Chasing The Truth
By FlikFreak
Chapter Forty-Four: End Of The Road
I don't get it. What's gotten into Zidane? And if that wasn't Zidane, then who was it?
Sora snapped from his thoughts when Kairi placed a hand on his shoulder. "Sora…"
"Ven," Aqua began, "Was that who I think it was?"
The Roxas look-alike nodded. "Yeah. I think so."
"Someone care to fill me in?" Riku interrupted. "In case you haven't noticed, we only just now jumped into this weird place, walked past a swarm of pyreflies, trekked through a graveyard, and had to watch someone who we thought was our friend nearly kill Neku."
Ventus glanced up, his eyes full of worry. "Sora, would you happen to remember facing off against an armored keyblade master?"
Sora froze. He remembered that quite well. It was one day while visiting Disney Castle that it happened; the Cornerstone of Light was acting up, and through a portal that he had found he wound up in a wasteland. And some guy in armor was there, too. He kept talking about the 'one he had chosen' and stuff…I couldn't make out what he meant. "Yeah. It was a while ago, but I remember. What about it?"
"Zidane was being controlled by the same person."
Wha…that was him?!
"Who was he?" Neku asked. "He kept going on about how I wasn't worthy or something…"
"He was another of our friends," Aqua replied. "It seems like he's been controlling Zidane for a long time now. But why him?"
"Zidane knew Kuja," Ventus replied. "I'm pretty sure Zidane would want to settle the score anyway. I'm sure Terra was after something else."
"Terra?" Kairi echoed. "Is that his name?"
Ventus shrugged. "Yeah. He always was kind of choosy. Did he say anything to you, Neku?"
Neku counted on his fingers. "He called me weak, accused me of being selfish, demanded to know why I'm a keyblade master, whatever that means, and generally mocked me."
Aqua quirked an eyebrow and suppressed a chuckle. "Yep, that was him alright."
"How do you know him?" Sora asked.
Ventus and Aqua exchanged glances, silent for a moment before finally speaking. "We aren't entirely sure," Aqua replied. "When we woke up, we just knew that we knew him. We have one memory in common, so we were pretty sure of it."
"It's all coming back to your memory," Riku observed. "You sure you're not just faking amnesia?"
"Think Naminé could fix it?" Sora suggested. After all, from what he had been told, Naminé had a very interesting power tied with memories.
Kairi hesitated, then shook her head. "No…she can only work with yours, Sora."
Aww…
Ventus smiled. "That's alright. I'm sure once this is over, we'll get them back."
Neku gave them an awkward look. "Well, what now?"
"We should keep going," Aqua suggested. "Jaxuk is still here."
Sora nodded. "Right."
They hadn't expected this.
Berserkers used hammers, and Dragoons used lances. The dusks tended to just walk around in the strange, warped fashion that they did, and creepers were cakewalk. These nobodies, however, could not only teleport, but they also used projectiles.
Joshua had been shot out of the air, but thankfully he wasn't heavily wounded. Beat managed to block many hits with his skateboard, but his energy was wearing thin. Shiki wasn't so fortunate; Mr. Mew had been damaged and her offensive with him. She had hurried to a safe, discrete place to patch him up while everyone else fought. Rhyme, while she didn't make much of a dent on her own, was surviving somehow, and beginning to wonder where the reinforcements were.
They weren't going to last much longer at this rate.
Three bicycles fell on top of a group of the snipers, as Joshua had nicknamed them, followed by a vending machine. "How is it over there, Shiki?" he called.
"Almost done!" The girl replied. "I just need to make sure it's secure and I'll be right back out!"
Nodding, Joshua leapt up momentarily to send a large, white beam crashing down on another bit of the crowd, landing again just moments before he would have been shot again.
Rhyme had, unfortunately, been separated from Beat. The older sibling angrily attempted to smash his way through the opposition to reach her, but it wasn't easy while dodging projectiles. He swatted away a few with his skateboard and ducked under more, but true to his dedication he didn't even stop long enough to yell in pain when one connected with his leg.
Determined to reach her brother, Rhyme began forward along the wall, only to meet a sudden burning sensation right above her armpit. Screaming, her knees buckled and she glanced in horror at the white-hot crossbow bolt that had hit her in the left shoulder. She clutched the pendant around her neck tore the sniper's crossbow bolt from its place, gritting her teeth and gasping for breath. Neku! Hurry!
But the onslaught wouldn't stop. Rhyme was surrounded by Snipers. She cried out in fear as they aimed their guns, reaching for one of her defensive pins as her only hope.
NEKU!
Neku stopped in his tracks, falling to his knees and gasping for breath. It felt like someone had plunged their hand into his chest and seized his heart, squeezing it and crushing it in their grip. The sensation lasted all of two seconds before it released, but not before he had a flash of a scene in his mind: Rhyme, surrounded by nobodies that he didn't recognize, and the rest of his friends gasping for breath even as more swarmed in.
He felt a hand on his shoulder. "Neku…you okay?"
