Chasing The Truth

By FlikFreak

Chapter Twenty-Two: Larsa


Neku didn't particularly feel like proceeding. It was a reasonable thought in his opinion; one would have to be crazy to go through that many Dusks, especially one by one.

Don't be afraid…

He flinched. You again? Look, I know I can fight these, but what I don't know is how to get that…keyblade or whatever in my hand again. I'm not exactly an expert in this field you know!

Axel stepped forward. "Stand back. I'll handle these-"

"No!"

Everyone paused, turning toward Sora. He had his hands clenched tightly into fists, and though his eyes were narrowed, Neku could easily see that they were glossed over and damp. Axel blinked at the key bearer's expression. "Wha?"

"I said no!" Sora repeated. "I am not going to watch you die again, you hear me? I'm not! I just got you back, I'm not going to lose you again!"

Riku coughed oddly. "I think Roxas is having an outburst," he muttered to Neku.

Neku formed his mouth into an 'o' and nodded. That would explain it.

"Then what do you suggest we do?" Axel asked casually. "Cutting through them one by one isn't exactly going to be easy."

"We don't have to," Riku pointed out. "Let's make it to the throne and we can get them all at once."

Sora gripped the handle of Remembered Dream tightly, not bothering to ask how for some reason. "Okay. Head for the throne, kill any Nobodies in the way. Got it, everyone?"

Neku swallowed, staring warily at the crowd of dusks. They hadn't moved to attack them since they entered…yet. He didn't feel like wondering why. "More or less," he replied.

Riku and Axel simply nodded, and Bolt growled. With a nod, Sora brandished his keyblade and charged forward. "Let's go!"

They ran forward, slicing through any Dusks that got too close. Neku gritted his teeth, feeling power flow from his heart and down to his now-tingling hand. His fingers curled almost instinctively around Music of Shibuya, and a tune filled his ears as he sliced through several dusks.

What a way to run down the red carpet, he mused.

"How much farther?!" Axel cried as he hurled one of his chakrams to the side, leaving a clear, circular trail where it had slain a number of dusks. He caught it again and continued running.

"We're about halfway," Sora replied, taking the lead and slicing the nobodies in front of them. "Keep going!"

That was when Neku heard a tune in his voice. It was a fast, eerie one, yet it urged him onwards and gave him strength. He heard a whirring to his left and lashed out instinctively, opening his eyes from a wince just in time to see a dusk fading. Something twisted him to the other side, and just before another of the dusks could have attacked him it met the squared edge of the keyblade. Neku should have frozen in fear, but he didn't. He kept going.

Neku…

He wasn't sure whether he was ignoring the voice or paying close attention. His movements were all automatic, and there was a pulse in the air that he could feel. As they got closer to the throne, it got stronger. It seemed like centuries had passed when they finally arrived at the other end of the room, where a very small throne stood.

Sora skidded to a halt and spun on the crowd of dusks. "You guys hit back any of the ones that get too close! I'm gonna open up the door to the hall!"

Riku nodded. "Right!"

"And how's that going to help?!" Neku demanded, swatting away a dusk that got too close.

Sora ignored him and began fiddling with the armrest of the throne. "Come on, it's around here somewhere…" he muttered frantically.

Riku shot a few blasts of dark firaga while Axel hurled his chakrams into the crowd. Bolt treated any and all nearby dusks as chew toys, managing to hold them off rather than destroy them. Neku was stuck with short-range, swatting away anyone who dared to get too close. "Hurry, Sora!"

There was a barely audible click and Neku felt the ground beneath him shift. The entire raised platform that the throne was on shifted, a bright light shining out of a cavity in the floor. Before long, Neku had to stop fighting and start shielding his eyes. The music in his ears reached its climax, and when it softened again he decided to uncover his eyes. The throne room was entirely devoid of nobodies, the only strange features being the door and the red carpet.

Axel blinked. "Wow."

"Wow," Neku agreed.

Riku, however, found something else to be interested in. "Neku, are you holding what I think you're holding?"

Neku glanced down at the keyblade in his hand just as it vanished, the music leaving his ears as well. "You mean what I was holding?" He said. "Probably."

"That's one of the things I wanted to ask the King about," Sora said. "We first saw it in Monstro…when some nobodies attacked us. Did it ever show up again after that, Neku?"

"Aside from now," Neku began nervously, still staring at his hand and flexing his fingers, "Only once…"

Sora gave a quick, understanding smile and then headed for where the platform had been minutes before, heading down a staircase into what was probably a basement. "Down here is the hall of the cornerstone. There's a door down here too, but it's probably better if we don't head through it."

"Why's that?" Axel asked. "With you being the key bearer and all I thought doors were your thing, Sora."

"Not if you want your conception of the color spectrum to end up screwed over," Riku commented. Neku was about to ask for an explanation when Sora just shook his head.

Neku ended up being wrong in assuming that they were headed for something similar to a basement. The room was huge, probably bigger than the Room of Reckoning in the Shibuya River. As Sora had described, there was a standalone door off to one side (and though normally Neku would accuse the door of being useless, recent experiences behooved him to think twice before coming upon that conclusion), and in the center of the room was an enormous, glimmering sphere resting on a square pedestal.

"That's the Cornerstone of Light," Sora explained. "It's supposed to protect the castle from Darkness, but it doesn't explain how the nobodies got here."

