We're in Trouble
The thirteenth floor was unlike the other floors. The first three floors I went through were labyrinths, twisting and turning hallways with no end. But that's not what this floor was.
After I went through the door, I stepped into a long hallway with about twenty doors stationed on either side of the hall. I stood just inside the doorway, staring at all the doors in bewilderment. How am I supposed to know which one Kaity's behind? And how am I supposed to know where the bad guys are? I could open any one of these doors and run into an Organization member.
Cautiously, I walked up to the first door and placed my ear upon it. I listened for a moment, straining to hear any noise through the cold paneled door. I didn't hear anything, so I opened it.
Cracking it open just enough to poke my head in, I found out that it was a bedroom. Well, at least they sleep, I though absently. Closing it quietly, I made my way down the hall, first listening then opening each door.
The second door was another bedroom and the third door was a bathroom. I found a cleaning closet, a small sitting room, and another bedroom further down the hall. I was just about to open another one when I heard the voices.
I paused and looked over to my right, staring at the spot the noise was coming from.
There was someone further down the hall speaking. But as I listened, more voices joined with the first. It sounded like a serious conversation. One that I should probably be eavesdropping on.
As silent as I could possibly be, I crept down the hall toward the voices. When I drew closer, I began to recognize some of the voices. I started moving faster. Halfway down the hall, I spotted a door that was cracked open near the end of the hall. Stepping lightly, I went up to the door and pressed myself against the wall beside the door. This way, I won't cast a shadow and let them know I'm out here. Carefully, I peeked through the crack into the room beyond.
On the other side of the door was the control room for all of the camera's stationed throughout the castle. Fifteen or twenty monitor screens pictured various rooms in the castle. Every ten seconds, the screens would blink and show a different room from another camera. I maneuvered my head to see more of the room.
At first I didn't know what to think. My first reaction was surprise, my hand flying up to my mouth to muffle my gasp.
It was Axel! Axel was here!
He was there, sitting in front of the monitors, watching them closely. Like he was waiting for something to happen on the screens. When the surprise passed, confusion wove its way onto my face. There was something... different about him. He wasn't the Axel I remember from the game. His hair's shorter and he's not wearing a organization cloak. Instead he was wearing a pair of dark leather pants, red and white shoes, a orange sleeveless vest covered in zippers and a red and white scarf tied around his neck. He looked younger as well... If I didn't know any better, I'd say that this wasn't Axel. But... who else could it be?
"Have you found her yet?"
I angled my head to see who spoke. It was another familiar voice. And there, standing a few feet from the Axel look-alike was a spiky, blue haired guy that looked a lot like a younger version of Saix. He wasn't wearing a Organization cloak ether. Instead, he was wearing a dark gray coat with short sleeves and a pair of white pants with black shoes. There was some sort of emblem on his chest, but I couldn't see it from where I was standing. What is up with everyone's appearance's? Why are they dress so weird?
The Saix look-alike was leaning against the wall near the monitors. He looked frustrated, standing there with his eyes closed and his arms crossed over his chest. The Axel look-alike hit a couple buttons before answering him.
"Now, if I had found her, don't you think I would have told you?" He said mockingly.
The Saix look-alike opened and narrowed his eyes at him. "This is no time to be cocky. How long has she been off screen?"
"A few hours."
A few hours? How long had I been in the Room of Reflection?
The Saix look-alike pushed away from the wall and turned to face the many monitors. "That idiotic spirit did something to hide her from us." He said irritated. His eyes carefully examined the screens.
"Not to interrupt your search and detain project," Said a voice from the opposite side of the room, "but what is our progress with the other girl?" I tried to angle my head to see who spoke, but the crack was too thin. It didn't matter though. I recognized this voice as well.
It was Marluxia.
The one who kidnapped Kaity.
It took everything I had not to charge in and choke the life out of him. Clenching my teeth together, I turned to stare at the wall across from me. I closed my eyes and focused on their conversation. No matter how much I wanted to beat the crap out of him, I had to pay attention.
