is wandering around." the one in the corner says.
The one winged creature eyes the two of them for a moment. "Sparky, Zane."
"Yeah, big bro?" asks Sparky.
"Why do the two of you bring up Ventus?" the winged creature inquires. "He has nothing to do with us, no?"
"We-" Sparky is cut off again.
"We just saw him the other day, that's all." Zane answers for him. He then turns to the boy. "Right, Sparky?"
Sparky eyes Zane for a moment. Though he caught on, he can only bring himself to give a slight dubious nod. The youth holding the magazine glances back and forth between the two, unsure what is going on between them. He turns back to the one winged demon. As his eyes fall upon the creature, a slight look of fear forms on his face.
"Now about Lux," the one winged creature gestures in her direction. "I want you, Wyvynn, to take her to the altar as soon as your ability to fly long distances returns to you."
"Y-yes, big brother," Wyvynn responds, a little nervous.
"Sparky," the one winged demon calls.
"Yes, bro?" the boy returns his attention to him.
"When Wyvynn departs for the altar, I want you to go with him and stay with Lux to keep an eye on her." He tells him. "We don't want her waking up and figuring out what I told her was a lie."
"Yes big bro-" Sparky is cut off again by a soft voice from a far corner.
"Don't want…me…to wake up?" Lux speaks out. All eyes fell on her through the dim light. "and lie…Hilary said that it means words that aren't true."
The one winged creature turns to the boy. "Sparky…"
"Y-yes?" the boy turns to him with fright.
"Have you neglected the task I assigned you?" he asks menacingly.
"I…uh…really, really didn't mean to!" the boy begs. "I just forgot to get the-"
"Does that mean what you told me before wasn't true?" Lux asks, regaining their attention. "You weren't really going to help Kai?"
"Heh, why would we be interested in helping Kai keep you to himself when we need you at the altar for later?" the boy snickers.
The one winged creature sends the boy a glare but returns his attention to Lux.
"Al…tar?" she repeats. "What altar…?"
"The altar in which our wishes will be granted." Lok tells her.
"Altar in which…our wishes…" Lux's eyes widen. "Kull…she said…brothers…that boy calls you…"
"Yes, Kull was with us." Lok states.
"So you lied to me…you weren't going to help Kai…" Lux murmurs. She stands up and brushes some of the dirt off her. Then, she turns to the dim, narrow light coming from the slightly open doors. "I'm going…"
As Lux approaches the exit, a beyblade whistles through the air and stops her. She spins around to see in the dim light that it had been Lok who shot the blade toward her. Though the blade missed her by a few inches, she looked at him with fright. Her only hope of defending herself at this moment is if she had her blade with her, but unfortunately, that was left at home. Lux stood frozen as Lok approaches her slowly.
"I don't believe you have a choice." Lok holds his hand up as his blade returns to him. "As you are one of us, I did not hope to have to harm you but…since now there's no way to have you cooperate willingly, I guess I'll have no choice but to…shall we say, put you in no condition to leave us."
Kai stops dead in his tracks. Wide-eyed and alert, he looks around the gray, gold-lit scenery to see nothing but people passing by on their way to wherever they are headed. He had felt something just now, he was sure of it. He breathes heavily, trying to figure out what that was. Some birds fly by overhead and catches his attention. Seeing that there wasn't anything special in particular around him, he resumes his way to the last spot close by to the city where Lux may be.
Lux let's out a final cry of pain as she collapses to the ground. Soaked in crimson from head to toe, she takes one last glance at the fiend before her as he turns and leaps back up to his throne of wooden crates.
"Sparky." Lok calls.
"Y-yes, b-big brother?" Sparky stutters nervously.
"I will give you one chance to redeem your mistakes." Lok glances at him coldly. "Watch over this girl and do not let her escape. Should you fail this, I will personally make sure you see not the light of another day. Is that understood?"
"Y-yes, brother." He replies.
"Zane, Wyvynn." Lok turns away form Sparky.
"Yes?" they respond.
"The two of you are to come with me to assist me in searching for the Knight."
"Yes," they answer.
