CHAPTER IV: Goodbye For Now
Pete watched uncertainly as his mistress performed her dark magic, whispering incantations he knew not of as she was surrounded by auras of green and black. A circle of red candles hissed and danced with a wind he could not feel, her eyes swallowed by emerald lights. It was a very special thing to see the queen of ultimate evil demonstrate her secret arts. However, for a man such as Pete, one who wanted little to do with evil too intimate with the scarier sorts of things, he preferred to keep guard at the door. Castle Oblivion shook and rumbled as though to protest. Maleficent cared not, too far gone in her magic to be bothered by the threads of reality.
Pete hadn't any idea what it was she was doing, or what it was she was hoping to accomplish. But to interrupt and ask? he remembered the last time he'd attempted such a feat and suffered consequences very very...unfitting for his taste. Maleficent spread her arms and emerald flames exploded about her, the room smouldered under a suffocating heat and Pete shrank down from the threat. His ears lied flat and two gloved hands raised as though to deflect anything that might dare to bring harm to him. Maleficent inhaled heavily, the room brightened enormously, blindingly, Pete's fur was too hot, too tight around his skin-
And then it was suddenly very silent. Without realizing it, Pete had covered his eyes and proceeded to whimper into his hands. Ever so uncertain, he pulled his hands down away from rounded eyes, trembling with fright. The flames had simmered down. The room had returned to pristine ivory. Maleficent dropped both her arms and scanned the premise. She didn't appear to find what it was she was looking for, an impatient gaze landed on the unfortunate Pete. In a very, suspiciously quiet voice she wondered, "Where is it?"
Pete took a large swallow as he considered his answer. He knew what it had to be, but he also knew what that possibly meant for him. "...W-where's what ma'am?"
Her eyes shimmered with dangerous magic and she made a sound of angered impatience. "The box. Where is the box?!"
Pete was genuinely lost, but to say as much aroused worry that he might not make it another second. he voted for utter silence, the confusion in his eyes said all that was necessary. Maleficent was clearly annoyed by his helplessness but rather than punish him for it she stormed over to one of the white walls. Propped against it was a brown rickety table and she snatched it up from the surface. Her eyes read over the words carefully, repeatedly, and then altogether her face fell. She let the paper fall from skeleton thin fingers, Pete watched in concern as it gracefully floated to the ground and landed as though a delicate feather piece.
Although it still reasoned to be a bad idea, Pete coaxed his voice into working. "What is it?"
Maleficent didn't look at him, not at first, blank yellow eyes gazed sadly towards one of the undecorated walls. "The spell," she managed to whisper. "I did it wrong."
Pete tested his luck, leaning forward with ears still submissively flat. "Whaddya mean you-"
"I did the spell wrong!" she suddenly exploded at him, the dark outline of a dragon marked her irises, the mighty beast tirelessly awaited release from it's tiny shell. Instead, however, she blasted a ball of green fire at the paper by her feet with a terrifying shriek of outrage. The smoke cleared, the paper had moved a few inches from its spot but was otherwise unharmed by the show of magic. She seemed disgruntled and Pete feared she might take her rage out on him instead (something that would certainly be effected by her powers). Desperate to save his own skin, Pete tried to keep her talking.
"Does that mean we have to do it again?"
Maleficent looked at him with a vicious sort of hatred and turned away, clutching two fists at her sides. "No," she whispered quietly. "The box was pulled from the darkness, it's in our realm now. The only problem is...I don't know which world it's in. I'll have to find it by searching each one, I'll have to look for activities of darkness to find it."
Pete exhaled, finding himself greatly relieved to know he'd finally be leaving this stupid castle at least for the time being. It had been brutally boring to wait here for so long, adventure was finally calling his name. He was smart enough to keep the smile off his face, but he couldn't help himself from asking her. "Where would you like to start?"
•¶•
As a little girl, Kairi would write nearly every day in her secret journal; either to start the morning or end the night. She never started it as 'Dear Diary,' as she'd been instructed to do when she first received the gift. Rather, she began it with the same repeated reminder so that when she wrote, she did it with a warmed heart. I have two best friends, they love me more than anyone else. Kairi couldn't remember being loved by anyone as much as she was by Sora and Riku. But then again, she'd never really had the most...orthodox of families either.
When she practiced, she did it with her boys on her mind. She wanted to be as strong as them, she needed to be. Sora had already been called away into adventure, she'd run out of time for dawddling. There was something dark coming, she could feel it in the marrow of her bones. It terrified and thrilled her all the same.
"Hey Kairi," Lea regarded her with green eyes brighter than anything she'd ever seen. "Wanna do something fun?"
God yes. She restricted the temptation and focused on Destiny's Embrace. She and her training partner had entered one of Yen Sid's special rooms full of magic. Today they would practice the casting of spells, a particular talent Kairi was struggling just a bit with. "I'd love to," she humored kindly and offered him one of her infamously soft smiles. "But we should probably stay focused training right now."
