x_x Holy shite, this chapter is a monster. I guess I shouldn't have tried to get the rest of this world along with the whole Kairi thing done in one chapter, but it was either that or have, like, a five-pager with just the ball. Anywhozer, I'm getting the feeling that everyone's gonna love this chapter. I know I loved writing it. :)
Enjoy!
Disclaimer- Sora and the rest of Kingdom Hearts aren't mine; I'm just playing with them.
Sora briefly cast his eyes among the swarm of Heartless; his eyes eventually landed on a small silvery-white Heartless and he leaped for it. Already, his comrades were picking out their own targets and setting upon the Heartless with their respective weapons – all, of course, except for Donald, who was dodging around the enemies and tossing out healing items when needed, a disgruntled look on his face.
Sora made a mental note to get Donald a new staff as soon as possible; like Char, Donald couldn't stand being left out of the action for any length of time. This trait seemed to be amplified by the fact that, as Disney Castle's main mage, Donald had always been ready for anything.
As it was, the four of them took out the surrounding Heartless fairly quickly, and had but a split second to catch their breaths before four of the large fire-breathers materialized. Sora felt his heart plummet and a feeling of nervousness bloom within him; they had had difficulty just taking out one or two of these, and that had been with Donald's assistance.
So without the mage, how were they supposed to take all these on?
Aladdin and Goofy exchanged a glance with Sora, allowing themselves a moment of hesitation before the dark-haired man brandished his scimitar and charged. Aladdin dodged around one Heartless' flame attack, but the breath from one of the surrounding ones barely licked his skin, causing his allies to wince.
Char balked visibly, and the uncharacteristic gesture from her made Sora nearly falter as well. She hung at the very circumference of the small circle of light that the darkness allowed, casting her ice-colored eyes around frantically; it brought up the memory of her hasty escape from the fire-breathing Heartless at the marketplace. And like before, the question of What's wrong with her? went through his mind.
He didn't have much time to dwell on it, however, because in the next moment one of the Heartless was lumbering toward him, its ample gut drawn back in preparation to engulf him in flames. Sora came to just in time to duck and roll out of the way as the fire roared above his head; he slid practically under the Heartless and jabbed upward with his Keyblade. Had it the ability to speak, the enemy would have grunted in pain, but as it was it just recoiled slightly. Goofy took that opening to bash the Heartless along the side with his shield, knocking it onto its back, where Aladdin promptly finished it off with a sweep of his blade.
"Char, c'mon!" Sora shouted at the redhead, who was still making a wide arc around the battle.
She gave a start of surprise, but that quickly morphed into annoyance. "I'm coming!" she yelled back, and transferred her glare to the Heartless. Sora didn't look that long or closely enough, but it seemed like she took a deep breath before charging at the round Heartless.
Char herself couldn't deny the way her heartbeat spiked tangibly at the slightest sign of the Heartless getting ready to burn her alive, but she knew that for Sora's sake, at least, she had to keep this newborn fear of fire from holding her back. She ignored the pang of self-reproach she felt at the way she justified her actions – this was her own venture, not his – as she threw herself into the fray with her swords at the ready. She darted past the flames spat from one Heartless' maw and sliced into it from behind; this proved to be too much for it and it disappeared in a surge of dark smoke.
Two down, two to go…
Char did a quick mental correction when she saw Aladdin's sword slash into a prone Heartless and said Heartless vanished, defeated. That left just one remaining, which Sora and Goofy were already attacking with the rest of their waning strength. Thankfully, one final swing of the Hero's Crest made quick work of the final Heartless, and Char felt guilty relief wash over her at the fact that she hadn't had to put herself in front of those flames.
Then she suddenly had to blink to get used to the abrupt change in lighting, as the darkness had ebbed and the golden treasure gleamed brightly again. Sora lowered his Keyblade, panting just a bit at the effort from the previous battle.
"Sora?" Donald handed the brunette a Hi-Potion.
The Keybearer simply gave the duck a grateful look, too exhausted to do much else, and, uncorking the stopper, downed it without even disdainfully noticing the slightly-sour taste of one of the long-untouched elixirs. Almost as soon as he could sense the aftertaste, he felt strength return to his limbs and the strange feeling of his wounds closing up on the spot. Goofy and Aladdin were experiencing the same effect as Donald passed around Potions to them. Char, who hadn't participated much in the fight, stood off to the side with her blades at her sides, feeling a little guilty at the way she had almost let her fear get the best of her.
Sora inhaled and exhaled deeply and turned to face the exit. "Let's go!" he called over his shoulder to the others. He made a beeline toward the shadow-veiled stairway that led to the door, the footsteps and wing-beats telling him that the others were following.
Well, this was certainly interesting.
Number VIII of the Organization – Axel, the Flurry of Dancing Flames – had wracked his brain for what felt like hours the previous night, trying desperately to think of ways to bring back the days when it was just him and Roxas and Anxclof. The redhead didn't want to consider the possibility that those days would never return; it gave him a feeling of nervousness and – what was that, sorrow? Axel was going to have to ask dear Superior about that one – when he gave even the slightest shadow of thought about their broken friendship.
