Ooooh, look we're almost to chapter twenty! Yeah! I always like getting into the twenties even though I'd like to hit thirty sometime. Maybe the AU I'm cooking up will reach thirty?
19: Danger Ahead
"When I was turned into a Heartless…I was lost in the darkness. I couldn't find my way. As I stumbled through the dark, I started forgetting things—my friends, who I was. The darkness almost swallowed me. But then…I heard your voice. You brought me back. Our hearts are connected. Even if we're apart, we're not alone anymore." – Sora from the Kingdom Hearts manga adapted by Shiro Amano
"FOOL!" Nameless roared, slapping Odium again and sending the Heartless tumbling to the floor, "IMBICLE!" He kicked Odium in the stomach, "MORON!" He reached down and grabbed the front of Odium's jacket and hauled him upright so he could glare into that one solid, neon blue eye, "DO YOU EVER THINK BEFORE YOU ACT!? FOOL!"
Odium giggled, wrapping his fingers around Nameless' wrists and grinning, "You know I only like it when you hit me!" He laughed, throwing his head back and shaking with evil glee in his fellow Heartless' grip.
Nameless growled in an inhuman way and threw Odium across the room so that he slammed into a wall. Odium howled with laughter and rolled across the floor, pounding his fists on the carpet. It was sickening really. The Heartless was sadistic at best and masochistic at worst. But that, Nameless supposed, made him all the more dangerous.
The two sentient Heartless had holed themselves up in the highest level of the Khaos Corporation building they could reach; a place that had, until very recently, been home to the Khaos brothers (and sister) themselves. Now it was a disaster; in his rages, Nameless had destroyed furniture and ripped chunks of carpet from the floor, he'd blasted walls apart, and even ripped the fridge out of the wall. It now lay across the kitchen floor with parts of it scattered everywhere. Odium had taken it upon himself to find every sharp object in the place and claim it as his own. What he did with them was anyone's guess but Nameless was rather sure he did not want to find out.
"Get up off the floor, you're a disgrace." Nameless stated coldly, turning away from the sniggering Odium. He fell into a leather arm chair and leaned his head against the back, closing his deep red eyes. He'd created Odium because taking on the Organization XIII members would prove too tricky on his own. He was currently regretting it; Tom's Heartless was wild, childish, and loved torture, even if the torture was on himself. Lord Nameless, on the other hand, was cold, ruthless, and what some would call the pure embodiment of evil. He was usually calm and collected but when he lost is temper it was a frightful sight to behold.
"So what're we gonna do about the Organization?" Odium was on his stomach on the floor, stabbing the end of his left index finger into a knife he seemed to have pulled from nowhere. Instead of blood welling from the cuts he was giving himself, a dark liquid bubbled to the surface but was quickly sucked back in as the minor injury healed itself.
"Attack them where it would hurt them the most." Nameless said coldly, "Care to guess where, Odium."
Odium snickered and tilted his head back, looking at Nameless with a jovial light gleaming in his eye, "Their Key Bearer?"
"Indeed." Nameless hissed with an evil smile.
"So, they both showed themselves." Luxord was stroking his blonde goatee with a frown, "This is…troublesome."
"Yeah, but it was obvious that Lord Nameless didn't want us to know about them." Xhostam said, "He got really mad when he found Odium…playing with us."
The Organization XIII members were all in the OverWorld Cafeteria discussing what needed to be done. Xilvin, Xhostam, and Demyx were sitting at a table together, a basket of fries between them, Axel was leaning against the window looking nonchalant and pissed at the same time, Luxord was currently leaning against a table though he had been pacing for most of the conversation, and Roxas was on his usual spot atop a vending machine.
"You said Nameless seemed power?" Roxas said, "How did you know?"
"I just knew." The Winged Slayer said, shaking his head, "There was this creepy sense of evil reeking off him and I got the feeling that if I'd even blinked wrong at him he would have ripped me to shreds!"
"How powerful did he seem to you?" Axel asked, the tone in his voice suggesting it might be fun to find out.
"Like…like OVER 9000!" Xhostam shouted, slamming his hands on the table top. The other Nobodies stared at him with blank expressions and Xilvin groaned in exasperation, reached across the table, put his hand on the back of Xhostam's messy black hair, and slammed the Winged Slayer's head onto the table top without so much as a flicker of regret for his actions.
"Owwwwwww!" Xhostam whined, putting his gloved hands to his forehead where a red spot was starting to grow, "What the heck Xilvin!?" He screwed his eyes shut with pain, whimpering and making pained noises.
"Cut it out, Xhostam," Axel said irritably, "He didn't hurt you that badly!"
"M-m-memories…!" The Winged Slayer groaned, "Ahhhhhggg! Make them stop!" His gauntlets appeared as a reflex to his agony and gouged huge lines in the tabletop. The hazy visions before his eyes did not vanish, though…
He sets his face into an angry glare and clenches his fists. He stomps up to Kaz and shoves him aside angrily, saying with as much rage and hurt as he can, "If the Codemasters decide that I cheated I'll be kicked out of Chaotic forever!"
Kaz's expression is a mixture of things; pain, a little anger, and some sort of disbelief are etched there—those are all fake. But he can see the delight echoing behind his best friend's glasses; he's enjoying the acting…
The picture jumped a couple of times and the colors smeared into gray. It froze in his mind for a few seconds, and then slowly dripped away as though it was fading forever into the farthest reaches of his mind, never to be seen again.
"What did you see?" It was a compulsive question. The more he discovered about his Other, the more he realized just how opposite they were. But it didn't matter; he just wanted the visuals, the remembrances of what it was like to have a heart at all.