"It has to do with training," he persisted and summoned into a black glove the spinning inferno of his Keyblade. "It's a game, sort've. If I can destroy more things in here with my magic than you can, you have to do one thing that I say. No matter what it is. And if you beat me? I'll have to do whatever you say instead."
Kairi was instantly skeptical. Lea had been practically born casting fire spells and for her to challenge him to a magic contest when she herself still couldn't get it right appeared an act of idiocy. Still, Lea was obviously bored with the constant training; the repetitive nature. If beating her at a silly game would encourage his participation, Kairi didn't mind assisting. "Alright you're on," she agreed, the chipper smile that spread across her lips came genuinely. "I think I might have a pretty good shot this time. I've been practicing a lot."
The floor shook, almost as though acknowledging their competition. And then, suddenly, their names spelled out in golden sparkles high up in the air with the number zero staring down at them. Excitement dashed through Kairi, she summoned her flowery Keyblade to her side and felt the familiar coil of muscle run through her in preparation.
Household objects appeared from thin air. Chairs and tables and couches all bobbed mid-air, daring them to make their moves. Kairi was about to summon an icy wind to reign its destruction, but Lea's formidable shout caused her the mistake of hesitation. Her eyes snapped over just in time to see an explosion of fire emit from the blaze of his Keyblade. It was a storm of flames, Kairi was intelligible enough to cast reflect and block any harm lest she be scorched. His magic was so much stronger than hers, she struggled in keeping the spell going. She couldn't even see in front of herself, it was only a torrent of red, black, and orange.
Though it took a while, the fire sizzled out, the smoke cleared enough to reveal the room again. Kairi's focus faltered just slightly and the reflect spell vanished. She stumbled forward to find the room was cleared entirely of any material, the numbers below their names had changed as well. At least...below Lea's it had. While he beared a thousand, she was still left with nothing but a pitiful zero.
Kairi frowned in disappointment, he could've given her at least a little bit of room for a spell. Unfortunately, he'd demolished the training session in seconds and now, it seemed she was left to the mercy of his will. "Alright," she agreed reluctantly and dismissed Destiny's Embrace from the present. "I'll do whatever you say. What did you have in mind?" Obviously something specific to go through such trouble, why not simply outright ask of her whatever it was he was hoping she'd do?
"Awesome," Lea grinned as his own Keyblade disappeared from beside him. "That means we're going after Sora. Pack your things."
Kairi felt a jolt of electricity run through her at such a suggestion. Go after Sora? It wasn't as though she couldn't stand the idea, all this waiting around for something she didn't know, and her worry for Sora and Riku was so overwhelming she feared she might burst right at her worn seams. But... "We can't do that!" she spluttered, her cheeks warmed hopelessly at the note of fear in her own voice. "We don't even know where he is. And-and, er, everyone really needs us here. At least for now, we have so much to learn!"
"No," Lea disagreed at once with a roll of his electric eyes. "You have so much to learn, but I'm a natural born fighter. Besides, I really doubt you're learning much by setting couches on fire."
Kairi couldn't help the way she cringed at his words, what if Yen Sid could hear them? Insulting his methods of teaching... She pushed a scarlet strand of hair over the shell of her ear and looked up at him through the wispy black of her lashes. "Well I might," she answered with a playful raise of one of her brows. "If maybe you actually let me set a couch on fire every once in awhile."
At this, he sheepishly scratched the back of his neck and smiled with amusement. "Yea, sorry about that," he said with a shrug of his lanky shoulders. "I just knew you'd say no if I didn't suck you into some sort of deal. C'mon now Kairi, you're not the type to break your promises are you?"
Kairi crossed her arms stubbornly. Too easy. She couldn't leave the Mysterious Castle under the circumstances of a game. Certainly, if she were to explain such things to Sora, he'd be less than understanding. They weren't kids anymore. "Lea please," she started lightly, but he'd groaned impatiently and started to pace before she could offer him anything more.
"Think about it Kai," he insisted, spinning abruptly to greet her again. "Sora learned on the job, and look at him! He can do all this amazing stuff, because all of it came at him at once. He didn't waste his time in one place doing absolutely nothing."
Again, that was too easy. Sora hadn't been given much of a choice but to learn on the job. Their island had fallen apart, he was dropped into a new world quite suddenly and, if only for survival, had to learn the ropes to using a Keyblade very quickly. Kairi was lucky enough to be trained under the aide of a true master. she couldn't throw herself into danger simply due to something as simplistic as boredom. "It's not that we're doing nothing," she argued. "And besides, I'm a Princess of Heart."
"What does that mean?" Lea wondered and bent forward with half of a cocky grin.
"Well, it means..." she hesitated at the question, unsure herself of what the answer to this would be. It was all she'd heard anytime she suffered a curiosity over the other worlds. She was a Princess of Heart. It was dangerous for her to go anywhere unsupervised. "It means I have a power other people want," she finally decided. "And I have to be responsible with it. Leaving the castle wouldn't be very responsible of me."