While normally Axel would lay low and leave the Sora-stalking to Anxclof, it seemed like the Blade of Vengeance was sadly falling down in that regard. He hadn't actually seen her face to face since the night of Twilight Town's festival, but he was certain that his constant nagging her about tying herself down while Roxas was trapped within Sora had finally gotten to Anxclof, and that she was on the move again. Though it didn't seem that way most of the time, Axel was one of the few people whose opinion Anxclof valued.
That, and the fact that she probably just wanted him to shut up. Axel fought back a chuckle at the thought, though he did allow himself to reveal a countenance-covering smirk.
No, what had caught his attention was his luck today. After all, it wasn't every day that he traveled to Sora's – and, in a sense, Roxas' as well – old home to find something besides the gentle waves and boisterous atmosphere of the mainland.
Ever since Char and Riku had kidnapped Roxas – and even more so since Roxas had merged back with Sora – Axel had been coming to Destiny Island more and more often, if only to clear his head. The way he saw it, it was an all-too-welcome interlude from the constant stormy atmosphere of the World That Never Was, or the glaring whiteness of the castle's floors and walls. No wonder Xemnas and the others are so depressed all the time, Axel thought, snorting aloud.
Besides, no one ever stared at Axel for his hair or his attire, because the tourists that usually visited the island were far stranger than even the Nobody. Hell, once he had even seen a brunette schoolgirl whose shoulder-length hair extended out past the width of her shoulders – a native, no doubt – along with a redhead whose own locks stuck up and clashed with the blue headband that the boy wore. So, Axel fit in all too well here.
Today, Axel had finally figured out his plan. If Sora wouldn't come to Axel or Anxclof on his own, then Number VIII was going to have to take matters into his own hands. And if Kairi happened to be the bait for his plan, then so be it.
Not only had that particular idea stricken him today, but the number of coincidences in the past few hours had increased.
Because what should Axel arrive at Destiny Island to find, but the sight of long brown hair, emerald eyes, and a distinctly-empty look in her gaze?
Great minds think alike, he supposed.
The last time he had spotted Anxclof, she had been walking through the trees that lined the mainland's shore, her white jacket conspicuous against the constant brown-and-green of the foliage. So, Axel made his way in that direction with an anticipating grin on his face, his little kidnapping plan having temporarily been put on hold.
When Anxclof heard the twig snap behind her, she instantly whirled around to face the intruder, one hand already reaching out for her Keychain to summon her Keyblade. She figured it was probably just a native going to bask in the late morning sun, but she knew she couldn't take any chances.
"Relax, Anxclof." The arrogance in the voice struck a familiar chord within her: recognition, friendship, and, as of late, annoyance and dread. She took a step back, shaken despite herself as vibrant crimson hair caught her eye just before the Flurry of Dancing Flames revealed himself to her. "It's me – Axel. Take a chill pill."
"You're one to talk about 'chill pills'," Anxclof snorted. "Pyro Boy."
"Hey, hey, hey, don't be like that," Axel laughed, but his pale green eyes were almost wolf-like as he approached. "I just spotted you in town and I thought I'd say hello."
He stopped in his tracks abruptly when he noticed a golden Keyblade extended in the direction of where his heart would be. Anxclof glared up at him, inwardly cursing the fact that he stood a head and a half taller than she.
"Like hell," she hissed. "What are you doing here, Axel?"
He met her gaze evenly, one brow lifting at the obvious animosity on her face. After a few moments, during which he considered just passing her by, he answered calmly. "The same thing as you, I'd guess."
Anxclof lowered her weapon, not taking her eyes off of him in case he decided to fight back. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Kairi," Axel responded simply.
Dark emerald eyes narrowed. "I might've known. This sounds like exactly the type of thing you might do."
"Anx, why the angry face?" Axel sighed, folding his arms and bringing up one hand to delicately brush a stray lock out of his eyes. "We're both after the same thing. We've both lost someone we care about."
"You told me yourself that you didn't trust me. I thought you didn't go back on your word, Number VIII."
"I don't, Number XIV." The use of her rank was delivered in a sharp, mocking tone. "You said yourself that you guys cared about each other. Well, I care about Roxas, too. I want him back just as much as you do. Got it memorized?"
"How can I not 'have it memorized'?" Anxclof accented the last three words with a low-pitched imitation of Axel's voice and doing air quotes as she spoke them.
A sigh escaped her and she found the leaves below her feet very interesting as she realized the cleverness of his actions. In essence, he had just backed her into a corner: he had a point in saying that they both wanted the same thing, and while her instincts still told her not to trust him, to snap back at him wouldn't make any sense.
"I'm not saying we should work too closely together, if that's what you're thinking," Axel elaborated. "But all I'm saying is that we both have a common goal here."
He left the question So who gets to walk off with Kairi in hand? unspoken, but it hung in the air like water vapor between them.
"Tch," Anxclof muttered, still considering. She looked up and just caught sight of him shifting his weight to one leg, arms still crossed over his chest and pale green eyes still on her.
"Whatever," she acquiesced at last, making no secret of her grudging acceptance on the matter. Her frown deepened substantially when he smirked.
"So on the off-chance that this little kidnapping attempt works, are we both gonna get Kairi, or what?" Axel queried bluntly, his smirk not faltering in the slightest.
