Woohoo, Chapter 12! You know what that means!
Char: (sigh) One away from your lucky 13?
Me: Yup! And I'm in a pretty good mood, considering I keep getting killed in .hack/Infection... (grumbles) Stupid Mia... making me go out by myself...
Char: Yeah, Saf actually got to the boss before she ran out of items and died. It was kinda funny, actually.
Me: I'M NOT GOOD ALONE, DAMMIT!
Char: Anyway, enjoy this chapter, or I'll rip your spleen out.
Me: 0.o I'm never letting you do the chapter welcome again...
Disclaimer- Please.
In a dark, shadowed castle, just beneath the rampart, a certain large dog clad in red, blue and purple was looking around.
"Maleficent?" he called tentatively; and then louder. "Maleficent?" He gave up on calling his mistress – this had lasted all day and his throat was starting to hurt – and sighed. He entered the main room of what had been Maleficent's castle. "Maybe they really did finish her off…
"Now what's gonna happen to our plan?" he wondered despondently, slumping down against a wall.
A sudden flapping of wings greeted his ears, which pricked up at the sound. He stood and saw a raven perched on the balcony ledge.
And not just any raven…
Goofy parked the Gummi ship and called to Char and Sora, who were in the back, "We're here, guys!"
Char let out a growl of disappointment and dropped her cards. "And I'd almost beaten him, too…"
Sora shrugged, trying to sound modest. "Er, I guess I just have a knack for this…" To be honest, he didn't remember ever playing cards at the islands, and saving the worlds from Ansem and the Heartless hadn't exactly given him the time to learn.
The redhead stood up in her chair, and Sora hastily followed. "C'mon," she said. "Let's go check on your friends."
The four of them exited the vessel, and almost as soon as Char had set foot on the ground she was overwhelmed with the feeling one usually got when thinking about home. She inhaled deeply, like an addict, trying to get enough of the scent before she had to leave for good.
The sight of this place… the smell… damn, it felt almost like nothing had changed a bit from when she'd been training here under DiZ. In fact, if it weren't for the occasional dilapidated building and construction signs, it would've felt exactly like home, which would have made Char feel even worse.
So she didn't know whether to be guilty for being grateful that it wasn't the same, or to just be grateful that she didn't have to suffer the humiliation of being overtaken by her homesickness.
"This is Hollow Bastion," Donald said doubtfully, his words coming out sounding like a question.
"Yeah, but it looks kinda different now…" This was Goofy, who was looking around.
They all ran to the nearby ledge and looked out.
The former castle of Maleficent had changed significantly since its mistress had fallen to the Keybearer and his comrades – the building was now nothing more than a wreck of winding brick and rubble. A few beams could be seen as still intact, but other than that, everything about it was different.
"Shouldn't we go check on Leon and the others…?" Char cut in before the sense of déjà vu could threaten to take over her.
"Hm?" Sora turned to look at her. "Oh! Yeah!" With that, he had started off down the street with the duck and the dog at his heels.
Rooted to the spot by her emotions – which she tried furiously to suppress at once – Char let her gaze skim the area a little more. A flicker of movement drew her eyes to the roof of one of the nearby buildings; it was one of the armored Heartless, clanking along conspicuously. When it noticed her glare upon it, it hastily vanished in a translucent globe of black and violet.
Char realized the others were getting ahead of her and hurried ahead to meet them.
The four of them headed down the street; during the short five minutes, Char started to wonder whether Sora's idea had been best, whether or not she should have stayed in the ship. Everything was so familiar to her that her heart was starting to ache.
And, with Char Nightblaze, that was definitely an unfamiliar feeling.
"Hey, Char, are you alright?"
Char blinked out of her reverie; she made a point of narrowing her eyes irritably at the dog who had spoken, yet the interruption wasn't entirely unwelcome. "Why?"
Before Goofy could reply, Sora lifted one hand and pointed. "Well…"
The redhead frowned. "What are you talking –" Unconsciously, one hand went up to her cheek, where Sora had signaled; to her embarrassment, she felt a disturbing wetness there.
