Meg's story.
[theme song] Lets start a riot- three days grace
There was something soft brushing against my skin and the scent of grass filled my nose. A soft breeze pushed at the clothes on my back. I groaned and opened my eyes. The bright sunshine hurt and made me shut them tightly again.
I slowly opened them, this time letting my eyes adjust before I moved. I was lying in a soft bed of grass that towered at least a foot above me. With another groan I rolled over onto my stomach and lifted myself up slowly with my legs and hands.
Standing up the grass only came to my knees and it was everywhere.
So, I'm in a meadow. I thought bitterly to myself. So which way do I go?
All around me there was grass, nothing but grass. It was nice and green, but everywhere! Okay, think. What would Nessa and Rachel do in a situation like this? Shit. That was the wrong way to think. Where were they? How did I get here? Was I even myself, or something like Rachel had become? Had that man in the cloak brought me here?
STOP! I made myself quite thinking. Relax. Okay. Start walking… that way, to the sun, the worst that could happen is you have to stop at night. So I started walking.
Eventually the grass faded into a dirt path that led straight, so far as I could tell. My shoes made a crunching noises on the ground and I just kept walking, fighting back all the questions that threatened to overflow my mind and make me feel crazy so I concentrated on moving my legs.
Something was wrong, I could barely see my feet now. I stopped in the middle of the path and looked around. It was nighttime, it had crept up on me before I realized. I conveniently stood in the middle of an intersection. I looked to the left and the right.
"AH!" I screamed and jumped back, pulling my staff out and holding it defensively in front of me. The tall cloaked figure floated just above the ground. The person lowered themselves, their feed landed lightly on the ground and a plume of dust rose up from the ground.
"So it was you," the deep voice was the same as the one back in Hollow Bastion. SHIT Rachel wasn't here, he knew I was the gray. "Welcome to Oblivion." I waited for something else to come from behind that hood before I spoke. There was a long pause.
"Will you come with me? I know why you never feel at place between your friends. Why no one could ever relate with you at the same level. Just come with me." He stretched out his hand.
"Who are you?"
"My name is no-"
"It is if I am following you into the unknown!" I said impatiently. He laughed.
"Very well. I am Xemnas leader of the Organization XIII."
"And… why do you need me to come along? Are you looking for your member 13? Because I can tell you now that's not what I want to do."
"I can assure you when you have spoken with the others you will find this is exactly what you want to do." His hand was still outstretched. I slowly stepped forward, like Rachel says, "put on your shit stompers and keep stomping."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
"What is this place?" I asked. Xemnas laughed.
"Castle Oblivion," he answered, "Welcome."
Castle Oblivion [in three words]: huge, confusing and white. Every surface sparkled with a cleanliness that only obsessive impulsive cleaners can achieve. Towers and windows sprouted out of random places and I tilted my neck as far back as it would go before we stepped under the archway of the main gate. The pale green doors opened slowly revealing the same pristine white surfaces as on the outside. Pale purples and blues highlighted doorways but all in all I felt like I was surrounded by a white box. Great.
Xemnas pulled a stack of cards from his cloak and handed them to me.
"What exactly am I supposed to do with these?" I asked, "Is the Organization a group of poker players?"
He ignored me and took one card out his stack and returning the rest to the inside of his cloak. "This card, which is the one on top of your stack is used to get to the highest floor where I work. The second card will take you there. Now there are others in the castle who would do you and myself harm if they knew I brought you here, so until you meet them, you're safe."
I just stared at him, trying to take in everything he was saying at once. He ignored my complete confusion and held out his hand. "I am needed elsewhere, someone will be waiting for you down in the basement, please make yourself at home until he arrives." I raised my eyebrows waiting, "Use your card and open the portal." He threw his on the ground and a door rose up from the ground. "I'll speak with you later." He walked through the door and as soon as it closed, it disappeared.
I stood there, not exactly sure what to do. I flipped the card over in my hand, looking for nothing in particular. Maybe a set of directions, I don't know. I tossed it on the ground willing the door to appear. The blue card lay there for a moment, nothing happened. I jumped. The door sprouted up from the ground and towered over me. There was a large arrow pointing down on it.