Anxclof sighed, plopping down right on the leaf-clad ground. "Who knows. All I'm sure of is that she's probably not gonna go without a fight."
"You're probably right."
One dark eyebrow rose over an emerald eye. "And you're not the least bit concerned about this?"
Axel raised and lowered one shoulder, moving to sit cross-legged beside her. "I am. I just have a great poker face." (1)
"Hello?" Aladdin called, breathless from their dash through the desert here. "Anyone here?"
"He's not here." Sora spoke in a pant accentuated by incredulousness. Donald and Goofy looked around the small room that served as the peddler's shop, while Char ran her fingers through her sweat-drenched bangs. She reminded herself never to walk through the desert in early afternoon heat without a suitable supply of water again. Even though they had rested outside of the city and Aladdin had retrieved some water from the marketplace for all of them, Char still felt the remnants of exhaustion from the day, a feeling that not even potions could take away.
"Stop your whining and hand it over!" a sudden voice snarled from outside, slightly muffled. The group's ears pricked up and they glanced toward the entrance to hear better.
"Ohh no!" the peddler cried. "I'm trading it for treasure! This lamp is going to bring me riches!"
Sora exchanged a glance with his allies. "That sounded a lot like…"
"Pete!" Donald growled.
"Great," Char sighed. "After all the trouble we went to at the Cave of Wonders, he just shows up to ruin it all…"
"Come to think of it, he probably sent all them Heartless out to get us," Goofy said.
"Either way, we can't let him have that lamp, can we?" Aladdin was already pushing the curtain out of the way and running outside.
Upon following him, the others came to an abrupt halt when they spotted none other than Maleficent's minion, chasing after the peddler, who held Jafar's lamp in a death grip. "Oh, no, you don't!" Pete was roaring as he ran past. "Get back here, you little…"
"Seems like they're headed for the palace," Aladdin said, clenching one fist.
Sora nodded. "Right; let's go."
When the palace doors loomed up in front of them, Pete was still following close on the peddler's heels. Clearly, the lamp had switched clutches a couple of times, because the turban on the peddler's head looked just a bit more rumpled than before. "Lamp hog!" Pete barked.
"Go away!"
Char's eyebrows gradually arched further and further into her bangs as she watched Pete trip the peddler and seize the lamp in midair with a triumphant "Gotcha!" The peddler jumped up with arms outstretched, but Pete seized the man's turban-clad head to keep him from getting at it. "I win!" the minion crowed with a smirk, holding the black lamp high above his own head.
Then a dark red blur flashed, and the next thing they knew, Iago was flying back toward them with the lamp in his claws. Pete blinked upon the sudden emptiness in his hand.
"Nice one, Iago," Sora called, grinning. Looks like he really meant it when he said he'd changed.
"Way to go!" Aladdin added.
"Don't drop it!" Char yelled.
"Look! Behind you!" Goofy suddenly shouted, for Pete and the peddler had given chase after the small parrot. Iago chanced a look back and squawked, darting out of the way just before the two hapless males crashed into the wall. The peddler collapsed to the ground, dizzy, but Pete merely extracted himself from the wall, ignoring the slight dent he'd made in it, and glowered at Iago. Ironically, an instant later, the bird hit the wall as well, sliding down to the ground while the lamp fell right at Pete's feet, much to everyone's dread.
Pete cackled as he bent down and picked up the lamp. "Nice try, bird brain!" he laughed. "Just wait till Jafar's free. He's gonna make one beauty of a Heartless!" He dragged out the word 'beauty' as he leaned down to properly taunt Iago.
Sora summoned his Keyblade and ran at Pete with the others behind him, but they all stopped in their tracks when the ground began to shake. "What do you think…?" Char muttered to Sora, at the same time trying to keep her balance.
Sora shrugged tensely. "I just hope it's not another Heart – whoa!" he yelped, stumbling backward. Char instinctively reached out and caught him by the shoulders.
Then Aladdin cried out and pointed at the sky. The others followed his gaze just in time to see a light blue streak, practically invisible against the pristine ice-blue of the sky, crash into Pete, shouting something about being home and how it had been eons.
"Don't tell me…" Sora's words were filled with hopeful excitement.
"Genie!" Aladdin cried. (2)
"Al!" Genie clutched Pete closer, seemingly not having heard Aladdin. "You princely little muffin, you! Cosmic travel can get so lonely without a friend," he added, vanishing briefly only to reappear in a blaze of rose-colored smoke. "To think I left you forlorn and Genie-less… Oh, the inhumanity!" he moaned theatrically, doing the disappear-reappear trick again and crying false tears. The others fought back bouts of laughter at how dizzy this was making Pete.
"Genie?" Aladdin tried again, snickering.
"Say, Al – you been putting on weight?" Genie inquired, inflating comically before disappearing and reappearing next to Pete. "Aw, of course, what am I saying? You're living at the palace now!" He imitated Aladdin and Jasmine by creating a feminine copy of himself, much to the former's embarrassment.
"I can just picture it…" Genie sighed dreamily. Abruptly he straightened. "Say, am I being a pest? A big blue pest?"