Lea nodded like he understood and leaned away from her. He took a breath and crossed his arms over his chest, silent and thoughtful. "You'd go with Sora, wouldn't you?" he wondered, and the question made her cheeks darken with color. Of course she'd go with Sora. If he took her hand and guided her into a pit of darkness, she wouldn't even hold her breath. He'd carried her heart with him for so long, he'd pulled her from the terrors of shadows into the light of his embrace more times than she could count. She trusted him above even herself; she would follow him blindly, through any sort of peril. But these were things she wouldn't say to Lea. Rather, she nodded very slowly, but he was looking at her like he knew exactly where her thoughts had gone at the inquiry.
"Then you can go with me too," he said. "I know we had a rough start, what with me kidnapping you and everything. But I feel like we've been through so much together. We're friends now, you can trust me. You should trust me. Nothing will happen to you so long as I'm here to help. Plus, I can teach you a thing or two about magic on the way."
Kairi was still so very uncertain. She wanted to go after Sora and help him save the worlds again. She also wanted to be here for when Riku and Mickey returned with Aqua, victors from the Realm Of Darkness. Lea saw her internal battle and offered her a single hand, making the final decision for her it seemed. "Come on," he said, and a swirling vortex of darkness opened up behind him, pulling him in. It had been so long since Kairi had traveled through a dark corridor. And this time, she would be doing it with her own free will. One thing was for certain, Lea was going after Sora whether or not she agreed to remain. And if she said no to him now, like she should, like a truly good girl was supposed to, he would turn and abandon her to search for his own fate. She wanted to find Sora, she wanted to show him everything she was capable of. To show herself all she was capable of.
Lea took a step back. The darkness was beginning to swallow him up. "I know you're gonna say yes," he grinned, still with his arm extended invitingly. "Now let's go, we've got a lot of ground to cover."
Kairi reached out and took his hand, the familiar cold of shadows slithered up her body with tentacles of silk and pulled her from reality. It was her turn to save everyone, she was a damsel no longer.
•¶•
A single hand shot out from the swirling much of the dead, with skin pale grey like a corpse. Trailing the arm it heaved out a body upon the slick black stone of the land. A man, no, a god gasped his first breath of air in what seemed like forever. His rage burned with every inhalation, the balding of his head was suddenly alight with burning blue flames. Sharp, pointed teeth grit in agonized fury, a taste for blood made his pulse bubble and boil. He rose from the dust and clutched two eager fists. He could feel it, the planets had aligned, and he could at last set freedom to the monsters trapped in their cages. Sora and his blasted fiends perhaps had pertained the best of him this time around, but now he had the upper hand. Hercules. Zeus. Everyone. They would surely perish now that he'd been set free from his chambers...
•¶•
Something had shifted in the air. Ventus could feel it. The ground rumbled and shook beneath him, he had to hold out his arms desperately to keep his balance from slipping. Blue eyes snapped in question towards Vanitas, but the other lad was grinning with such malice. Such victory. "Someone opened the door for me," he whispered, his voice swollen with a sort of glee that made the blonde sick with worry. "I guess this is goodbye for now. But don't worry, I'll see you real soon." He was beginning to fade, Ventus panicked and darted forward to try and grab him. Unfortunately, his hands grappled with only thin air, Vanitas laughed as he furthered into a transparent state.
"Take me with you!" Ventus begged, thoughtlessly, helplessly. He couldn't stay there. Couldn't stand the thought of it now that his darker self was being set free back into the world. Under any other circumstances, he would've never given Vanitas the satisfaction of seeing him so weak. But he wasn't above anything when it came to the safety of his beloved friends. He would do anything just to see them again. "You need me anyway, remember? Take me, it's the only chance you've got of merging with me!"
"Merge with you?" Vanitas asked, his amber eyes sharpened and cruel amusement. "Why Ventus. I'm going to kill you." He waved at the astonishment on the other boy's face, disappearing completely from sight; leaving the blonde completely alone in the void of darkness. Ventus turned with a sharp breath of pained fear. A silent wish stifled his mayhem, a hope for his this person, whoever this heart belonged to, that they stop Vanitas from whatever it was he planned to do. It was so hard to standby and watch from the sidelines, unable to do anything. But what other choice did he have?
•¶•
Sora doubled over quite suddenly in his chair, a sharp sort of pain dashed through him and caused a gasp to escape him. Donald and Goofy reacted at once, setting the Gummi Ship to autopilot while they rushed from their own seats and went to check on their friends. "Sora!" quacked the avian, placing two feathered hands on his shoulders as his breathing turned harsh. "What's wrong, are you okay?"
He wasn't sure, he didn't even know exactly what that was, just that he'd felt less than alright. Like something important had been ripped out of him. The pain subsided very quickly, Sora straightened reluctantly and looked out towards the void of black space through the windshield. "I'm...I'm fine now. Don't know what it was."
Certainly, it wasn't nothing. These things never turned out to be nothing.