The proxy glanced up to see Aqua giving him a look of concern. "…yeah. I'm…I think it was from the connection."
Ventus bit his lip and nodded. "We should hurry…the sooner we get rid of Jaxuk, the sooner everyone's going to be safe."
"Am I missing something here?" Sora asked. "What connection?"
"My connection with Shibuya," Neku replied, finally regaining composure. "It's from the keyblade I have…it connects me to my world."
"How's that supposed to work?" Riku questioned.
"It's like I made a pact in the Reaper's game," Neku replied, "But instead of with a person, it's with an entire world. Meaning if I die here…"
"Then Shibuya is destroyed," Sora finished, his eyes wide but his voice almost a whisper. "Neku, why didn't you say anything?"
Neku shook his head. "I didn't know until a few minutes ago when Ventus told me."
"So when Meyxours aimed that attack at you," Kairi said, "He was really trying to destroy Shibuya?"
"Very intelligent, Princess. I expected no less from you."
The voice was sickeningly familiar. Every head turned to see an all-too-familiar figure in black hovering five feet over the ground, smirking down at them. "I was worried that your hearts had been poisoned by the sheer power of this place. After all, only the strongest of the strongest can leave this place without some form of permanent injury…"
"Jaxuk!" Ventus bellowed, summoning what could only be a keyblade in a flash of white light. "We have a score to settle!"
"Oh?" Jaxuk replied. "Well, if it isn't the little chaser himself. And he's brought his girlfriend, too…this should be quite an interesting performance."
"Ven," Neku hissed. "How do you have-"
"I'll explain later."
Neku had no argument to that.
"You have such reckless courage, running into danger as you did before," Jaxuk taunted. "Need I remind you, boy, what happened last time you did so?"
Ventus hesitated. "Last…time?"
The floating lights around them began to swarm, forming two blurry shapes. One was a man, the other a young, armored boy. The man held the boy by his helmet, his grip so tight that the sound of metal cracking could be heard. The boy struggled in vain, his arms flailing and his feet kicking. Finally, part of the visor of the helmet broke away, revealing one bright blue eye, pleading desperately for help. The man shook the boy, setting him aflame in dark fire, and then freezing him alive. Almost casually, he grinned, and dropped the boy.
The image flickered away, and the lights dispersed before the boy's fate could be determined. Ventus was shaking his head. "No…that couldn't have been…"
Jaxuk grinned. "One would think you had learned from that mistake, and yet here you are, rushing into a scene without rehearsing again. It's no wonder you have that connection to Sora…"
Both Ventus and Sora did a double-take. "Wha-?" Sora gasped. "Ven and I are connected?"
"Meyxours was the only one who knew about it," Jaxuk replied, feigning sadness. "Oh, but you simply had to kill him, didn't you? Now you'll never know, between his lost knowledge and Ventus's lack of memories…such a convenient excuse, by the way, to not explain anything."
"I don't lack memories," Ventus hissed. "I just can't reach them. Every time I try to recall something, it slips away and I can't remember. It's like having déjà vu and never knowing where you've seen it before. Ever." He brandished his keyblade. "But I'll get them back if I defeat you!"
"Ven," Aqua began, "Please…"
Neku swallowed hard. He had been after Jaxuk because he posed a threat to the worlds. That much power in anyone's hands – good or bad – could pose some serious corruption. Plus, Jaxuk had killed Xenuk, and manipulated Axel's self-sacrifice. But Ventus… He said he wanted to rest, but he wanted his memories, too. How did Jaxuk tie into that?
"You are fools," Jaxuk scorned them. "I have already attained immense power from Kingdom Hearts. You cannot stop me. You are mere extras in this performance, and you have no more lines here on out. In other words…you are of no more use to me." He summoned a curved blade in his hand. "It's about time I disposed of you."
"Not if I can help it!" Sora cried, hurling a barrage of fireballs toward Jaxuk. With a flick of his blade, however, Jaxuk parried them and sent them slamming right back into Sora, whom cried out and stumbled back a few feet.
Jaxuk laughed. "Fool…you're like a child with a toy compared to the other key bearers."
"Don't compare him to me," Ventus growled. "Now give us back our-"
A flash of white interrupted Ventus's protest, knocking him back at least five feet. The glare from Jaxuk was almost lethal. "An actor never strays from the script," he hissed. "I am the director of this performance; you are only the cast and crew. You will do as I see fit, nothing more."
Riku brandished his keyblade. "True, a director calls the shots in a performance. All directors do that…but a good director will listen to the cast and crew's thoughts and opinions rather than manipulating them like pawns on a chess board."
"Sounds to me like you're a pretty bad director," Neku added. "Didn't you get the memo? You've been fired."
Jaxuk's new expression made his previous face look like a simple frown. "You would dare challenge me?" he demanded. "You worms have no concept of my power. Kingdom Hearts now belongs to me; its power is mine! Yet you ignorant children dare to face me and meet your deaths? Then so be it!"