"Genie!" Aladdin groaned, approaching from the side. Genie looked over to Aladdin, then back to Pete, and then to Aladdin again, bemusement making him frown. "Al!" he finally cried, practically throwing Pete to the ground and embracing Aladdin in a bear hug.
"Air, Genie," the young man choked out. "Air!"
"What was that?" Genie blinked. "Oh, yeah." He loosened his grip just a bit and looked around. "Donald! Goofy!" When his eyes landed on Char and Sora, his grin widened even more, if that was even possible. "Ooohh… Sora and… whatever your name is… sitting in a tree… K-I-S-S –"
"What?" Char realized as soon as the word escaped her lips that she was still supporting Sora by his shoulders. "Sorry," she grunted, pushing him gently away and avoiding his gaze. She told herself that the whole "blushing" thing was all in her mind. Honestly, before she'd met Sora, she used to blush relatively once every four or five years – yet in the past few weeks it was like the slightest thing set her face aflame.
Pete rose to a half-sitting position, his grogginess darkening into a furious expression as he fully took in what was going on. "I'll teach you to make a fool out of me!" he snarled, shaking his fist and getting clumsily to his feet. "Time for plan B! I'm finishing you mugs off right now!"
He brought his fist down hard on the ground. The ground began to tremble again, although this time substantially more violently than previously. One of the merchant's carts nearby broke apart as a spout of water shot up into the air, soon to be replaced by a royal-looking Heartless. It was mostly ice-blue in color, clad in a silver belt adorned with the Heartless insignia, and held a dark blue staff with a pale blue, wing-shaped piece at the top. The shrubs along the path leading to the palace gates exploded in three bursts of flame, and when the light from the combustion cleared away, there hovered a Heartless similar to the ice-colored one: except that this one's dominant color was crimson, the belt was gold, and its own staff was black with a lava-like piece at the top.
"Crap," Char muttered, stepping so that she was back to back with the others and her dual swords were at the ready. "We just can't catch a break today, can we?"
Immediately, the flame Heartless swung its staff in Sora's general direction; he parried the blow and delivered a flurry of attacks to its underbelly. He followed it up with an attack that knocked it up into the air, and it seemed to suddenly break apart into dozens of the lava-coated Heartless that they had seen in the Cave of Wonders.
"Good job, Sora; you finished that one off!" Aladdin grunted between words as he blocked a series of icicles thrown at him by the ice Heartless.
"I don't think so," Sora yelled back. He skirted carefully around one of the flaming circles that the group of smaller Heartless had created and focused on taking them all out. A single sweep of his Keyblade seemed to destroy them, but he still braced himself for the worst.
Sure enough, an instant later, the flame Heartless coalesced nearby, not too far from its ice counterpart. Char chanced a look at the flaming circles – circles that, strangely, seemed familiar to Sora, but when he tried to place it all he got was flaming crimson hair and an arrogant smile, so he left it alone – and she paled just a bit.
"Focus, Char!" Sora called at her, the question of her problem with fire going through his mind again. She shook herself as if letting his words sink in and gave a brisk nod in his direction. "Right!" she yelled, and threw herself at the ice Heartless.
The fire Heartless was already approaching, and as it shifted its form in a way that made its underbelly vulnerable, Sora suddenly had an idea. He put his Keyblade up toward the Heartless' body and concentrated, then, with a grunt of exertion that very nearly bordered on a snarl, he sent it around in a circle before throwing it toward the wall. It spun there, looking dizzy.
Seeing their chances, Goofy and Aladdin set upon the flame Heartless with their weapons – Goofy tossing his shield in a way that sliced through the hand holding the staff and that somehow brought it back to him without a trace of flame on it; and Aladdin delivering a series of well-placed blows to its large body. Its staff fell to the ground, shortening for some reason as it left the Heartless' hand.
"Donald! What are you doing?" Iago shrieked from the sidelines. Sure enough, the duck was charging toward the staff.
"Trying to make myself useful!" the mage snarled, picking it up and wincing, as though bracing himself for his feathered hand to be burned. When the impact didn't come, however, he held up the staff and concentrated; after a moment, a burst of lightning struck the flame Heartless down the middle and it crashed into the ground before becoming multiple Heartless again.
"Ha!" Donald shouted, waving the staff at where the Heartless had been.
"Great, duck boy," Char hissed through clenched teeth, fighting the urge to cry out at the wounds that the ice Heartless had sliced open along her arms. Note to self: someday, get battle outfit with long sleeves… "Now can you focus on healing us so, I don't know, we don't die?"
"All right, all right," Donald grumbled, his triumph ebbing as he raised the staff: not without a look of slight wonder on his face. Char could understand that; she had honestly only expected the staff to be able to channel fire-related magic. She supposed that Donald wasn't the wizard of Disney Castle for no reason.
She breathed deeply through her nose and out through her mouth as the pain and dull ache throughout her arms and legs faded slightly. "Thanks," she murmured so that only she could hear it, and twisted in midair so that she could slash through the ice Heartless' body.
In her focusing on the ice Heartless, she had failed to notice that the fire Heartless had reformed itself again, and that it was creeping up behind her, fire gleaming on the edge of its body. "Char, look out!" Goofy yelled.
