*Hand juts out from the ground before digging furiously at the surrounding earth, angrily wiping the new layer of dust and dirt from me* Ok! This is really getting annoying now! *clears throat and calms down* Excuse me for that little, outburst. While I had hoped to continue with my story at the time of the last chapter, certain things cropped up which made that quite difficult. However now, with some time and drive to actually get back into the story, I have managed to write much more for everyone to read. *Smiles as a little banner falls down saying, Hurray, with some confetti* Anyway. You're not hear to read this little ramble, you're hear to read the story. So without any more hesitation, enjoy.
Disclaimer: I do not own any KH related characters, plots, etc, all original characters have been added to the story with permission from original creators.
Chapter Seven - You can't run forever
Breathless panting echoed from one wall to the other, as Brol continued to run through the rapidly shrinking tunnels of the old mine. Finally coming to a rest between two routes, the dirt brown haired man almost collapsed against the hard ground of the small circular tunnel. While closer to the entrance and therefore surface, the mines were much wider in size, in order to move the massive amounts of soil and rock that were dug out to create the far reaching mineshafts.
However as the miners dug deeper, the tunnels quickly began to shrink in size, eventually becoming the state they were in now. Big enough only to breath. To move. To see. No matter how far he ran, Brol knew He would see him running. He always saw them, even in the beginning. Those big red eyes hunted them without rest. Without mercy. It wasn't their…
"No!" Brol exclaimed to himself, rousing his thoughts away from his old memories before they could grab a hold on him.
The sudden raise of his voice was immediately amplified as it bounced further and further back down the way he had been running from. The man waited, staring off into the darkness, to which the dim lights that hung from the tunnel walls couldn't illuminate. His mimicked voice could still be heard, growing farther and farther away with every passing second, until it simply faded away with distance. Nothing but silence was left, and that of the pounding feeling of Brol's heart hammering his chest. His eyes darted from one endless point in the darkness to another, watching and waiting for what he knew was to appear.
And then it happened. The reverberating collective of growls and snarls echoed back towards Brol, his arms immediately pressing against the rough rocks behind him as he forced himself back onto his feet. The sounds continued to grow louder from the darkness, while the large red circle eyes of the strange Heartless blinked into life, from the blackness that was consuming the previous tunnel. Gritting his teeth as his brown eyes watched the numerous Neo Shadows shuffle out into the open, the young man quickly threw his right arm forward, opening his palm towards the creatures that had suddenly lunged at him. Their leathery bodies exploded into dark liquid the moment they collided with the large almost fan like object that was spinning in front of Brol.
With a flick of hand, the spinning promptly stopped allowing the other Heartless to back away as the weapon gleamed from the hanging lights. Its long handle was easily as tall as Brol himself, while jutting out from the top, the large red and brown mixed blade seemed as sharp and precise as any weapon ever could be.
"Come on then! I'm not going to keep running forever. Come and get me!" Brol roared at the Heartless before him.
Those that were still within the darkness of the tunnel never moved out, and even the few that remained in the light soon began to crawl back in retreat to the shadows. Brol didn't wait to find out the reason behind their sudden lapse of cowardice, as the young man had already taken to running back through the tunnels again. The handle of Brol's scythe remained tucked underneath his arm, allowing the blade to point upwards so as not to latch onto anything that could slow him down. The small gasps of fresh air, were clouded and choked with stale air that had remained for who knows how long.
Every few seconds, more so whenever he would come to a split in his path, Brol would brush his fingers along the soft dusty earth, before rushing in a direction as if he knew what laid ahead. The small rumblings that shock the pieces of rock on his path, didn't seem to faze the young man as the air rushed past his body as he ran. Only when he stopped again a few seconds later, did the dull rumblings finally register for him.
"What the heck is this?" Brol thought to himself as he placed his opened palm firmly against the ground, feeling the once low rumblings much stronger then before.
His eyes squinted, as he tried his best to figure out what the source of the rumbles could be. Even with them growing stronger and appearing in a much faster pace, Brol still wondered. Whatever it was, he knew one thing for certain. It was coming from behind him. Closing his hand and digging his fingers into the soil, the young man jumped forwards just as the shower of rock and dirt exploded, from the tunnel that had collapsed behind him. Readying his scythe, Brol tried to see through the haze of dust, that formed a veil over what damage had been caused to the mine. The deep low grunts and ticks coming from the dust though, were possibly not a good sign.
"This clearly isn't good." Said Brol, before he barely dodged the huge dark pincer that leaped out from the dust.
