I wanted to start this chapter off with a little diversion from Khaos Corporation. We've been spending so much time locked in that building we've forgotten about some people…
And so, a peek into the lives of those who were not lucky enough to go to KC. (oh my gosh, that looks like "Kaiba Corp" from YGO. O.O I never noticed that before. Smoly hokes! I'm never writing it that way again.)
17: Number XV, Xhostam, The Winged Slayer
"Both busy streets and country roads are empty without good friends…" -Xue Tao
Peyton was awaken by three warm bodies jumping on top of his bed and so on top of him. The boy grunted, rolling over and pulling his blankets over his head in an attempt to get his triplet sisters to leave him alone. He needed sleep.
"Wake up, Peyton, wake up!" They chorused, bouncing up and down on top of him, "Wake up! Make us pancakes, Peyton, make us pancakes!" All three of them were eight years old and had a love for their older brother's "everything-in-the-pantry-goes-into-the-mix pancakes."
"Donavan!" Peyton shouted through his covers, "Donavan! Get these guys off of me!"
"Dad's not here!" His sisters laughed, "He left for shopping with Mommy! Make us pancakes, Peyton, make us pancakes!"
"Gah! Fine!" Peyton shoved his covers back, sending the triplets sprawling onto the carpet, and yawned loudly, "Get out of my room! I'm gonna get dressed!"
"Ewwwwww!" All three of them giggled but left anyway, slamming the door shut behind them. Peyton rolled his sleepy eyes and switched on his stereo as he fumbled about the room for something to wear on a typical Saturday morning.
"Well, maybe tomorrow, we'll forget about this year. And all the things you wish you could change. Show me some kindness in the midst of the hardships. 'Cause things should never be this way. Say it loud, say it loud and clear. Forget about, forget about last year."
Peyton's family was large. His mother had been pregnant with Peyton's younger brother Joby when her husband had been killed in a car crash. Unable to raise three children on her own—Peyton, his older sister Zoë, and his soon-to-be-younger-brother—, she'd gotten remarried to a kind man named Donavan. After Joby was born, Peyton's mother and Donavan adopted a youngster by the name of Rafael who was a year older than Peyton. Then the unexpected triplets came along; Mercedes (or Mercy for short), Fable, and Louize; and they adored their older brother Peyton to death.
"Stop wishing it were backwards, it is now or never. Stop wasting all the time we could have spent together. Wishing you would come back here. Times were better last year."
Peyton pulled a rumpled T-shirt over his head and tugged on some shorts. Then he made the periodic check of his Code Scanner. Still nothing. But he hadn't given up hope yet. After all, his motto was "expect the unexpected."
"And all of your reasons, they change with the seasons. Day by day they're not the same. And if would measure all the times that we've treasured, you would see how my heart breaks."
The boy dropped his Scanner back on the desk, feeling slightly downtrodden. Sarah had disappeared off to Colorguard camp and Tom and Kaz weren't answering their e-mails or messages on the Chaotic website. Peyton was lonely.
"Say it loud, say it loud and clear. Forget about, forget about last year. Stop wishing it were backwards, it is now or never. Stop wasting all the time we could have spent together. Wishing you would come back here. Times were better last year."
What in the world was everyone doing?
If Xilvin had any idea what depression felt like, he was sure it felt like this. There was a dead feeling in his stomach and a heavy weight on his shoulders, he felt constantly exhausted, and he wasn't eating as much. The Howling Storm now spent most of his time with the newly spawned Xhostam.
Xhostam was, without a doubt, Tom Majors' Nobody; he had jet black hair that stuck out at the oddest angels and fell into his pale, blue-violet eyes at the most inconvenient times, he was short, wiry, and clumsy to the point that it was comical, and his voice had a slight nasal quality to it that made him more obnoxious than he already was. He was the complete opposite of his Other.
"Aren't ya' gonna eat, Xil?" Xhostam asked through a mouthful of spaghetti, "If you don't eat, you're gonna not be able to fight."
"I'm not hungry." To be honest, Xilvin found Xhostam to be an annoyance that followed him around like a leech. Anywhere the Howling Storm went the Winged Slayer was hot on his heels, something Xilvin did not appreciate.
Kaz's Nobody was in a bad way. He felt solely responsible for the loss of Tom's heart and the generating of the Nobody and Heartless that had been left behind. To make matters worse, the revelation that his and Xhostam's Heartless were sentient and making dangerous plans put a knot in his stomach.
Xilvin poked his fork into his mashed potatoes, stirring it around so that it got mixed with his baked beans and became a lumpy mess that made him want to eat it even less. He pushed his plate away with a snort of repulsion, crossed his arms over his chest, and glared across the table at Xhostam. The other Nobody didn't even seem to care. In fact, he completely ignored Xilvin, continuing to gorge himself.
"You gonna eat that?" The Winged Slayer indicated Xilvin's practically untouched food and The Howling Storm shook his head, "Mine then!" Xhostam grabbed the plate and started eating it.
