Rhiannion: Sorry about the wait... I... died... a slow and painful death. And then the semester ended and I was ressurrected by kind otakus...
Anyways... on to the story!
Chapter 29—Burn, Burn
Roxas slammed his fist against the wall outside of the third district. Tomorrow, Sora and the others were going off to other worlds yet again. He understood the task of the keyblade master and he understood why he and the other two former nobodies were being left behind. That wasn't exactly his problem. His problem was the girl standing in front of him, taunting him and calling him to come to the third district.
This Olette girl was getting to him more then he'd wanted to admit. But this was only the second time that he'd seen her, the first without Axel and he couldn't lie and say that he wasn't nervous. He didn't like her single mindedness. She walked closer to him, her hand outstretched invitingly.
"Just come home with me Roxas. You'll understand." She reached out but he backed up. He had a feeling that if she touched him he would disappeared, he be nothing but well… nothing.
"My home is here! My home is with Axel!" He yelled at her backing up further.
"They've obviously brainwashed you. Or something… Roxas." She walked closer, her face looking so pained, pleading with him.
"They haven't brained washed me. They haven't done anything to me. I… I don't have to explain myself to you." Roxas slipped back into his careless façade. "You should leave."
He turned to walk away but noticed something odd when he realized that they were so close to the third district and yet nothing was attacking. In fact every since she'd shown up nothing at all attacked. He pulled his keyblades out and took off running. He knew that she wasn't following him. She never followed. Once inside the first district he sought Axel out and found him towards the outskirts training. Well, if it could be called training. Roxas often referred to it as him satisfying his pyromania.
"Hey!" Axel spun around and smiled up at him. "Care to duel."
"Not… not right now." He hadn't even realized that he was out of breath until he bent over hands on knees, dropping the two blades from his hands. Maybe Olette was a bigger problem then he thought.
"Hey? What's wrong with you?" Axel was by his side within seconds, hand wrapped around his upper arm.
"She's not giving up." Roxas' smile gave sardonic a whole knew meaning before he sunk down to his knees pulling Axel with him.
"So what? She ain't going to get you." Axel replied throwing an arm around his shoulders.
"How do you know that?" He looked at the older boy.
"Even if she gets you Rox… she still has to deal with me." Axel murmured before playfully stealing a kiss. "And I'll light her ugly hair on fire if she harms a hair on your head.
"Idiot." Roxas muttered affectionately. He squeezed the red head's arm but Axel didn't acknowledge the action, he didn't need to. Roxas sighed deeply; this was the thing that Olette didn't understand. She could never understand that he needed this… whatever this was. Axel kept him from backsliding, for becoming heartless again.
Axel stole another kiss and then stood up. "Unlike you Mr. 'I glow when I fight.' I have seriously dangerous powers to learn how to control."
"I know." Roxas spared him a barely there smile. "I'll watch though… kay?"
"Mmkay." Axel hauled his long body up and headed back towards his self-made training dummies. The blond pulled his knees up to his chest and laid his chin on them. At the very least, Olette couldn't take this from him. After all, no one could ever quite be like Axel.
Olympus Coliseum unfortunately hadn't changed at all. At least in Sora's opinion. They appeared on Mount Olympus, the parched earth seemed hot enough to cook on. He shook his head and resisted the urge to retreat back into the cool, air conditioned space inside the gummi ship. The others didn't seem to agree either. Leon this time was prepared and had left his beloved jacket on the ship. They're new partner in crime, Tifa, could only look around the place in complete distaste.
"This almost makes me wish I'd gone with Cloud and Kairi." She muttered under her breath.
"Oh come on. We need some estrogen on this trip. Wouldn't be the same without it." Riku smiled at her and she play cuffed his head. Luckily for Riku. Her strength seemed almost on par with Hercules. Not something you particularly wanted to get in the middle of.
"Please… you're not exactly the height of masculinity." She teased back when the doors of the Coliseum burst open.
They were both startled when a figure came bounding forward. Well, bounding was kind of a loose term. He was small and pudgy and technically wore no clothes. The lower half of his body wasn't exactly human either. He was… half goat on the bottom, hooves, fur and all. He slowed as he saw them, taking them in carefully.
"You look like a good band of warriors." He commented as he continued to eye them up and down. "Maybe even heroes."
"Oh stuff it." Tifa muttered rolling her eyes. "We're looking for Hercules."
"OH! Would you be deem friends that fought in the Hades Cup?" He asked with wide eyes. "I'm Phil. Phil the satyr at your service."
"Joy." Riku muttered. "We need to ask him some questions about Hades."
"Now, let's not be so hasty. Dealing with Hades is serious business." Phil muttered holding up his hands.