She scraped one finger roughly across the offending eye in an attempt to get it free of tears. "I'm fine. Just thinking."
Sora nodded without questioning her further; Char guessed he was remembering how he'd cried for seemingly no reason in front of the Twilight Town gang.
He turned back onto the path, only to cry out and leap back as pale beams of light came up from the ground around them, as though scanning for something. Donald and Goofy let out sounds of confusion as well, but Char remembered the world's defense mechanism and stayed where she was.
"What is this?" Sora cried.
"That's the town's defense mechanism!" came a feminine, upbeat voice from above. The four of them looked up and saw a certain dark-haired ninja waving energetically at them.
"Hey, Yuffie," Sora greeted.
Yuffie waved, but then, looking at something beyond them, cried, "Look out!"
They whirled around and saw the Dusk Nobodies appear, surrounding them in blurs of off-white. Among them were another, new kind of Nobody, one that looked oddly familiar to both Sora and Char. The creature had two blades, and brandished the two sheaths as weapons as well.
Sora snapped out of his mental search for the reason of this familiarity before Char did. The Kingdom Key appeared in his hand, and Donald and Goofy whipped out their weapons. "Take out the samurais first!" he shouted, running for one of them at once, not even bothering to figure out how he knew these Nobodies were called Samurai in the first place.
Wow, Char thought, readying her own blades. The kid actually has some sense after all.
One of the Samurais slashed her from behind, nearly knocking her facedown onto the concrete. She managed to catch herself with her elbow just in time, and felt a stabbing agony from her back and elbow; the oozing warmth of blood was tangible on her back as well.
"Oh, so you want to fight, eh?" the girl grunted, leaping to her feet and twisting to return the Nobody's strike. It dodged aside, however.
Char swore as she realized she was pinned with her back to the wall with two of the Samurais coming at her from both sides. She snarled, trying to be intimidating, lashing out with the sword held in her uninjured arm, but inwardly her heart was pounding. Hard.
One of the Nobodies drew its blade back to deliver a blow, but suddenly it seemed to freeze; the next moment, Sora had sliced through it with his Keyblade. He turned his attention to the other Samurai and beat it off to the side with a flurry of parries and slashes. He turned his head slightly to look at her, still keeping one eye on his opponent. "Char, you okay?"
"Y-yeah," she replied instinctively, forgetting briefly about her previous tough-girl façade. She pushed herself to her feet and noticed Goofy was having trouble with one of the Dusks, but before she could take action Donald had zapped it into oblivion.
She tried to hide a grin. Guess non-healing magic can help after all…
But Char felt a twinge on her back that, she knew, meant another wound, and winced. Well, at least now her arm and back matched…
"You guys okay?" called Yuffie, looking worried from where she stood on the ledge.
"Oh, yeah, just peachy," Char muttered, and instantly regretted drawing attention to herself. The ninja leaped down from the building to get a better look, managing to land on her feet with ease. Her dark eyes widened at seeing the redhead.
"Hey, you used to live here, didn't you?" She tilted her head to the side and tapped her chin with a forefinger. "But all that research didn't exactly help with your social life, did it…"
"You were a researcher here?" Sora gave Char a questioning look.
"Um, yeah… you could call it that." Char prayed to the gods of all the respective worlds that Yuffie didn't elaborate more on said 'research'.
Fortunately, the ninja just shrugged and turned to Sora, Donald and Goofy, a jovial look spreading across her face. "I see you guys are still in top form."
"What'd you expect?" asked Sora, grinning. "Looks like you're still doing okay."
"Well, what'd you expect?"
"How are the others?" asked Donald.
"Great! Wanna go see 'em?"
This, Char thought, was the precise reason why she hadn't wanted to go back to Hollow Bastion. Aside from the heartache she got at coming home, there was the overwhelming probability that one of Sora's friends would recognize her from DiZ's studies.
And she did not want the trio to discover who she really was at all.
"Hey, Yuffie," Sora began, after an enthusiastic nod to her previous question. "Have you seen the King and Riku?"