"Terribly." The Saix look-alike sighed, aggravated. "We're getting nowhere with her. She refuses to cooperate with us. She is still denying that she has the powers of the Witch and that she can't do what we are asking. Time is growing short and so are my patience with her."
Power's? What power's? And what Witch is he talking about? Wait... a Witch? Does he mean Namine?
Oh my God...
Marluxia chuckled. "How infuriating. A hostage that won't listen to her kidnappers."
I imagined the daggers the Saix look-alike was sending at Marluxia's pink head.
It was silent for a moment before the Axel look-alike sighed, annoyed. "Isa, we have the wrong girl." He stated bluntly.
Another moment of silence followed. "What have you been think about that would lead you to say such a thing?" Isa, the Saix look-alike, said impassively.
"Ienzo," The Axel look-alike said. "Explain what you've discovered."
Opening my eyes, I looked back through the crack in the door to see a kid with slate gray hair step into view. I had to hold back another gasp of exclamation.
It was Zexion!
But, it wasn't. Again. This kid looked exactly like a eleven or twelve year old Zexion would look like, but how could it be him? Zexion looked at least eighteen or nineteen years old. Something is going on here...
"When the girl entered the castle, I noticed something significantly different about her." Ienzo, the Zexion look-alike, explained quietly. "Her scent has changed."
My scent? Ew! Why's he smelling me?
"Changed? Changed how?" Isa questioned.
"Yesterday, when we had been in Radiant Garden, you told me to point out the girl with the most darkness in their heart." Ienzo said. "Because that girl would be the other of the Witch. But I failed to tell this, for both of their hearts had a exact balance of light and darkness. Which isn't customary, at all. No heart has a equal balance of light and darkness. Especially two like that. So I suggested that there had to be a spell on them to hide their true hearts."
"Yes, yes." Isa said impatiently. "You already went through this."
"What I'm trying to clarify, is that whatever was preventing me from sensing that darkness is gone."
"Gone?" Marluxia said. "What would have made it dissipate?"
Obviously, I don't know what was blocking me before or else I'd be able to know how it disappeared so quickly." Ienzo patronized.
"What are you getting from the girl now?" Isa asked.
"Darkness." Ienzo stated. "More darkness then any ordinary heart would contain. Could contain. It's astonishing that she hasn't been turned over to the darkness, yet. However... there is a light in her heart. It's blinding... brighter than even Sora's, but it's notably smaller."
"Then we have the wrong girl." Isa said. "How irritating."
"Would you like for me to dispose of the other girl?" Marluxia asked.
What? Kill Kaity? Shocked, I backed away from the door.
"No." Isa declared. "We'll keep her until we capture the other girl. She will be the bait. Go scour the halls. We need that girl, before he comes back and discovers our mistake."
Footsteps headed toward the door. Panicked, I swerved my head around, spotting the door across the hall. I grabbed the handle, yanking it open before throwing myself inside and shutting the door behind me. I backed up hastily into a shelving structure, knocking over some bottles and kicking something metallic. It was dark in the little room, but before I had closed the door, I had seen that it was another cleaning closet. I stayed silent and unmoving as I heard the door of the control room open and close. The footsteps walked down the hall. Then another door opened and they disappeared.
I breathed out and finally collapsed onto the ground. My knees had given out from dread and shock. This is so screwed up. The guys in there looked like Saix, Axel, and Zexion, but that's not who they are. They're nothing like them, but... then who could they be? Even their names... I don't know any Isa or Ienzo from the games.
Then there's Kaity... God, what am I going to do? They're after me, not her! I cursed myself. Why? Why did I come alone? I should've just waited for the guys. Now I've walked right into their hands! But what's done, is done. I'm here, so I have to figure out how to get Kaity and I out of here in one piece. I just need to get to her, free her, and then get us out of here.