Lok spreads his wing and leaps through the opening in the roof. Wyvynn and Zane then descend from the pile of crates and exit through the door to go with him. Now, only the small boy remains. He eyes the fallen Lux and then turns to the door. Seeing that the others are all gone, he jumps back onto his crate and takes out his handheld gaming device.
'I wonder why Zane didn't want me to tell Lok about Ventus…' the boy wonders in his head as he starts up his toy.
...
A few hours have passed by and the sky is now no longer lit except by the dim, silver light of the moon. Small glitters line the vast dark canvas in all directions too. It stretches like a veil over what looks like a ruin of metal. A two toned blue haired boy peaks inside a rundown warehouse. It too was empty. By now, this one had to be the umpteenth warehouse he has searched through.
Kai grabs hold of a rusted piece of material nearby. He was exhausted, very exhausted. Though he picked up some bread on his way here earlier, what little energy he gained from consuming it is almost used up. Despite that, he forces himself to move to the next warehouse. As he approaches this one, he hears something. Though it was faint, he was sure that someone was inside of this warehouse. When he was close enough, he could make out what seems to be sounds coming from a handheld gaming device.
The doors to this warehouse were partly parted, much unlike the rest which were already open. Kai pushes one door open. As the sound of the door creaking resounds in the darkness, the gaming noises seem to be paused.
"Who's there?" a voice that seems to belong to a young boy asks.
'A little boy?' Kai thinks to himself.
"Hey, I said, who's there?" the boy shouts to him again.
Kai remains silent for a few moments. He wonders why a young boy would be here by himself, but gets past the thought.
"Hey kid," he addresses the boy in the dark warehouse. "Have you seen a girl with long blond hair and strange eyes?"
The boy remains silent for a while before answering, "No, I haven't"
'He sure took a while to answer…' Kai observes. He then asks, "Then what about a guy with one wing?"
"N-no, a guy with one wing? Are you crazy, mister?"
'Hmm…' Kai gazes into the darkness for a bit. 'There's something strange about this boy that I just can't quite put a finger on…'
"Are you done, mister?" the boy asks him.
"Yeah," Kai turns to go. Then, he stops and turns back around. "Just one more thing."
"What?" the boy responds.
"What are you doing here all by yourself?" Kai asks him.
The boy does not answer.
"Well?" Kai pushes.
"I'm…uh…waiting for my father." the boy says.
"Your father?"
"Yeah, he's uh…collecting some materials nearby." the boy says. "He said to wait in here."
Kai narrows his eyes. "I haven't seen anyone else around here."
"W-well I don't know!" the boy yells, annoyed. "He said to wait here, so I wait here. Now would you leave me alone, I wanna finish my game."
Kai takes a step inside and looks around. Unfortunately, it was too dark and he could see nothing. Yet, he could not ask if he could search the place for that would clearly indicate he does not trust what the boy said.
"Fine, I'll go." Kai turns and exits.
The boy watches as he leaves. When he was sure that Kai was nowhere closeby anymore, he let's out a sigh of relief and turns to the girl laying in the corner by the door that Kai did not push open.
'That was close…' he thinks to himself.
...
Elsewhere, inside a large mansion, the bitchip of a silver blade glows brightly, catching the interest of a small kitten. It jumps onto the table onto which the blade lies and examines it with curiosity.
A delicate, slender figure treads on some lush grass as the wind plays softly with her golden hair. She looks around. Petals, soft and fragile of rosy pink and pure white tones ride on the air and generate a fresh, pleasant scent. As Lux wanders through this setting, she comes upon a lake glittering with light. She sits down beside it and gazes into the water. She sees her reflection, her golden hair and her pink and white robe of silk fluttering. She watches her own reflection in the water for a while, oblivious to a certain figure walking on the water towards her from the middle of the lake. As she admires the way the image wavers in the water, another face appears upside down beside her own. Lux looks up to see a figure almost identical to herself. The only difference was that she had pointed ears like those of elves and her eyes were both a gentle tone of cerulean blue.
"Lux," the figure addresses her gently.
"Your…voice…" Lux mutters. "I've heard it…"
"Yes, you have." She tells her. "And not long ago either."
"You are…"
"Elfe." she finishes for her.