"Nope," the dark-haired girl replied.
The brunette sighed, and Char felt another little pang of guilt.
"But I had a feeling I'd see you guys again," Yuffie added.
Sora straightened and grinned, then put on a serious face and tone. "'We may never meet again, but we'll never forget each other.'"
Yuffie laughed. "Is that supposed to be Leon?"
Donald and Goofy chuckled at that.
"Everybody's working on stuff over at Merlin's house. C'mon!" Without waiting for a reply, the ninja ran off around the corner.
Donald turned to Char, narrowing his eyes at her. "A researcher, eh?"
The redhead shrugged. "What business is it of yours if I was one?"
"Well, it'd kinda be nice to know this stuff," Goofy said.
Char rolled her eyes. "Whatever."
Oh, excellent comeback, Nightblaze. If that didn't burn them I don't know what will.
Oh, shut up. Trying to ignore that irritating voice in the back of her mind, the redhead shot a glance at Sora over her shoulder. "Shouldn't we be going to Merlin's?"
"Oh! Yeah!" Sora grinned, which made Char roll her eyes again.
"I reiterate – why someone with such a bad memory is the Keyblade master, I will never know."
Sora's grin faded into a pout.
The four of them set off to follow Yuffie, with Sora looking contemplative – well, as contemplative as he had ever gotten, anyway – and Char thanking every deity there was that her cover hadn't been blown. That, more than anything, would have annoyed her. The odd thing was, she did remember Yuffie, from those days when Char was bored in DiZ's study and they were allowed visitors.
Of course, the redhead reflected as the four of them rounded the corner, it's not like she ever had any true friends while she was there; DiZ made sure the seven of them were kept good and busy. Understandable, though. People did tend to do strange things when they were bored…
Why was it that everything she thought inevitably seemed to lead to that fateful incident?
Char shook her head to clear it and realized they were standing in front of Merlin's house. Donald had already gone inside, as shown by the duck's absence and the door swinging slightly ajar, but Sora had his hand on the doorknob and was looking quizzically at her.
"You okay?" asked Goofy.
Char realized she was supposed to be keeping up the tough front, and merely stared blankly back. "I'm fine," she growled.
Sora blinked doubtfully. "You were kind of staring at the ground after we saw Yuffie, so I just thought…"
Char's head jerked up defiantly. "Well, for the record, you thought wrong." She practically shoved Sora aside and made as if to go through the door to Merlin's house…
…only to remember too late that the gap between the door and its frame was still only duck-sized from where Donald had gone through, and stumble and nearly fall.
Well, there went the dramatic effect.
Char haughtily straightened, refusing to chance a look at Sora and Goofy, but she thought she heard some sniggering on the former's part as she shoved the door back open. However, like at Yen Sid's tower, the laughter abruptly halted, as though Sora were realizing his penalty if Char caught him.
The redhead decided to let him go, just this once, and entered the room. She heard footsteps behind her that suggested the Keybearer and Goofy had followed.
The first thing Char saw was the computer screen, dark and conspicuous against the walls nearby, and felt another overwhelming sense of déjà vu. In front of the computer were three people she recognized almost at once, even though their backs were turned. One was wearing her usual red-and-pink dress, and was the only female; the man sitting at the computer was typing something that caused a bunch of strange characters Char couldn't read to appear onscreen. The man standing on the other side of his companions was broad-shouldered with brown hair, and it looked like he had his arms folded in thought.
Even though Char hadn't exactly been the most social person in the world while she was working here, she still recognized the two of them almost at once: Aerith, Cid and Squall. The redhead felt her face crease into a frown and her arms come up to fold across her chest as she remembered that Squall now called himself Leon, due to the Heartless invasion two years ago that he had been unable to stop.
Sora had slipped around Char to stand beside her without her noticing, and so it was all she could do to keep from jolting in surprise when she suddenly felt him brush slightly against her side. She gave him a disapproving look and moved away so that they weren't touching, causing an injured frown to appear upon the Keybearer's face; but Yuffie spoke before Sora could.