The claw itself was as big as Brol's torso, and strangely the space between which it could hold its prey, seemed to be in the shape of a heart. The long arm connected to it was easily five feet or more, meaning the beast would be able to catch anything that tried to escape, if they weren't careful. Wiggling around for its prey, the arm and pincer once again lashed out, prompting Brol to move yet again in order not to get caught in its grasp. The dust soon settled, revealing nothing but darkness where there shouldn't have been, if the tunnel had collapsed altogether like it should have. The only indication of the danger that lurked, was that of the huge claw and the giant multiple red eyes that were present. Slashing out with his weapon, Brol struck the large pincer and earned himself the loud shrill cry that came from the darkness.
Pulling its long arm and pincer back into the shadows, the mysterious creature began to move forward, and into the rapidly diminishing light that illuminated what remained of the tunnel. Its large eyes blinked in unison, while it stared at the grimacing face of Brol. To the young man, the creature looked like an overgrown centipede covered in a black gooey hide. Wielding a second arm and pincer to the first that attacked Brol, the strange Heartless was as big as the tunnel itself and seemed to just barely fit with its size. The sound of shuffling could be heard coming from the sides of the creature, as it slowly inched its way closer to the man that attacked it.
This was something Brol had never seen before. This was new, and most likely from his first moments of meeting the creature, extremely dangerous. The Heartless' giant maw of a mouth clicked and snapped open and shut as it crawled towards Brol. The young man continued to hold his large weapon in front of him, as he slowly moved backwards down the tunnel, always giving him enough space from the giant insect.
"I'm not that bothered about bugs, but you boy, are one of the ugliest I have ever seen!" Said Brol to the Heartless.
Seemingly stopping as if it understood, the centipede released a loud monstrous roar , actually blowing Brol further down the tunnel before he landed flat on his back with a thud. "Well…if you're going to be all sensitive about it…" Said the young man with a smile on his face, as he tiredly pulled himself back onto his feet. Brol's playful nature seemed to return, as the young man began to laugh boisterously at the black creature, who already had begun to use its large claws to dig into the sides of its tunnel and pull itself quickly towards Brol.
Swinging his scythe behind him, the young man laughed much louder as he took off running down the tunnel he was blown into. While the Heartless was slow at first, the quickly growing rumbles from before made their reappearance as Brol ran down deeper down the tunnel. Briefly turning his head to look behind him as he ran, the scythe wielder smirked as the large head of the Heartless slowly came into view from far behind, its speed easily allowing it to keep up with Brol as it steamrolled through anything in its way.
"That's right you big worm, keep up!" Brol yelled back at the creature, receiving the deafening roars from it as it continued to follow him through any tunnel he ran down.
As he ran, even with no more then a couple of feet between himself and the creature's claws and teeth, Brol's thoughts drifted back to his run in with the three kids from earlier that day. For some reason it made the young man smile, though not in the more smug way to which he had before. As he turned the corner once again onto a new tunnel path, Brol began to wonder…what ever happened to that cute girl with them?
"Jeez, I feel so beat!" Kairi said tiredly, as she slumped down on one ofthe many chairs that were littered around the small café.
"At least we might know where he is now." Added Sora as he held his arms behind his head, while he too rested in a chair opposite to Kairi.
The trio of friends had just finished talking once again to everyone they could find throughout the town. While originally no one had ever heard of the name Brol, once the three began to mention Dygado and Brix, people's faces began to lit up, and finally some answers were found. Rarely ever appearing in town, unless wanting supplies or food, it was said Brol kept mostly to himself. Any attempt to follow him in order to find out where he lived, always ended in failure. If one didn't get lost in the winding streets of the town, they would merely find themselves at the large cavernous entrance to the World's mine. Many children seemed to have fun playing in the quarry, some even venturing inside the mine itself, though no one ever truly went farther. The mine itself hadn't been used in years, adding to the warnings of those older then the children that it could collapse at any time, meant that no one knew how far or deep the mine was.
"So, you think its best we check their first?" Asked Riku when he arrived back to their table with three glasses of water.
Quickly snatching his glass, Sora began to drink the water in one long gulp. Kairi's eyes widened as she held onto her own glass with both hands and slowly sipped at her drink, while Riku merely raised an eyebrow at his friends feverish guzzling of the water.
"S-Sora! Slow down!" Kairi tried to say to the spiky haired man, though by then it was too late.
"Ahh, that was good water." Said Sora with a big smile on his face, as he placed the empty glass on the table to the stunned face of Kairi.