She turned just in time to see the near-blinding form starting to come down hard on her body, and swore loudly as she rolled out of the way. However, it didn't stop coming, and its body created at least four circles of flame around her before righting itself in midair. Staring down at the magma circles surrounding her, Char couldn't help but remember when she had taken that fireball for Sora, and it had hit her right in the leg and oh gods it hurt, and it took her ages to recover and it had almost crippled her –
"Sora…" she choked out.
He glanced over at the sound of her voice and, seeing her immobilized there, unable to even leap across the circles of fire in her fear, Sora suddenly understood why she had balked so much at this world's fire-associated Heartless.
"Goofy!" he shouted, and when the dog looked over, Sora closed his eyes briefly in concentration, with no time to give the knight any more warning than that. A brief flash of light rent the air and Sora stood there, Hero's Crest and Star Seeker in hand, his black attire transformed to red, with Goofy gone.
Even as Aladdin's blade brought the fire Heartless to explode in a conflagration of flame, Sora leaped up high and, bringing his arms back, ripped the Keyblades through the ice Heartless. In a single blow, it fell to the ground, having had enough of the fight. It twisted about briefly before vanishing, twin glowing hearts soaring from its body up into the sky.
Immediately Sora raced to Char's side, only vaguely noticing the increase in speed that came with his transformation to Valor Form. "Donald, come on!" he called when he realized that he couldn't currently use magic.
"Right." Donald lifted the crimson staff and quadruple shards of ice fired out, obscuring the fire and putting it out in a sizzling hiss. Char's shoulders slumped just a bit and she stared at Sora, something almost like defiance on her face – something that asked whether he understood now.
He waited until she had made her swords vanish before a sudden impulse took over him and he rushed forward. Char had a moment's warning before his arms came around her and he was…
…hugging her?
Again?
"You okay?" he murmured into her hair.
Char blinked, her breathing suddenly more shallow than before and her heart pounding a rut into the inside of her ribs. Stop it, she mentally commanded, and like the treacherous thing it was, it refused to obey. "Yeah," she answered, a little shakily. "Just… that was a little scary."
"You!" Pete bellowed, and Sora pulled back – taking his hands off of her, Char noted with a mixture of relief and… something else. "You've messed with me for the last time! I'm gonna get you yet!" he yelled over his shoulder, running off through the palace gates.
"All right!" Genie cheered, giving Aladdin a thumbs-up. Aladdin grinned in response and copied the gesture.
Sora tried to ignore the knowing smirks Donald and Goofy gave each other and chose instead to look at Donald's new staff. "Nice new weapon, Donald," the brunette commented.
Donald grinned smugly. "At least I won't be useless anymore."
"Thank the gods for that," Char couldn't help but say. "Now I won't have to fight with you looking even bitchier than usual."
"Hey!" Donald squawked.
They felt a gust of wind and noticed none other than the magic carpet, soaring around them in complicated loop-de-loops. "We could've used that earlier," Sora sighed.
"Well, too late now," Goofy pointed out, though he looked a bit in agreement with Sora.
"What's going on out here?" The feminine voice made them all turn to the palace gates, where Jasmine had emerged from. "I noticed you all fighting those dreadful creatures," she explained. When her eyes landed on Aladdin, though, she looked away. Aladdin blinked, as though Sora's words about Jasmine being worried about him were now justified.
"I've still got the lamp!" Iago cried, and dropped it into Aladdin's waiting hands.
"Oh, no!" Genie shouted. "Jafar sent his little dodo back to get his lamp and –"
"Genie, relax," Aladdin laughed. "Iago's on our side now."
Iago gave a series of enthusiastic nods. "It's true!" he chirped. "And I promise – you won't regret giving me another chance, honest!"
Jasmine still looked a bit skeptical, but Genie shrugged. "Ah well," he said. "If Al trusts him then I shouldn't argue… shouldn't…" He glanced at Jasmine. "Uhhh… Princess Jasmine, are you sure you want that pigeon in the coop?"
"I think he's shown that he means well," Jasmine said after a few moments.
"Aw, sure. You're probably right," Genie acquiesced.
"And how much trouble can one noisy bird cause?" Sora added.
"You just might have a point there, kid."
"So, Sora," Jasmine said, turning to the Keybearer. "What happens now?"
Sora shrugged. "It's been great seeing you all, but we have to get going to find Riku and the King." And Kairi, too.
"But you all can't!" Jasmine protested. "My father is holding a ball at the palace tonight, and perhaps you all can come."
All four of them gave a start of surprise. "B-but… we kinda didn't bring anything to wear…" Sora blustered.
"Yeah," Aladdin added, although he himself seemed a bit excited at the thought of dancing with Jasmine. "And I don't want to have to borrow anything from you all…"
Jasmine waved a hand. "I'm sure we can work it out."
"Yeah, you never know what Yen Sid might've packed us in the Gummi ship," Donald pointed out.
"I guess," Sora murmured after a few moments of thought.
Char stared at him incredulously. "You're kidding, right? You're actually going with this?"
"Well, I assume you're still going with the whole 'follow us wherever we go' thing…" Donald taunted, and Char cringed when she realized he was right.
"C'mon; I'll have Chip and Dale bring our vessel around so we can look," Goofy urged.