"Meet the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee!" the ninja said brightly, gesturing to the three people standing before the computer.
Char couldn't help but scoff. "Doesn't look like a very big restoration committee, if you ask me."
"At least they're trying," Donald muttered pointedly. Char figured he probably hadn't meant for her to hear, but she returned his glare all the same.
The conversation had caused the trio at the computer to turn and see what was going on. When Aerith's green eyes fell upon Sora, Donald and Goofy, she put her hands together before her in delight. "We missed you!"
"Well," Cid growled. "Ain't you in top shape."
Leon, however, stepped forward to greet them, the slightest twitch of a smile crossing his normally stoic face. Char was surprised; he hadn't usually shown so much emotion during the time she had known him. "I knew it," the older brunette chuckled.
"Knew what?" Sora asked, tilting his head of spiky hair to the side.
"A while back, everyone suddenly remembered you three, all at the same time." Leon crossed his arms again as he spoke.
"You… remembered?" Sora blinked, then an indignant pout took over his countenance. "Hey, does that mean you forgot about us?!"
"Thanks," Donald grumbled.
"So where were you guys all this time?" asked Yuffie, who had gone to lean against the wall while the others had greeted Sora.
"We were sleepin'," explained Goofy. Char had to admit that even to her – she, who knew the reason why and how the three of them had been "asleep" in the first place – the explanation sounded a little odd.
"Where?" asked Cid. "In cold storage?"
Sora scratched his head, while Donald and Goofy shrugged. "I don't know," the Keyblade master said at last. "We just woke up in this weird white room…"
"I hate to interrupt this touching little reunion," Char interjected, causing all eyes to turn to her. She felt her cheeks warm a little at being the center of attention, but she kept going nonetheless, keeping no trace of scathing out of her voice. "But don't we have someone to ask about?"
"Oh, and we met her not long after we awoke," Sora said, looking a little chagrined at being interrupted. He jabbed a thumb in her direction as he spoke his next words. "This is Char."
"Did you all know she used to be a researcher here?" Yuffie said, her voice excited in the way of one who was telling a particularly juicy secret. Char mentally slapped her forehead for speaking up again.
"I've never met her," Cid growled, and Aerith shrugged as well.
Then again, the redhead thought, maybe it had been a good thing that researching for DiZ had kept her good and busy. And isolated, too – there would be next to no chance of being recognized by any of Sora's Hollow Bastion friends. She inwardly breathed a sigh of relief; all this time she had hated the seclusion, like a caged wild bird whose master was attempting to domesticate it. But somehow, it had managed to come in handy.
"So, um…" Sora was evidently trying to get back on track. "We're searching for Riku and the King. Have you guys seen them anywhere?"
Leon, Aerith and Cid collectively shook their heads, and Sora sighed and hung his head.
"Sorry," Aerith said. "But let us know if there's anything we can do to help, okay?"
"Thanks," Sora nodded.
Abruptly Cid had gotten up out of the chair and was up in Sora's face, for lack of a better term. "Don't go thankin' us just yet," the man said in his hoarse voice. Sora blinked and nodded to show that he was listening.
"Hollow Bastion's got a problem," Leon said, looking a little bemused at Cid's emphasis, but serious all the same. "A big problem."
"A problem?" asked Sora, craning his neck to look around Cid at Leon. "Like Nobodies, and Heartless?"
"Yup!" chirped Yuffie.
Char snorted. "You sound pretty cheerful for someone whose home is about to get overrun by Heartless."
"She's always been that way," Goofy said, and the others nodded in agreement.
Leon, ignoring their conversation, stepped up so he was standing right in front of Sora. "Then let's cut to the chase." He looked from Sora, to the duck, to Goofy, and finally, hesitantly, to Char herself. "We were hoping that you three might give us a hand around here, but we're not above accepting you either, Char."
Char shrugged. "Eh, why not?"
"And it's not like the rest of us would say no either," Sora chipped in, grinning as he thumped one fist against his chest. Char rolled her eyes. Boys.