"I doubt they'd use a Gummi Ship," Riku stated, crossing his arms. "But how else would they have gotten in?"

"I would like to ask you the same thing."

Neku suddenly felt the tip of something very sharp and pointy prodding at his back. He froze, hands in the air. "Um…guys…I think…"

"I would cooperate if I were you. I have a request from his majesty to keep away all intruders…"

Sora spun around. "The king! Do you know where…" He paused. "Who are you?"

A hesitation. "You know the king?"

"You bet we do," Riku replied. "We're here to see him about something."

"Oh…I see. My apologies." The sword left his back.

Neku sighed, turning around and seeing his would-be assailant behind him. It was a boy no holder than he was, garbed in a long-sleeved white shirt and a black leather vest, tall boots on his feet and an elegant rapier in his hand. Lengthy black hair was slicked back, and dark eyes stared calmly at the group. Neku sniffed unconsciously; this boy had an air of royalty about him for some reason. "Where's the king?" Sora asked, stepping forward.

The boy bowed politely. "If you seek his majesty, he is soon to return. He requested me to await him here and ward of any intruders. I assume he was referring to the Dusks upstairs and not you."

"Who are you?" Neku asked, crossing his arms.

"Larsa Solidor," the boy replied, smiling warmly. "I was here to speak with the king as well when we were attacked in the audience chamber."

"Well, your attackers aren't there anymore," Axel replied, grinning smugly. "And if they are, they're probably heading for the hills."

Larsa gave Axel a suspicious gaze. "You're not with them, are you?"

Axel groaned. "Sheesh, just because I wear the same coat doesn't mean I'm one of the enemy!"

"Now you know how I felt," Riku grumbled.

"He's with us," Sora explained hurriedly. "We're here to warn the King about a group of people called the Zoners."

With a sigh, Larsa sheathed his weapon and crossed his arms. "So you have met them, too. I was here for the same reason."

"Looks like we've got plenty in common already," Neku commented. "You familiar with any of them? Zarxilt? Jaxuk?"

"Actually," Larsa began sadly, "I am all too familiar with one of them. I believe you may know him as Naxeyv."

Riku laughed bitterly. "Oh, we know him. We had a run-in with him just yesterday."

"How do you know him?" Sora asked. "Did Naxeyv attack you, too?"

Larsa stared at the floor, eyes soft and almost unreadable. "His name was Vayne Solidor. He was my brother."

Neku's eyes bulged in shock. "Naxeyv was your brother?!"

"Yes," Larsa replied. "He was to rule the Archadian empire. But he got a taste of power, and, well…you saw what happened to him."

Neku looked away, biting his lip. He couldn't begin to imagine what it must have been like to have something like that happen. For someone you know so well to turn against you and become an enemy…he had experienced something similar when he once thought Hanekoma was the Composer he sought to defeat, but even though he ended up being wrong, it still shook him when he came to such a conclusion.

"I was forced to strike down his heartless in my own world," Larsa continued, not seeming as distraught as Neku had expected, "But I'm afraid his Nobody remains and has joined the Zoners."

Sora suddenly became noticeably hesitant. "The Zoners are after Neku still," he began, swallowing. "But if he's your brother, then we can't…"

Larsa shook his head. "That shell is only what remains of my brother. I would not wish that punishment upon anyone." He turned away. "Might I ask why you are looking for him?"

Neku took a deep breath and stepped forward. This would take a while.


Freya groaned. "Here, too?"

There was a small crowd of dusks gathered in the gorge not far from the Bailey. Shantotto was doing fine holding them off – she even seemed like she was having fun with it, considering that every single explosion of magic was followed by high-pitched laughter – but they just kept coming. While the threat was not a significant one, if they allowed it to escalate, they would find themselves in a situation not unlike they had found themselves in with the heartless.

"It might have had something to do with the computer," Leon suggested, resting his gunblade on his shoulder. "Either that, or the Zoners want to get rid of any obstacles that will prevent them from getting to it again."

Xenuk unleashed a flurry of ice on a few nearby dusks that had decided to get too close and crossed his arms in annoyance. "Neku revived the traitor to the Organization," he began. "There's probably a replica of Roxas in there, too…an incomplete one, at any rate…but the problem is that if we destroy that computer, Axel goes too, and we can't afford to lose any more allies."

"Well said," Freya replied. "But there has to be a way to disable the computer without destroying it. If the only thing we have to lose is an ally, though…"

"That's the problem," Leon pointed out. "We only think that's all we have to lose by destroying it. I'd get some…well, some inside help you might say, but the computer expert I have in mind is checking on the king right now."

Freya blinked. "You can't mean Sora, can you? Last time I checked, that boy was hardly computer savvy."

Leon smirked. "I know."

"We can worry about the computer later," Xenuk interrupted. "Get this crowd of dusks out of the way. I'm going to go check on the group at Merlin's." With that, he leapt out of sight.


This was...an awkward chapter to write. Dunno why. Next one is going to be much easier.

Characters met:

Larsa Solidor (Final Fantasy XII)

Zoners:

The Deceptive Evoker, Meyxours (Chasing The Truth/???)
The Elegant Reaper, Jaxuk (Chasing The Truth/???)
The Fallen Prince, Zarxilt (Chasing The Truth/Final Fantasy XI)
The Ruthless Emperor, Naxeyv (Chasing The Truth/Final Fantasy XII)