Aladdin nodded, his enthusiasm escalating. "Yeah! I think that works!"
"You just want a chance to dance with Jasmine," Char sighed, causing both Agrabah natives to blush.
"Red's right there, you know," Genie said.
Char raised one eyebrow at him. "Don't call me that."
"Right-o, Red!" Genie chirped.
Char sighed. "Never mind."
Sunset currently garbed the sky in Destiny Island, causing the horizon along the sea to glow a beautiful gold. The clouds moving relatively steadily throughout the sky were stained a mixture of pink and orange-red, while the sun cast a golden glimmer on the island.
Kairi stood at the water's edge, staring out at the island and listening to the waves lap at the sand at her feet. Every once in a while she had to reach up and brush a lock of reddish-brown hair away from her face. Tears threatened to fill her violet eyes as she continued to look at the island.
Now that her memories of Sora had returned – gods, how could she have forgotten about him, when he meant so much to her? – all she wanted was to see him again: to play on that island with him and Riku; to look for materials for their raft; to forget about all these "other worlds" and how the darkness had taken her friends away from her. All she wanted was to return to her childhood.
"Maybe… waiting isn't good enough," she murmured.
"My thoughts exactly!" a feminine voice commented from nearby, and Kairi looked about before turning to the side. She spotted a long-haired brunette approaching her, who wore a strange white jacket adorned with black markings, along with golden elbow-length, fingerless gloves. At the brunette's side walked a tall, gangly young man, whose vibrant red hair was pulled back in a loose ponytail. He himself wore a hooded black coat that touched the sand at his feet, and the tear-shaped markings on his cheekbones somehow set off his bright green eyes.
"If you've got a dream," the brunette went on, cocking an eyebrow, "don't wait. Act on it."
"It's one of life's little rules," the redhead added. "Got it memorized?"
Kairi watched the two of them carefully; something deep within her told her not to trust either of them. "Who are you?" she asked warily.
"Axel," the tall redhead answered smoothly. The brunette's response came a bit more sedately.
"Anxclof," she said evenly.
"We happen to be…" Axel put a gloved finger to his chin – how strange, Kairi thought; who would wear dark gloves on a day like this? – in thought, before continuing. "…acquaintances of Sora's." He extended the same hand to her. "Why don't we go see him?"
"Sora?" Kairi's original opinion of these people shifted, just a bit. She hesitated. The thought of seeing him again sent an unnatural flutter of excitement flowing through her, but at the same time she didn't want to trust either of them.
Then the sound of barking brought her to her senses, and she looked around in confusion; she hadn't seen anyone bring a dog out to the beach…
A yellow dog wearing a bright green collar scampered up to her and barked again in greeting, spinning around before coming to a stop and giving her a dog grin.
"Damn it," Axel hissed. "I didn't think the King's dog had followed me here."
"That's Mickey's dog?" Anxclof muttered back, a sense of annoyance and dread beginning to slowly spread throughout her body and warm her blood.
"Yeah, he was somehow in the World That Never Was when I left. He must have gotten through that dark portal at the last second."
"You couldn't have made sure he hadn't followed?!"
"Oh, like I'm supposed to monitor my portals at all times!" Axel half-shouted, half-whispered. He straightened from where he had had to lean down to speak to her and sighed, shaking his head. "Oh, well. Guess we have to go to Plan B."
He snapped his fingers, and just like that, Dusks appeared around Kairi and Pluto, their lithe forms blocking off any form of escape. Kairi looked around, anxiety and anger intertwining across her countenance, while Pluto stepped protectively closer to her side, growling threateningly at the Dusks.
A dark portal appeared close to the circle of lesser Nobodies, and Pluto began barking, looking from the portal back to Kairi: almost as though he wanted her to go through it.
"We all have something in common, Kairi," Axel said silkily, locking his green eyes with Kairi's violet-blue orbs. "We miss someone we care about. Hey… I feel like we're friends already."
For a moment, she glared evenly back at him, and Anxclof almost wanted to smile: almost. Because no one, not even Marluxia, who had ruled Castle Oblivion before Sora had swept it clear of Nobodies, or Xemnas himself, dared to glower at the Flurry of Dancing Flames for longer than a split second.
Then Anxclof raised a hand, and an Avenger appeared, its single blade held close to Kairi's body. "We're all after the same thing here; why can't we just help each other?" Anxclof asked, only half joking.
Kairi pulled away from the circle of Nobodies and ran toward the portal, into which Pluto had already vanished. "You're not acting very friendly!" she shouted, and ran right into the portal…
…which, of course, promptly dissolved.
Anxclof huffed out a sigh, dropping the polite façade. She had never been that good an actress anyway. "Good job, idiot. You ran her off."
"You were the one that had to go all the way and put that Avenger at her neck," Axel snapped, angrily reaching up and pulling the hair tie out of his hair. As his spiky locks fell freely around his face, he snarled deep in his throat and used his power. With a single fireball that briefly illuminated his face, he had incinerated the hair tie right in his hand. "Damn it. I thought for sure…"
"She's less naïve than she seems," Anxclof murmured, unshaken by his use of his power. "I guess she's not one of the Princesses of Heart for nothing, huh?"