"Don't worry. We're serious." Sora told him and the satyr nodded sagely.
"Then follow me. This could be interesting."
"It's it a little early for Halloween?" Kairi asked as she stared down at her 'costume.' The long tattered skirt and skimpy shirt didn't bode well with her, regardless of the looks Hayner was given her.
"Um... well at least you're not alone." Yuffie muttered annoyed. In the same state as Kairi though her clothes were slightly different.
"We're not exactly unscathed, you know?" Cloud growled at his vampire like costume.
"Oh wow! Wow, this is amazing! It's been so long since we had visitors! And two succubus among the party!" They looked up to see a tall skeleton of a man approach them. "This shall be a day to remember."
"Who the hell are you?" Cloud asked rolling his eyes.
"I think the incubus is a little angry." The skeleton told the patchwork woman that they now noticed behind him. "Don'tcha think so Sally?"
"Oh, don't mind Jack." The girl murmured walking up to them. "He's… easily excited. I'm Sally, one of the Doctor's inventions. And he's Jack Skeleton, the Pumpkin King."
"Wait… so you mean this place… is the embodiment of Halloween?" Yuffie asked as she looked around.
"Why… yes." Sally murmured running a hand through her murky hair.
"Wow… this is so-o cool!" She murmured as she spun around slowly and took in the ghastly town filling with graves and rundown buildings. The square even held a guillotine and a slim spewing fountain. Defiantly upping its entertainment value for Yuffie.
"So… we're looking for a guy named Oogie Boogie… Ever heard of him?" The ninja turned succubus asked cheekily.
"Oogie Boogie? You can't be needin' to meet him. You all look like such nice people." Jack murmured and then looked at them.
"Oh, it's not like that." Kairi spoke firmly. "We heard that he has a connection to these things called Heartless. We need to investigate."
"Heartless?" Jack cocked his head to the side.
"Oh! Those things that appeared in the town square the other day. You remember Jack!" Sally cried and she turned and gave his arm a squeeze. "But surely… You don't really think that Oogie Boogie would really do something like that to Halloween Town… Do you?"
"But they haven't been attacking Halloween Town." A small literally two faced man cried as he approached them. "They've been running through and into the forest beyond." His head turned from moderately happy to angry. "They've been using us as a welcome mat to where they want to go!"
"But where would the want to go? And in the woods no less?" Sally pondered this and Kairi and the others looked on confused.
"They must have found my most wondrous, treasured secret!" Jack gasped and then crossed his arms. "This is bad. This is very bad. In the forest, deep, deep within the forest is the Circle of Holidays… They must have found a way to open the doors!"
"Circle of Holidays?" Cloud asked as an eyebrow rose to his hair line.
"Yes! The Circle of Holidays! I was there the other day and I found the door to Christmas Town where I met Sandy Claws."
"Don't you mean Santa Claus?" Kairi asked leaning her head to the side in slight confusion.
"Is that what they call him? Oh well." Jack shrugged noncommittally. "But that's not what's important! We cannot allow these… these things to endanger the holidays."
"Meaning… what?" Hayner asked raised an eyebrow. "Plus, endanger Santa Claus? There ain't no such thing as Santa Claus."
"Foolish, foolish, foolish. As sure as you are standing there, I am the Pumpkin King, the master of all nightmares!" Jack leaned forward and in his face. "And as plain as the nose on your face Sandy Claws exists and probably has had you on his bad list for a very long time."
Hayner jumped at the thought. "It's not that I don't believe in him… I just…"
"What?" Jack asked as he wrapped a skeletal hand around his arm. "After all, we only want believers on this train."
"Of course." Kairi replied and elbowed Hayner in the ribs before he could say anything more.
"Then, we shall head for the Circle of Holidays! We will surely find our answers there!"
"I can't allow you to do that!" The group turned to look at the mayor yet again. "I'm only an elected official Jack! I can't possibly run the town without you."
"Sure you can! I won't be gone that long! Just a couple of hours. That's all." Jack assured the short two-faced man before he gave his shoulder a little squeeze. "Don't worry so much."
"But-but… Arg!" The little man turned and stomped away as Yuffie clapped a hand over her mouth to keep from laughing.
"Don't worry! We'll return him! Promise!" Cloud called to the mayor but he just huffed even louder before he slammed his way in to a dilapidated looking building.
"Well, shall we get to it?" Jack asked and Kairi idly scratched her arm, wondering what she was getting into.
Rhiannon: Now that the semester has ended, I'll be better about posting... hopefully. I'll try to get back into my three chapters a week, which should get the story completely posted before next semester...