"You eat a lot." Xilvin muttered, "Almost an unnecessary amount. You're going to get fat."
"Psh," Xhostam waved his fork through the air, dissipating the comment, "You don't eat at all so you can't talk!" The fork fell from his fingers, bounced off the table top, and tumbled to the floor. Xhostam cringed, kneading his knuckles into his forehead, and whimpered. Pictures blurred into his mind's eye, choppy and jumping like an old film, the voices faded and muffled…
He watches as Kaz; clumsy, accident prone Kaz; leaps up the rock face like it was nobody's business. Well, that can't be right.
"I'd…better make sure he doesn't hurt himself…" He says and grabs a vine dangling from the rock in front of him. But as he scrabbles upwards, he slips and falls all the way back down. Sarah gives him a look and he turns his gaze upwards. Kaz is already at the top and doesn't look tired at all. What's wrong with this picture? …
Kaz is fighting? Kaz doesn't fight! That's completely against his nature! What's happening!? Kaz is fighting like a creature! Impossible! How!? Why!?
"What did you see?" Xilvin's voice cut through the afterimage as the pictures faded from Xhostam's mind.
"I think it was your Other…" The Winged Slayer scratched his head, blinking, "But it was really fuzzy, I could hardly hear what was going on." Pale blue-violet eyes met bright hazel ones, "What was it?"
"Memories of your Other." Xilvin muttered, "I have them too but mine are…crystal clear." Xhostam's expression crumpled and for a moment Xilvin forgot that he and Number XV were not supposed to feel emotions. The Winged Slayer looked absolutely distraught, "Come on," The Howling Storm got to his feet, "Let's go Heartless hunting."
The hallways on three floors were completely empty. Xilvin and Xhostam wandered through them, bored and consumed with conflicting thoughts. When they stepped out of a stairwell and into a hall with boxes stacked towards the ceiling, Xhostam froze, eyes widening.
"What?" Xilvin peered around him and suddenly it was as through someone had pasted the footage on top of the real hall. The figures were blurred around the edges and slightly translucent but he could clearly hear every word.
Hoof beats pounding down the hall…
Falling…
The agony as the steel shaft at the end of the spear pins him to the floor…
Tears…
Screaming…
Watching Tom run ahead without looking back…
Help…me…
Fading…everything is going black…
Darkness
"Hee hee, aha…ahahaahaa!" Mocking laughter rang down the hallway and Xilvin and Xhostam jumped, spinning around on the spot but there was no one there, "AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAH! Look at the little lost Nobodies! Ahahahaha! Can't find their hearts! How sad! AHAHAHAHAAAAHAAA!"
"Who's there!?" Xilvin's whip burst into his gloved hands as he glared around, still finding no one.
"Show yourself!" Xhostam's own weapons, a pair of steel gauntlets decorated with white wings and tipped in claws swirled over his hands in a mist of lights.
"Ahee, hee, hee, hee!" The voice continued laughing, sounding more insane by the minute, "Show myself? Should I? But it's so much fun to watch you…" Xhostam jolted as fingers wrapped around his throat and a chilly voice hissed into his ear, "Squirm!"
"Get away!" Xhostam slashed backwards with his clawed gauntlets and was rewarded with a snarl of pain. He forward flipped away from his offender and spun to face him. The resolve seeped out of him as he stared at the figure before him.
Their hair was jet black, just like his, but shaggier and the right side of their face was covered by most of it. An angry, piercing, neon blue eye glared at him. Etched underneath this eye was a dark violet mark, like a scar that had been stitched up. A tight black jacket was stretched over a pale chest, the color a fluff of silver fur, the front laced together with black and red strings. A black and red collar decorated with spikes was clamped around their neck, on their left hand was a fingerless black glove, and their midriff was showing where their black pants hung low over their hips. A silver half-cloth swung from a belt around their waist and the ends of their pants were tucked into heavy black boots.
And smack dab in the middle of their jacket was the Heartless symbol.
It was Tom's Heartless.
Woot! Sorry for the short chapter but I had to cut it off there otherwise, well, it would have gotten too long. The next chapter's gonna be nasty good! Mwahahahaha!
On the account that Underwater Maiden had revealed to me our beloved Kaz's real name, I have already gone back to the previous chapters, fixed that mistake, and reposted them. Oh yes, she also reminded me that Chaotic did originally start out as a card game that eventually became what it is today. That was not factored into the Khaos brothers' back story simply because I didn't know how to work it in at the time. I find that, because not many people actually know this fact, it could go on ignored. However, if you lovely peoples believe it needs to be written in then by all means PM me.
On the other hand, have a Happy Holiday and a Great New Year! Thank you for sticking around, reading, and reviewing! Please continue to do so! Byes! Hope you get what you want for Christmas!
(P.S. My Chaotic Christmas shot has been posted!)