"What's the matter? It's only water." The young man said with an ever bigger smile on his face while looking across to Riku and Kairi as they placed their still full glasses of water and ice cubes onto the table.
Sora chuckled for a few seconds, before the sudden rush of freezing pain eclipsed his mind, causing the man to hold his hands to his head to get through the pain.
"Ahhh! Brain Freeze, Brain Freeze!" Yelled Sora causing his friends to laugh in their own way while watching him try to battle his vicious brain freeze.
"Gawsh, I knew it was you!"
"Gah, You big palooka! Why did you run off there….Sora!"
"GUYS!"
-An Hour Earlier-
"I told you we've already gone down here!" The loud squawking voice of the walking Duck said, as he pattered his large feet against the smooth bricked street.
"Gawsh Donald are you sure? I don't remember seeing that ice cream parlour before." Said the tall, almost slow talking Dog.
"WAHAHAHAH, YOU'RE EATING ONE OF THEIR ICE CREAMS NOW GOOFY YOU PALOOKA!" Shouted Donald as his anger became too much to hold in.
Looking down at his hand, Goofy seemed to only realise now the slowly melting blue ice cream he was holding. Waiting a few seconds in silence, as his short friend angrily tapped his foot on the ground waiting for his response, Goofy finally turned to Donald with a big smile on his face.
"Oh yeah, hiyuck." Said Goofy as he swallowed the rest of the ice cream in one bite, causing Donald to squawk and growl in anger to himself like always.
"Why are we still here anyway? No one knows who this, Brol, guy is, and I don't think he was ever here in the first place."
"Well Donald, the King said we were to find this guy here, and I believe him."
"I know Goofy. But look around. No one has ever heard of him ever being here. So let's just go back Goofy…Goofy?" Turning around to see why he wasn't answering, Donald immediately squawked and jumped in both shock and anger upon finding Goofy not beside him like before. Quickly turning his head from side to side, Donaly suddenly found Goofy far off down the street, already approaching another townsperson.
Rushing after him, the running Duck arrived just in time as Goofy began to talk.
"Hiyuck, Excuse me miss. Sorry to ask, but you wouldn't happen to know of someone called…um…I knew it a second ago…um…Brit…Blog…Brix?"
"Its Brol, Goofy!"
"Oh yeah, Brol."
Staring a little confused at the two, the young woman placed her finger to her chin as she began to think, before shaking her head to both Donald and Goofy.
"I'm sorry. I don't know anyone called Brol." She said causing Goofy to hang his head down sadly, while Donald crossed his arms.
"I thought so. Come on Goofy, lets go and tell his Majesty he's not here." Turning away from the woman, both Duck and Dog began to walk away, but quickly were halted when they heard the woman.
"Wait! You said Brix? Everyone knows Brix!" Said the woman with a happy beaming smile, sighing as she said Brix's name.
Looking confused at Goofy, Donald turning back to the woman.
"Um, sorry maim. Goofy here gets confused with words a lot. We're looking for someone called Brol. He's about this tall, brown dirty hair, a little spiky…"
"Yes! That's Brix exactly." The woman said suddenly interrupting Donald, while the Duck had a shocked unbelievable look on his face.
"Gawsh, Are you ok Donald? Aren't you happy we found the guy now? Hiyuck!"
"Wahahah, come on Goofy. Lets go get some water." Donald said, quickly backtracking out of the embarrassing conversation as he continued to follow the street, while Goofy looked back and forth between his friend and the helpful woman.
"Don't mind him maim, he's always like that, hiyuck. Thank you for your help."
And with that, Goofy ran quickly after Donald down the street, easily catching up with his friend in a matter of seconds.
"Hmm, I wonder if they know of those young people looking for Brix too? Oh well." Not giving it any more thought, the woman smiled as she retreated back into her small shop.
"And that's when we heard you yelling, hiyuck!" Goofy said happily as he hugged Sora with his big arms, still able to almost crush while also make the young man laugh as he was able to years ago.
"So you and Goofy were looking for Brol as well?" Asked Riku as he still sat in one of the chairs for the little café, while speaking with Donald who promptly sat at the edge of the round table.
"Yep! The King brought us here to find him. We don't know why though. All that's important, is that its best we find him as quickly as possible." Donald said while Kairi looked confused at both Riku and Sora, who had stopped laughing when hearing Donald explain.
"So…you guys don't know then?" Questioned Sora as he turned to Donald, watching as the Duck jumped off the small table and back onto the ground.
"Know what? What do we not know?"
"Come on, we'll tell you everything on the way to Brol. We think we found out where he is."