I took a couple minutes to rest and get my thoughts straightened out. If I charge around the castle like a blundering idiot, they'll catch me for sure. Taking a deep breath, I stood up and went to the door, listening for movement. When I didn't hear anything, I opened the door and warily stepped into the hall. There was no one anywhere in the hall and the door to the control room was closed now. Silently, I hastily went from door to door like I had been before. When I opened the seventh door, I poked my head in and saw what I had been looking for this whole time.
"Sam!"
Kaity looked at me with wide eyes, filled with relief. She was sitting in Namine's chair, pushed up against the glassy white table in the center of the room. Her hands were unbound, but her legs were tied to the front two legs of the chair by thick, leafy vines. I slipped into the room and shut the door.
"Kaity," I smiled happily. "Thank God, you're okay."
"Sam, you idiot!" She yelled crossly from her seat, all relief gone from her eyes. "Did you turn off your brain or something? I've been trying to open our psyche connection for hours!"
My face twisted until it looked like I had suddenly run into an invisible wall. Then I smacked my face with the palm of my hand. How could I have been so stupid? I forgot about that entirely! That explains why I've been having that annoying ache in the back of my head since I got here.
"Never mind that," I said annoyed with myself. I began walking towards her. "We have to get out of here." I got to her and bent so that I was level with her bindings. I grabbed one of the vines and pulled it back with a yelp when one of the thorns pierced me.
"I've been trying to cut them off for hours." Kaity said looking down at the plants. "But my metal can't cut through them, no matter how sharp I make it."
"If they can't be cut, then I'll just have to fry them." I muttered. I took a deep breath and channeled the electric waves to the tips of my fingers. Static crackled between my fingers as I open and closed them. Smirking, I touched a spot on each vine binding and watched as they turned black and disintegrate into ash's.
I straightened and backed away as Kaity stood and stretched. "Much better." She sighed contently. "So, where are the guys?"
I glanced over my shoulder. "Um..."
"Sam," She said, her voice hard. "Please tell me you didn't come alone."
"Why does it matter?" I said hesitantly.
Kaity stared at me with a disbelieving fury in her eyes. "Sam! You numb skull! They're after you! Not me! Why did you come without the guys?"
"They were going to leave me behind!" I yelled back at her. "No one would even be here right now if I hadn't come. By the time the guys would have gotten here, you would've been casted off into the darkness!"
"What? Why?"
"This Zexion look-alike guy, Ienzo, found out that you weren't the one they needed and told the other bad guys." I explained. "They know that I'm in the castle and just sent out a search party for me. After they found me, they were going to kill you!"
Then a thought struck me. Fear rising in my throat, I spun around, scanning the roof and walls of the room. Then I spotted what I had been searching for. Crap! "There's a video camera in here. They'll have seen me come in here and free you. We have to leave. Now!"
Kaity and I turned to run out of the white room, but before we could take a step, the door opened and five figures walked into the room. My heart jumped into my throat as they lined up, blocking our only way out.
Isa, Ienzo, and the Axel look-alike were in the line, but there were too other figures that I didn't recognize. Well, I sort of recognized one of them and seeing how the other three look like other Organization members, but really aren't, it would make sense that he didn't look the same either. At the end of the line, on the right, was a tall man with layered, shoulder length light brown hair. His face and figure was more feminine then masculine. My eyes brightened in realization.
It was Marluxia.
But... it wasn't... He has pink hair, not brown. What's going on here?
I turned my eyes to the guy standing in the center of the line. I didn't recognize him at all. He was a boy, not much older than me. Sixteen? Seventeen? He was tall; six feet at the most. He had dark brown hair, almost black, that swept to the left side of his head and spiked up slightly. His skin was a light tan, and he was built like a athlete. Someone who works out a lot. I stared at him as he met my eyes. My breath caught in my lungs. His eyes... they were so blue... like the sea...
The boy smirked, pulling me from my thoughts. Taking in the odds, I grasped my bow and pulled it over my head and held it before me. I transformed it and prepared to fire. Kaity took that as a signal and transform her gloves. It's five against two. How are we supposed to get away from this?