"Ah! So that's how you do it." I pulled on the handle but it proved heavier than it looked. "Right." I pulled harder and it slowly opened. Inside it I could see nothing but white light. Stepping in I heard the door slam shut behind me. I waited a second, then stepped forward and as I did the whiteness around me slipped away and I was standing in a dark room with gray stone walls. It smelled damp but the air was dry.
Looking around there wasn't much to see. Like the floor above, or floors, it was plain, but instead of white it was black. There was only a little bit of light coming from small holes in the floor. It was a huge cavern room and I felt so small.
It was then I realized that I was standing on the ceiling, not the floor. This room was the inverted copy of the first floor above. I swayed and felt nauseas but when the ceiling, err floor, never got closer I felt a little steadier. I kept my eyes near my feet and worked my way over to a wall. There was a doorway and I walked through it, feeling only a little bit better as this ceiling/floor was a lot lower than in the last room. Less of a fall in case gravity decided to take over again.
The room off the large hanger was much more comfortable, though I still walked on the ceiling it was easier not to panic so much when the drop was only a few feet over my head as opposed to about fifty feet. There was a couch between two doors. I tried the first door but it was locked. I thought about sitting down on the couch because the second door was probably locked as well. I gave it a good strong tug, but nothing happened.
I growled through my gritted teeth. If Xemnas wanted me to succeed here he should give better directions, honestly. I was completely lost at what he wanted me to do.
I remembered the cards on my hand and realized they each had a picture of something on their fronts. The blue card that was third in my stack had a picture of a very small heartless with its yellow eyes glancing up at me. I looked from my stack of cards to the door I stood in front of.
When I glanced the second time, there was something new carved into the perfect dark marble door. There were two cut outs, that could perfectly be filled by my cards. "Ah!" I grabbed the third card and then placed the fourth in.
The third with its small heartless and the fourth with its ray of light. The door shimmered and suddenly I was no longer standing in the dark hall.
I stood on the beach. It was like any other beach: perfect sand and sparkling blue water. The sun beat down on me and I realized how heavy and hot my clothes were in the sunshine. When my eyes adjusted to the light I caught sight of palm trees blowing gently in the wind, their bending trunks made interesting shapes that flowed with the sand.
With a glance to my left I saw Rachel. She sat, perfectly still on a piece of driftwood, staring off over the water looking entirely lost.
"RACHEL!" I called and started to run to her. Her head didn't budge an inch. When I reached her she continued to stare out across the water as if I didn't exist. "Cut it out Rach, we've got to find Nessa." Still she didn't respond. I reached out with my hand to grab her shoulder but I passed right through her. "WHAT?"
I jumped back. "What's going on?" I whirled around, leaving Rachel where she sat. Then I saw Nessa.
She was sitting on the ground where I had started my wandering at the beach. "WANESSA!" I cried and ran to her. The sand was becoming even more difficult to run across. I reached her and hesitantly reached my hand out to touch her.
It was the same effect as with Rachel, she acted as if I didn't exist and my hand passed right through her.
"Wha-"
"It's an illusion."
I whirled around. There stood a young man, possibly a year or two older than myself. He was pale with long red hair that was pushed back from his face and spiked down to his shoulders. His face said outright that he did not wish to be here and his arms crossed across his chest showed his introvert-ness. His eyes were an intense shade of green and I found it hard to look away.
"An illusion?"
"Yes. You put in a combination of cards into the door and they joined together to make this world. You're friends are of light and dark. Light of the sun, darkness of the bottomless ocean. You ended up with a beach and two friends who are not real, only resemble the real ones," he answered.
"Well where are my real friends?" I asked, panicking. Had Xemnas and his Organization done something to them?
"Who knows?" His black cloak didn't seem to bother him the blaring heat of the sun. "I suspect they are far away from you, off on their own stories, working for dark or light as we do for the gray in between."
"So who are you?"
"I am Axel, got it memorized?" he introduced himself much more quickly than Xemnas, only it was very rude. "I hate the basement, it is really disgusting and dark. Xemnas asked me to teach you about the cards because I came up with the system. It's mostly obvious but since this is Castle Oblivion, most obvious things are lost."
"Right," I muttered. I looked at Rachel and Nessa. They looked completely lost where they sat and I just wanted to talk to them.
"Don't worry, they're only memories."