Leon's serious look morphed into a small smile, and Char nearly fell over on the spot. What the hell had happened to the serious, stoic, silent Leon she had known? "I forgot who I'm dealing with," the brunette chuckled.
"Heeeeey," Donald said, crossing his arms indignantly, "whaddaya mean by that?"
Aerith smiled. "Just think of it as a sort of… Leon-compliment."
"He has a very weird way of praising people, then," Char muttered under her breath.
"Hey, Char, did you say something?" Sora asked, tilting his head back to better look at her.
The redhead sighed. "Nothing."
Leon had already made his way over to the door, and turned to better speak to them. "Follow me to the bailey – there's something you need to see."
Char couldn't help but feel a twinge of nervousness as he left. Would this "something" have anything to do with how different her home looked? No matter how homesick she felt, no matter how much she wanted to run to the Postern and completely abandon Sora and the others, she knew she had to stick around long enough to find out.
The four of them made as if to head to the door, but before they could a puff of smoke had announced someone else's arrival. Donald, who had been standing right where the smoke materialized, let out a startled "wak!" and leaped back.
The smoke cleared to reveal a certain blue-robed, bearded wizard – not Yen Sid, but someone Char recognized almost at once, having seen him around talking to DiZ more times than she could count. "Merlin?" she asked before she could stop herself.
"Ah, yes." The wizard adjusted his glasses across his nose and squinted. His eyes widened. "Charisa Nightblaze – is that you?"
Sora looked from the redhead to the wizard in surprise. "You guys know each other?"
"Of course." Char rolled her eyes. "He was around my master all the time." She looked back to Merlin and gave a small bow of respect, like the one given to Yen Sid. "It's an honor to see you again, sir."
Merlin chuckled. "Oh, no, no, no, Charisa, I will have none of that bowing business."
"Sorry," Char muttered, a small grin on her features as she rose. "Old habits and all that good crap, you know."
"But still with a mouth like a pirate!" The old wizard gave her a look of mock disapproval.
"Tch, you got used to it after a while, didn't you?" Char felt the sudden burning of eyes into her back, and half-turned to face them with a frown. "And what're you all looking at?"
"Sorry," Sora murmured. "It's just… we didn't know you knew Merlin so well…"
"Well, I do. Got a problem with it?"
Donald just glared at her in a way that spoke for itself.
"Hey, Merlin!" Yuffie greeted. "Sora and the gang said they're gonna help out!"
"I never said explicitly that I would help," Char contradicted. "I just said there was no reason why I shouldn't."
"Aw, come on," Sora said. "You said, and I quote, 'wherever we go, you're going too'…"
Char opened her mouth to muster up a good retort, but ended up just sighing and crossing her arms. "Touché."
"Ah, yes," Merlin said, his eyes lighting up as though he had just remembered something. "Did you give them the cards, dear?"
"Oh, right." Aerith shifted around in her pockets for a moment before taking out a set of laminated pink-and-purple squares. She handed one to Sora, one to Donald and one to Goofy.
Sora looked down at his and gasped in delight. "'Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee Honorary Member'!"
Aerith looked apologetically at the redhead. "We didn't know you'd be coming, so we only had ones made for Sora, Donald and Goofy…"
"It doesn't matter," Char cut in. "I know what I'm a part of – whether I have a little card or not doesn't change that."
Aerith smiled and nodded in acknowledgment before looking back at the others. "They're presents for you. Leon thought you might like to have them."
"They're kinda cool, huh?" Goofy said, raising his up to the light to better see it.
"Hey, thanks, Leo –" Sora's sentence trailed off as he saw the still-open door, and he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Oh, heh, right. We're supposed to meet Leon at the bailey."
"Right!" Donald said, and the four of them made for the door. However, Merlin stopped them in their tracks.
"How have the four of you kept up with your magic?" asked the wizard.
"Uh… well…" Donald looked away guiltily.
"Sir, I'm not exactly the magic-user here," Char said. She remembered with a flush of embarrassment how she'd tried to use magic from what the books in DiZ's study had told her to do, and had ended up nearly incinerating her fellow apprentice Ienzo. "I think it'd be better if you re-taught these three. I've seen them in battle – they seem to have forgotten their magic while they were sleeping."