Leaving the small café behind, the large group of old friends began to make their way down the street, which would lead them out of town and into the mines quarries.
As the warm wind blew gently through the winding streets of Twilight Town, the slow flapping of a black cloak softly bellowed with the gusts while the figure wearing it simply watched the group head out towards their destination.
"You better know what you're doing this time, or you're going to repeat everything." Said the hooded woman, before standing up and allowing her long black cloak to straighten out.
Lifting her gloved hand out towards the frozen setting sun, a small ball of azure flames formed into life in her palm, before taking on the shape of a figure dressed quite similarly as herself, pacing back and forth.
Continuing to pace back and forth in the cavern like chamber, the blue haired young man sighed as he once again glanced at the small crystal orb in his hand.
"Come on! What's with you today?" Yelled Castex as he shook the orb violently, before suddenly calming down and clutching the ball with both hands.
For the entire time since Sora and his friends left, Castex had tried his best to keep an eye on the three. With help from a rather strange orb that gave off a twilight glow, the Nobody had followed them since their arrival in Twilight Town. This soon changed however when they witnessed Brol's power first hand in the alleyway, and from then on, nothing.
Not even a blip was sensed from the orb. It was almost as if something was blocking everything coming from the world, every movement, every life, nothing but a clean slate.
"Ok…..ok,ok,ok,ok,ok, OK! Guess there's no other way then is there? …I hope you're happy you little…" Said Castex as he argued with the still glowing ball in his hands, shaking it around as he continued to speak to it as if it was alive, and conscious of what he was saying.
Grasping hold of the orb tightly within his hands, Castex closed his eyes as he began to concentrate on nothing but the small ball of crystal. A faint ghost like form appeared around the Nobody, taking the shape of a flowing hooded cloak covered in a golden glow. Suddenly, the entire chamber began to waver and ripple as if it was an entire illusion, which quickly began to change completely. The once tall solid columns that were positioned throughout the chamber, soon were replaced by the much more gigantic skyscrapers, dotting around the large dark city which had took the place of the chamber itself.
Still grasping the orb in his gloved hands, it took the Nobody a few seconds to realize just exactly where he was. His eyes immediately glanced up to the black sky, in order to see the peculiar moon to which he knew should be there. However, the once whole heart shaped moon that illuminated the entire world, even after the fall of the Organization, had changed into something that was both impossible and twisted. The moon of Kingdom Hearts lay torn in the sky, ripped apart and merely hanging lifelessly for all to see. Few specs of its light shone out from across its body, though a black oozing darkness was all that covered it now.
"What the…! What happened to this place?" Castex questioned himself, still holding tightly onto the orb as his eyes never left the sight of the dark moon.
Walking through the large alleyway he had appeared in, the Nobodies sight was never blocked from seeing the moon and its wide open sky. What could cause something that was impossible to do? To split Kingdom Hearts itself, though only artificial, would require a tremendous amount of power. Power which in itself would be difficult to control if unleashed.
The titanic roar that soon echoed throughout the city however quickly brought Castex out of his thoughts. All around him from the moment the roar was heard, pools of darkness began to rise and spread over every surface. The ground, walls, windows, from every location large yellow eyes began to form, before tall human creatures rose from the shadows. Tilting their heads from side to side, the hunched over creatures watched Castex as he stared back at them. Their shoulder length hair were made of wiggling tendrils and heart shaped holes were prominent on their chests, like that of the giant Darksides. Their heights reminded the Nobody of the strong Invisible Heartless, while their hunched over postures were identical to those primal Neo Shadows. The clothes they wore seemed to be alive as well, as it rippled and moved even when they stood still. They all seemed to be identical, as each creature wore the same long living trench coat, top and pants, all seeming to be part of them as well.
"What are all of you? How can you even exist?" Said Castex as he glanced all around him, taking into account that the creatures were everywhere.
Moving all as one, each of the Heartless' rose their large clawed hands before them, just as a chorus of dark explosions erupted from their palms signaling the arrival of their giant weapons. Just like their clothes, the Heartless' weapons were identical to one another. A giant blade, similar to a broadsword, appeared in their grasp as their double serrated edges gleamed from the small light of the dark moon. Even though the weapons were as big as each of them, the Heartless appeared to have no problem wielding them one handed, their large eyes still focusing on Castex the whole time.
"Ok then. Come on freaks!" Castex said as he continued to hold onto the crystal orb with one hand, while he summoned his own weapon with the other.