"Princess of Heart, my ass," Axel spat. "That didn't go anything like I thought it would."
"So what if it didn't?" Anxclof's temper was roused at the tone of his voice. "So you left your precious haven in the World That Never Was for nothing. So you might get in trouble with the dear Superior. So what?"
"So we still don't have Roxas!" Axel shouted, and twin flames exploded in his hands with his anger. "That's so what!" He raised his voice a few octaves on the last two words.
Anxclof stared at him, her chest heaving with ire. It occurred to her, dimly, that Axel was her friend too and she should trust him if she wanted her other friend… Yet the majority of her mind told her that with Roxas' merging with Sora, the friendship would never be restored to what it used to be, that even if she succeeded in bringing Roxas back, things would never be the same.
"Screw this," she whispered. "I just want Roxas back."
"You think I don't?" Axel hissed. "He was my friend too, Anx."
His words struck something deep within her: something that had been lying dormant since her time in Twilight Town. And she trembled just a bit at that feeling.
She gnawed her lip and blinked rapidly, trying hard to keep back the tears suddenly growing in her eyes. Damn it, she hissed mentally, don't cry don't cry don't cry don't –
A single tear landed on the sand.
"I know," she whimpered. "Gods, I know."
Axel stared at her, mouth slightly open with how he was breathing. For a moment, the strange urge to gather her up in his arms and let her cry on his shoulder went through him, but just as quickly, it was gone. (3)
He turned away, and as he did so, Anxclof opened up a portal of darkness. Still biting her lip, hand over her mouth, acutely aware of her nose running, she dashed into the portal, leaving Axel standing there on the sand.
It was official. Char hated dresses.
It wasn't as though she had never dressed up back in Hollow Bastion. Occasionally, her master would allow her and her fellow apprentices to attend holiday gatherings, during which Braig and Dilan would always dig up some sort of dress for her; because while with the other six being male, it was never hard to find a tuxedo or a suit, her being the only female made it difficult to find appropriate attire for herself.
Still, though, even then she had been with people she knew, people she had known for practically her whole life; even despite Braig's lecherous grin and perverted comments and Ienzo's blushes and stuttered offers to dance with her, she had enjoyed going out with her friends. Times like those had been so few and far between that she had always welcomed the brief interlude.
Now, though, she stood just inside the Gummi ship, nervous as hell and with a nauseating feeling of anxiety pooling in the pit of her stomach. Outside, the moon was just peeking over the lowest towers of Agrabah's palace – waning crescent, she noted – and from where Chip and Dale had parked the vessel, she could see people mooning about in the courtyard in front of the castle gates. Aladdin and Jasmine stood close to the window, awkwardly silent and refusing to look at each other, blushes visible in the dying sunlight. Char felt a smirk curl her lips at that.
For perhaps the hundredth time since she had finished getting ready, which she had done about three hours ago, she checked herself in the mirror. She just hoped the sight of her hair up in the tidy bun she had always used for research missions in Hollow Bastion didn't surprise her companions too much. Before, she had put her hair up just to get it out of her eyes, but now, she figured, she might as well use it now. A few extra pieces of crimson hair lay tucked behind her ears, and she had unearthed a necklace with a diamond-shaped silver charm at the end of it to wear around her neck. As for the dress – which had, conveniently, been lying in one of the Gummi ship drawers, along with a tuxedo for Sora; Donald had commented as to the psychic abilities of Yen Sid at that – it was a simple sleeveless, blue dress that, thankfully, didn't show too much in the chest area. Char felt her cheeks redden just a bit at that thought.
"I think you look great, Char!" Dale chirped from where he and Chip were monitoring the Gummi ship controls.
"Go out there and knock 'em out!" Chip added.
Char couldn't help but grin at the irony of it all: she, Char Nightblaze, being reassured by a couple of chipmunks. "Thanks, guys," she answered.
Steeling herself, she pressed the button for the hatch to open. It obeyed her unspoken command, and she took a careful step down onto the ramp.
Fortunately, it didn't play out like one of those cheesy romance novels Even had always frantically denied reading: no one turned to watch her as she made her dramatic entrance, and no men found their eyes caught on her in particular. For the most part, she got out to the courtyard without much of a problem, except that she had nearly tripped over the hem of the dress while walking back to solid ground.
She straightened quickly and glanced around. Of course, she didn't recognize anyone there, and the question as to Sora's whereabouts passed briefly through her mind.
If only Riku and DiZ could see me now, she thought dryly, chuckling to herself.
"Char!"
The hoarse voice that greeted her made her turn. Donald and Goofy, looking dashing in their own animal-like ways, approached her, clad in a small tuxedo and suit, respectively; Goofy's typical hat had been replaced by a top hat. At their side fluttered Iago.
"Looking good!" the parrot complimented.
"Yup," Goofy agreed, and Donald gave a grudging murmur of acquiescence.
Char raised one eyebrow. "Thanks, duck boy. Really feeling the love here." She glanced around. "Where are Aladdin and Jasmine? I just saw them a while ago."
"They went to go talk to the sultan," Iago explained.
Goofy noticed her still surveying the area and knew who she was really looking for. "I think I saw Sora goin' out into town earlier," the knight informed her. "He needed to ask the peddler about somethin'."