"Don't remind me," the duck grumbled.
Merlin sighed and looked disapprovingly at the trio, who quailed a little under his gaze. "I suppose I'll have to lend you a few of my spells, then." He fished around in the pockets of his robes for a few moments, during which Char narrowed her eyes and began tapping her foot impatiently; then his hand came back from one of his front pockets to reveal a dark crimson orb. The wizard tapped it with his index finger, and it split into thirds. He then gave Char a questioning look. "Are you sure you don't want to try using magic this time?"
Char gave a harsh little bark of a laugh. "If you want these three to die a painful death of bad magic aim, go ahead and be my guest."
Goofy gulped audibly at the deadpanned – though feigned – eagerness in her voice, while Donald stared defiantly and raised his staff, as though daring Char to try. Merlin just said, "You certainly haven't changed a bit."
Char blinked at the coldness of his voice and felt an entirely unwelcome feeling stirring in her gut again. Despite the sorcerer's words, she felt that she had changed a lot since her apprenticeship here – grown up, stronger, not as naïve. It felt like a whole different world compared to her new life, no pun intended. Swallowing the lump that had been threatening to rise in her throat, she answered rather roughly. "Look, Merlin, you still get my meaning."
The wizard just raised his eyebrows as though he didn't quite believe her, but he reached out the hand holding the three small orbs to the others all the same. Donald took his, which promptly disappeared within his white-feathered form, while giving Char a not-so-surreptitious glare; she returned it with one of her own.
"Aw, Donald, don't be like that," Goofy said, taking his own orb while giving Merlin a grateful glance. "I'm sure Char was only jokin'."
"Well, either way, we still have to get to the bailey, right?" This was Sora, and the other three jumped slightly; he hadn't spoken too much since Merlin had appeared.
Donald and Goofy nodded and started for the door, even as the wizard gave them a friendly wave and vanished in another puff of smoke. Char closed her eyes to summon her twin blades just in case they met even more Heartless outside, but even as she was concentrating she felt a hand close around her arm, clad in cotton while the fingers were bare. The ice-blue eyes flew open and Char's head jerked to face Sora, the owner of the hand that had interrupted her concentration. "What?" she asked rather harshly.
But then she felt herself inhale sharply when she noticed something that would be rather off-putting, even to girls more… socially adept than she was.
Sora was standing there looking at her, with her wrist in a death grip to prevent her from moving, looking straight into her eyes.
Instantly she was struck with how eerily similar his dark blue eyes were to Roxas', even though the haphazard bangs that hung above his eyes were dark brown instead of honey blond. Again she was reminded the reason why she was on this journey in the first place, of her and DiZ's impending revenge on the Organization. Sora spoke softly, a single word – a verb that Char had never even considered doing in a long while.
"Relax."
Char imagined her tough-girl mask cracked a bit then.
The hand on her arm released her wrist and moved up to caress her shoulder for the briefest of moments; then Sora gave her a small grin and headed for the door.
The redhead blinked, rooted to the spot, bemused. Okay, even from Riku's stories about the brunette, that seemed a little odd for the naïve, seemingly-oblivious Keybearer to do, much less to her, someone he had just met.
You're thinking of yourself, Char.
Char hung her head at the words that rang inside her head, knowing that what it spoke was the bare, ugly truth.
Raising her head and lifting a fist to brush her bangs out of her eyes, she concentrated again to summon her weapons, then yelled, "Wait up, you losers!" and dashed for the door.
Ah, Char being homesick... It's fun to torture characters. XD
Char: Tch.
Me: The whole homesick thing, though, is actually something from my life; when I first moved here, I felt the exact same way about my old house.
Char: But now you love it here.
Me: Of course! (huggles friends)
Char: So, yeah. This was more of a filler than anything, though...
Me: OH WELL!
Char: Next chapter has a bit of action, and angst, too. So whoop-de-fuckin'-doo for the rest of you.
Me: O.o Like I said before... no more announcements for you.