"Elfe…" Lux repeats. "Where am I?"
"You are in your own dream." Elfe tells her.
"My own…dream?"
"Yes." Elfe answers her. "And you must leave it now."
"Leave…it…why?" she asks her. "and how?"
"You must." Elfe tells her. "Now gaze into the water."
Lux does as she is told. This time, she does not see her own reflection. Instead, she see a dark but familiar place. There seem to be voices too, voices belonging to two different people. The first belonged to a small boy she had heard somewhere before. The second was much more familiar however. It was Kai's voice.
"Fine, I'll go." It said.
Lux turns back to Elfe.
"You wish to go where he is?" Elfe asks her.
Lux nods.
"Then, jump into the water." Elfe tells her.
Lux turns back to the water and stands up. She looks back to Elfe one more time before taking a step into the water. As she steps in, she felt herself falling into the lake. She looks down. The lake's bottom seems to be just a bright light. Lux closes her eyes as the light surrounds her. After what felt like nothing, she opens them to discover herself in the same place she was in before. It was the warehouse Lok had tricked her to come to.
She watches as Kai exits the warehouse, unaware that she was there. She then turns to the little boy that had been told to guard her. He seems to be still for a while, as if waiting for something. He then lets out a sigh of relief and resumes his game.
Lux returns her attention to the door. It was wide open and inviting her to pass through it. She then turns to the boy again to see that he was occupied with his gaming device. Seeing this chance, Lux tries to lift herself up only to feel a bolt of pain strike through her body. She remains silent. If she let's out so much as a slight sound, she would catch the attention of the little boy and though what she knew was not much, she knew she definitely did not want the boy's attention on her.
As the boy continues spamming the buttons on his handheld game, Lux tries again to get up while trying as hard as she can to remain quiet. After several painful tries, she finally manages to sit up. Using the wall for support, she ignores her pain and pulls herself on her feet. She then looks to the door she must pass by. She remembers the way it creaked when Lok opened it for her before.
Lux looks to the boy again. In order to make it to the opened door without the boy noticing, she would have to be able to walk past the closed door without support so she won't make it creak. After a few moments of hesitation, she takes a step forward and let's go of the wall. She takes another step and wobbles a little but manages to regain balance after a few moments. Lux turns to the boy to see that he is still vehemently fighting something in his game. She let's out a silent sigh of relief and returns her attention to the exit. With much effort, she manages to make it to the opened door without notice and exits the place. As she stumbles away from the warehouse, she tries to retrace the path she took with the one winged fiend before so she may return to Kai.
...
Tired and in need of sleep, Kai collapses onto a bench in a better lit area. A nearby lamp illuminates some slides and swings not too far away. Kai closes his eyes. The night is silent and the air is warm. He would have quickly fallen asleep but instead, he heard a sound from not too far away. At first, he was going to ignore it and rest a little, but feeling curious as to what it was, he opens his eyes again and turns in the direction of the sound to see a golden haired bundle covered in crimson on the ground. Recognizing the "bundle" as the girl he had been searching for, he springs up from the bench and rushes to her. He kneels down beside to her and picks her up, careful not to hurt her more than she has already been hurt.
"Lux!" He calls her name.
No response came.
Kai looks around. It did not seem like anyone was around.
'Does that mean she came here all by herself?' Kai asks himself.
He looks at her again. If she had came by herself, it was certainly a miracle considering the extent she had been wounded. Nonetheless, Kai holds onto her tighter and stands up. He would have to bring her to a doctor as soon as he can.
As Kai turns to the exit, a voice stops him.
"If you're bringing her to a hospital, I suggest you save your strength." it said.
Kai spins around to see a youth with light blond hair clad in dark leather floating in midair. His physique and face were both somewhat familiar but Kai could not tell why. Kai watches the young man with caution as he lands onto the ground.
"The doctors won't know what to do with her as soon as they find all the junk Bizmark and Dr. Vaniard put into her body." the young man says.
Kai remains silent for a few moments.
"Who are you?" Kai demands from him.
"Who am I…" he repeats amused. "I'm the one who has been sending you all those notes in your mail, fool. My name is Ventus."
'Ventus...I've heard that name before...but where?'