"My, my..." The boy said, taking a couple steps toward us. "How convenient. Now I don't have to hunt you down myself, little Witch." His voice was alluring, carrying a accent I didn't recognize.
With every step he took forward, Kaity and I took backwards. "Sorry to spoil it for you." I snipped at him.
The boy turned his eyes to Kaity, who was standing beside me. "It seems that these idiots brought you here for no reason. You're not the one I ordered them to capture. But... that still raises' the question of who you are."
Kaity scoffed. "Like I'd tell you."
The side of his mouth twitched. His eyes turned back to me. "Why don't we make this easy. Come with us and all of this trouble can be spared."
"And If I don't?" I said.
"We'll obliterate your friend into darkness." He leered.
Okay, that's sadistic. I felt Kaity take a step back and half hide herself behind me. I guess that freaked her out. I raised my bow so that it was level with the guys face. "Who the hell are you people?"
The boy grinned and gestured to himself. "I am Divan," He said. "And these are my Heartless companions."
Wait... what?
Taken aback, I looked at the figures on either side of him and did a double- take. There, on the front of each of their chests was the Heartless emblem. My eyes widened and my mouth gapped open. They were human formed Heartless! No wonder they look like Axel, Saix, Zexion, and Marluxia. They're their Heartless counterparts!
I so didn't see that one coming.
"What..." I muttered. I couldn't speak, I was so stunned. But this guy, Divan, didn't have a Heartless emblem. So who is he?
Divan seemed to be a bit apprehensive with my reaction. "You didn't know about them? Or myself?" He questioned before scoffing. "It seems that the master has over-estimated your knowledge. Let me introduce you to them." Divan turned his eyes to the figure standing on the far left. "There is Isa," he said gesturing to the Saix look-alike, "Lea," he pointed to the Axel look-alike, "Ienzo," the kid on the right side, "and Rauliam," the man on the end.
Isa, Lea, Ienzo, and Rauliam... all these names are anagrams from the names of their Nobody counterparts. Could these have been the real names of their original selves? and master? What master? Who is this guy? God, this is too much and its distracting me from finding an escape. This is defiantly something to think about later, but right now, I've got to get Kaity and I out of here. Okay, a plan. I need a plan...
I closed my mouth and narrowed my eyes at Divan. "Why do you want me? and what do you mean by over-estimating my knowledge?" I bit out. At the same time, I was opening the link between Kaity and I.
Kaity, listen up. I've got a plan...
But something changed. It was like... the room was getting smaller, even though the walls stayed were they were. A ominous look had come over Divan's face as he took another step towards us. His eyes were hard with suspicion. Crap, did he see something on our face's? I felt Kaity move away from me and back up into the wall on the other side of the room. Hopefully I didn't ask her to do something she can't do. The others behind Divan began to spread out along the room, creating a larger circle, slowly pushing us back.
"Now... why should I tell you?" Divan said slowly. He was still moving toward me. Crap, crap, crap...
I backed up, stumbling over my own feet. He was really starting to scare me. Darkness was shimmering around him like an aura. My eyes went to the spot where his heart is. For some reason... I could sense it. I could feel it beating inside his chest. But it no longer ran on the life blood of his body. No... it pulsated from the darkness that flowed through it. My eyes snapped to his, filled with alarm. This is bad. Very, very bad.
I stopped backing up when I was a few feet from Kaity. I wanted to keep moving away from him, but I couldn't. My bow was still out in front of me, but my panic was making my hands shake. Divan kept coming closer and the Heartless were almost completely incasing us. I couldn't make my hand pull back the string of the bow. I shut my eyes tight as my eyes started to blur with tears from my fear. What's wrong with me? I've never felt this scared or weak in my life!
My eyes snapped open and rested on Divan. It's him..., I thought surprised. The darkness that he was giving off was affecting me. I could feel it slithering over my skin now. Trying to look for a way into my heart. To my darkness.
Divan reached were I was standing and pushed down my bow until my arms were hanging down in front of me. He saw the renewed terror in my face from my realization and smirked. He raised his right hand and cupped my chin, lifting it until I met his eyes.