"I…I dunno…" Xhostam's gloved hands went through his already disheveled hair over and over again, messing it up even more. The rest of the Nobodies were silent; watching, waiting, listening, "It was all fuzzy and muffled…I could barely see it. But it looked…it looked like Tom and Kaz were…were fighting but it wasn't real they were just faking it…for some reason…"
"Why are your Others' memories so hard to see?" Xilvin wasn't really asking the question to anyone—it was more rhetorical than anything.
"Because he's more settled as a Nobody than you are." Axel muttered, sitting down on a table top, resting his elbows on his knees, and cupping his chin in his hands, "Xhostam's like me—." Xilvin glared at the Flurry of the Dancing Flames, "Well, sort of. In the way that he's accepted he might never get his heart back ever again."
"You've given up!?" The Howling Storm rounded on pale-eyed Xhostam who jerked backwards in surprise, "You can't give up! We found them, Xhostam, we've finally found them and now you want to give up!? No!" He stood up, slamming his hands on the table top as he went. A hot sensation was burning just underneath his collar bone, "Fine! You give up! Stay a Nobody forever! See if I care! But I'm not letting go! I'm going to find that stupid Heartless and I'm gonna get my heart back!" He turned on his heel and stomped out of the Cafeteria, letting the door slam shut behind him.
The Danian Cafeteria was empty so he fumed his way through it, wove through the mess in the UnderWorld Cafeteria, and fell into a shadowed corner seat in the Mipedian Cafeteria with snort of discontent. Then he paused, thinking about what had just happened. He'd lost his temper, been upset with Xhostam for giving up.
But that couldn't be right.
Nobodies didn't have emotions.
How could he lose something he never had?
"You look a little down." Xilvin's hazel eyes flickered upwards and briefly caught Leon Khaos' gaze as he sat down across from the Howling Storm.
"Don't patronize me." Xilvin hissed, turning away, "I can't feel anything."
"Not from where I'm standing." Leon glanced at himself, "Sitting." He quickly corrected and then shook himself, "Look, either way, I can tell something's eating you. You know you can talk to me, right? I won't bite your heads off like the twins do."
Xilvin found himself talking before he knew what he was saying, "Xhostam and I went out Heartless hunting and we ran into our own Heartless. It went…rather badly. It scared the crap out of Xhostam. We were just talking about it with the other Organization members and…" He faltered slightly, "It sounded like Xhostam wanted to quit."
"Quit? You mean like quit the Organization?"
"No…just…quit looking for a way to get his heart back."
"And you yelled at him?"
"Yeah…" Xilvin drummed his fingers on the tabletop, "I don't get it. I practically exploded at him but Axel said Nobodies didn't have emotions. And if that's true, then how did I get…angry with Xhostam?"
Leon stayed quiet for a while, thinking. When he finally spoke, the youngest Khaos brother did not look at the Howling Storm, rather keeping his attention out the window and on the glittering peaks of the Hoarfrost Crests.
"It seems to me that the heart is a very delicate thing," Leon said slowly, "It can be broken easily, it can be ripped out—figuratively speaking—and replaced with the most painfully burning balls of flames, or tied in so many knots it becomes painful. It can be cold and stony with no feeling whatsoever or it can create emotions so gentle and caressing it's enough to melt the heart of another." Leon's eyes sparkled in the overhead lights, "I never knew, for the longest time, what it was like to be loved by anyone. But when I ran away from the orphanage and met Tobias…he and his brothers welcomed me with open arms, to use a cliché."
"I just want to get my heart back." To Xilvin's embarrassment, it almost sounded like a whine.
"Then go do it." Leon said, "I don't mean to sound so cliché but if that's what you really want then you should go for it." He smiled, "Most people live only for themselves; I think it's amazing that you're willing to give up your existence to give Tom and Kaz their lives back."
Xilvin looked at him for a moment or two, digesting what exactly had just been said. There was a strange, warm and yet painful sensation that throbbed like a wound in his throat. He swallowed thickly. He'd never thought of it that way before.
"Yeah." He voice sounded strained, even to him, "Besides, what's the point in living if your existence is a lie?"
Leon's expression sort of fell into something that could have been called shock but Xilvin left the Cafeteria before the youngest Khaos brother could say anything.
With the intention of apologizing to Xhostam for his outburst, he headed back to the OverWorld Cafeteria. But when he arrived, the Winged Slayer was no longer there. In fact, the only remaining Organization member was Luxord who was, once again, playing Solitaire with his worn out deck of cards.
"Where is everybody else?"
"Six…seven…the Heartless were massing in huge numbers outside the Wormhole Generator room," The Gambler of Fate replied without looking up from his game. He drew a card from the top of the deck, staring at it with a blank expression, "That room is vital. If we lose it we lose this world."
Xilvin cursed and spun around, black cloak swirling as he ducked into the Passage of Darkness he'd just created. It closed and left Luxord alone in the room. The Gambler of Fate sighed and dropped the card in his gloved fingers onto one of the piles of cards before him.
"The King of Hearts…" He muttered sullenly and then swept his hand across the neatly stacked cards. They flew off the table and scattered across the floor.
Eheh…I got stuck. Again. Curse you Writer's Block, I hope you burn and die in the fiery pits of the Underworld! Or the UnderWorld, whichever you prefer. (grin)
Well, wherever it burns, I finally managed to get off my lazy rear and squeeze out an ending for this chapter. I was also slightly distracted because I (prepare to be shocked) actually started working on 'Shadows Are Supposed to Stay Sleeping' again! (gasp) I know.
But, to the point.
Thank you, dear readers, for waiting for an update and for all the reviews you leave me! Hugs!
I'll see you guys around! Toodles!