The extremely tall gun boomerang formed in a ghost like blur of mist for the Nobody, his hand firmly holding onto the trigger that was located at the center of the weapon. Growling as soon as Castex summoned his weapon, the human Heartless swiftly moved like a wolf pack, leaping into the air while they swung their large weapons down towards the Nobody. Swinging around towards the closest Heartless, Castex aimed his weapon as a ball of green energy formed within the twin barrels of the gun. Before the Nobody could even fire however, the Heartless soon began exploding into nothing but dark mist. Silver blurs quickly shot through each and every one of the Heartless, reducing them to the same dark mist as the others. Turning quickly around as the blurs continued flying, Castex could make out one or two of them as they seemed to slow down when they turned to leave the alleyway.
Appearing as small human like creatures, each of the white beings sported large feathery wings in place of their arms. Riding on their backs at the same time though, there seemed to be a small child like being connected to them, holding something that appeared to be a sketch pad which was constantly open. Before he could get a better chance to see one of them, the silver white creatures were all gone leaving Castex no choice but to run after them.
Holding onto the crystal orb and boomerang gun in each of his hands, Castex eventually made it around the corner and out of the alley itself. The Nobodies eyes widened at the sight before him as he walked to the edge of the large cliff face he had appeared at. Large sections of the Dark City were reduced to craters, allowing Castex to see quite clearly what was happening even miles away. Swarms of the same white creatures swooped and dived from all directions, battling numerous versions of the Heartless, who seemed to constantly come back with even more numbers.
The Nobody symbols could be seen clearly on the underside of the winged creatures as they glided closer towards Castex. Even the pads which the tiny creatures riding the Nobodies had, sported the same symbol on the cover. Other Nobodies of shapes and sizes battled the Heartless as well, one of the others to stand out was that of a masked Nobody.
Leaping greatly from collapsed skyscrapers that lay scattered in the meteor sized craters, the masked Nobodies seemed mostly human in form. Their powerful legs continued to launch them over the great distances, while they used that of a large blow pipe to attack the strange human Heartless and Neo Shadows. Each blow from its pipe would launch an air piercing dart, which upon striking the Heartless would sometimes either cause their entire bodies to fade away or more visually, explode in various ways such as fire, ice or thunder.
So many new creatures all fighting one another, part of something much bigger then Castex has ever seen in a long time.
"This is just like before. So much fighting. So much destruction. But if those Heartless exist, that can only mean…!" Before Castex could even finish his thought, the same titanic roar that he heard previously echoed throughout the giant devastated city. Hearing it much clearer then before, Castex was able to turn completely around to find the source of the bellows looming above him.
The first of the skyscraper sized fists appeared from behind the tall buildings behind the Nobody. Its large fingers stretched out before digging into the structures themselves, causing the walls to cave inwards in order to grasp onto them firmly. As soon as the first hand appeared, the second quickly followed suit, crushing more buildings under its touch as large chunks rained down from the buildings not strong enough to withstand its grasp.
"Gah, what is that thing? What the heck is that thing?" Shouted Castex as more and more of the being rose into sight.
White towers jutted out from the shoulders of the creature, while smaller pieces of what was once a gigantic structure pierced through the overflowing darkness that made up the body of the beast. Though the head, if there was one, of the creature didn't yet make an appearance, the sudden launch of its giant hand showed that the beast knew Castex was watching.
Blazing into sight from the sky, a colossal azure flamed bird quickly swooped down before colliding into the large dark hand that tried to crush Castex. The birds piercing screeching rang out into the sky as it forced the beasts hand and body back from sight. The explosion of flames and darkness erupting into the sky some distance away, was all Castex needed to know that giant bird had protected him from harm. As the same dangerous roar appeared yet again from the beast, one of its gigantic hands once again began to rise from behind the tall buildings, eclipsing everything with its size. Before it could get anywhere near as it was before, a large impenetrable wall of golden light appeared halting the hand as it collided with the barrier, unable to pass through it.
Shimmering as the beast's hand tried to force through it, the wall of twilight held itself firm even when the looming beast rose to its full height. Its dozens of yellow eyes dotted all over its large face seemed as if it could see everything all at the same time. Staring up at it, as if he was hypnotised by its sight, Castex finally could see the faint glimpses of two figures, one on either side of the giant wall. Whoever they were, or whatever was happening, the Nobody couldn't tell, as just then the orb he carried glowed into life again and like dropping a mirror, everything around him shattered, returning him to the isolated chamber he was in.
Glancing down to the slowly dimming orb in his hand, Castex's mind raced with numerous questions about what the crystal had shown him, though only one was more important to him then all the rest. How much time had they before it?