"This isn't the happy Disney video game universe that you believe it is, Sam." He said darkly. "Not anymore."
The darkness was sliding across my skin now, slithering like snakes. I could vaguely hear my name being called, but I paid it no mind. My eyes began to burn like they had in the Room of Reflection. I shut them tight. All I could feel was the fear... the darkness...
No! I can't give into it! I searched for the connection between Kaity and I.
Now!, I screamed through it.
Pulling on the light inside my heart, I made it wash over my skin, pushing the darkness from me. Divan stumbled backwards from the force of my light. The fear that had been choking me left. Snapping open my eyes, I looked at Divan.
He was livid. "Why, you little-"
BOOM!
I ducked to the ground as pieces of the wall behind me flew over my head. Divan and the Heartless fell and skidded backward from the force of the explosion.
"Sam!"
I looked through the dusty air back at Kaity. She was standing near a Hulk sized hole in the Castle wall, holding what looked like small cherry bombs. I grinned and slipped my bow over my head as I stood up. The hole opened up an opening into the room next to this one. Before the bad guys could figure out what we were doing, we ran into the next room and out the door and into the hall. Remembering my plan, I grabbed Kaity's wrist and pulled her down the hall. Yells and running footsteps came after us.
When I had been looking for Kaity earlier, I had come across a room with a large window that looked over the front of the castle. Through the window was also the Gummi ship. I swerved my eyes from door to door, counting them. I could feel the presence of Divans darkness close behind us.
Finding the door I was looking for, I grasped the knob, slamming open the door. Near us, a part of the hall caught fire. Kaity and I screamed, looking back to see the bad guys sprinting towards us. I guess Lea inherited Axels ability for fire.
Kaity and I dashed into the room and went to the window. We stopped and looked out it to see the familiar yellow and red ship. Kaity stepped back and clapped her hands, beginning phase two of the plan. As Kaity was creating her gadget, Divan and the Heartless hurtled into the room. I spun around and stood in front of Kaity, protecting her as she finished her project.
Divan glared at me with rage. I narrowed my eyes at him and took a fighting stance. Rauliam charged forward, running towards me. I shot out my right hand and channeled the static electricity through it and blasted it at him. The force of it lurched him off his feet and through the air into the wall. I starred at my hand, wide eyed.
That was so frickin' awesome!
"I'm done!" Kaity yelled behind me.
Divan lurched forward, throwing himself at me as Kaity grabbed me around the waist and pushed us both backwards. The shattering of glass drowned out the enraged cry from Divan. It took me a moment to realize that Kaity and I were falling backwards through the air, plummeting towards the ground from the top of the castle. I screamed as she flipped us around to face the ground.
"Grab onto me!" She commanded.
I twisted around to hold onto her waist. Strapped to her back was something that looked like a hang-glider with moveable wings. She let go of me and grabbed the two metallic cords that were whipping in the air. She pulled on them and we lurched into a controlled glide. The sudden jerk caused me to loosen my grip and I began to fall. Reaching for something to hold onto, I grabbed Kaity's legs and dangled as she clumsily soared us toward the Gummi ship.
A few seconds later, the back of my ankles hit the dusty ground. Kaity used her ability to make the contraption on her back disappear and we both hit the ground tumbling. We stumbled to our feet and ran toward the Gummi ship. I pulled out the key and opened it up.
When we reached the control room, I jammed the key into the ignition and started the engine. I glance up at the window we jumped out of and saw a silhouette standing there. A cold shiver streamed down my spine. I could almost feel his blue eyes staring into me. I shook my head and snapped my attention to the controls. I sat in the captains chair and buckled up. Kaity sat in the chair on my right and did the same.
The Gummi ship lifted into the air and soared off into space. It was quiet. I set up the auto pilot, telling it to take us to Radiant Garden.
With a heavy sigh, I leaned back in my seat. I stared out into the open universe before us. "I think we're in trouble." I muttered gravely.
"You think?" Kaity said sarcastically.