Char tilted her head to the side, wondering why anyone would willingly go talk to that greedy little midget. "Okay," she answered, already making her way to the marketplace.
As soon as she had left the palace behind her, she allowed herself to breathe a little more deeply. It was clear that she felt much more comfortable out here in the open air, where people didn't eye her strangely or like she was a piece of candy they were about to devour alive.
The marketplace was also empty – almost eerily so, to the point where Char could practically hear the light breeze brushing against her body and causing the hem of her dress to sweep slightly outward. Nearby, however, she heard voices: voices coming from the peddler's shop.
She walked closer and pressed her ear against the curtain. What she heard made her barely suppress a gasp.
"…ever have a customer named… Roxas?"
Roxas.
Immediately she turned away from the doorway and pressed herself against the adjacent wall instead, her heart pounding faster than ever before. How did he know about Roxas? She knew that when Roxas had been in Twilight Town, his memories of Sora had been returning due to DiZ's influence, but she never would have guessed that the same would be true for Sora; that he would be regaining memories of his Nobody…
This sent every bit of research she had ever done on the heart thrown out of balance. This was… something different.
Or maybe he's just different… because he wields the Keyblade?
If that were the case, then would Anxclof's Other experience the exact same thing if or when she merged with her?
Char was so caught up in her shock that she nearly missed the peddler's response, but at the sound of his avarice-coated simper she listened more closely.
"I might tell you… for a price."
An irritated sigh came from inside, and a grin flickered across Char's countenance when the peddler suddenly yelped, "All right, all right! Yes, a boy named Roxas did come here a while back." Sora must have held his Keyblade to the peddler's throat, a strange gesture for the Keybearer. Char figured that these visions of Roxas had been plaguing Sora for a while now, and that he would try to get his hands on any sort of information he could get.
"Did he have anyone with him?" Sora urged.
"Hmm…" The peddler hesitated, then squealed and cried, "Yes, yes, he did! He had a young woman and an older man with him! Now please, take your blade away from me!"
There was a brief moment of silence from inside, and then Sora sighed. "I'm sorry. That's all I wanted to know. Thanks for your time. And I really am sorry."
And then the next thing she knew she found herself face to face with a tuxedo-clad Sora.
In his time in the peddler's shop, Sora's annoyance had been growing at the peddler's greed and lack of a response; that annoyance increased on the spot when he realized that, were it not for his sudden feeling of guilt at his methods, he probably would have gotten so much more information from the peddler.
And then he left the shop, and he found himself face to face with a dress-clad Char, and every thought of Roxas and the peddler and everything else flew completely out of his mind.
As Sora took in the way she had done her hair, and the pale blue dress that somehow set off her eyes, for a few moments, he forgot to breathe, because never before had Char approached him and seemed so…
"Wow," was all he could say. "You look…" (4)
Char cocked an eyebrow, folding her arms across her chest, and sighed. "Sora, please don't be clichéd. You look pretty dashing yourself."
Yep. That was still Char in there. Sora felt vaguely disappointed, but then he saw the faint dapple of red across her cheeks that was just barely visible in the fading light and knew that his compliment hadn't been totally lost.
For a moment a strange surge of panic went through Char, fear that she had said the wrong thing; but then she saw him smile and relaxed.
"Dork," she muttered, and grinned at his pout.
"Do you want to go back to the courtyard?" he asked.
Char winced visibly. "Er, not really… There are too many people there… Yes, I know you want to see Aladdin and Jasmine," she added irritably at the look on his face. "I… I guess we could go back, for a little bit."
"Good!" Sora smiled and grabbed her wrist.
"Wait, wait, wait," she yelled as he led her back to the palace courtyard. "I can't walk too fast in this stupid dress; I'll trip over the hem! Slow down, Key-boy!"
"Sorry," he quickly apologized, and slowed his pace.
They came closer to the rest of the party and saw something that had definitely not been going on earlier. Music had started to play from inside the palace: classical, slow-tempo music. Char cast her eyes about and spotted Aladdin and Jasmine by the aqua-green of the latter's dress; the two of them were slowly moving to the music, with Jasmine's head against Aladdin's shoulder.
"Guess they finally made up," the redhead commented.
Sora followed her gaze to the couple. "What do you mean by that?"
Char shrugged. "Earlier they were trying not to look at each other and avoiding each other like the plague."
"Oh." Sora chuckled, watching the two of them. As he looked on, a vision of himself and Kairi began to slowly replace Aladdin and Jasmine, dancing with their bodies close together and in a tight embrace. Sora's smile began to fade as a pang of heartache went through him. For this entire journey he had been trying to avoid the thought of Riku and Kairi and how much he missed them – not just them, but Tidus and Selphie and Wakka and his mother; his home, his island.
He glanced at Char and, to his surprise, an identical expression of wistfulness had taken over her own countenance. For the first time he noticed that he had never let go of her wrist.
He wasn't sure what possessed him then, but he had to ask anyway.
"Do you want to dance?"
Char looked over, brow furrowed. "What?"
"I'm sorry," Sora hastened to amend. "I just, I thought since everyone else is –"
"No, seriously, what? I didn't catch a word of that."
Sora blinked and nearly groaned aloud. Great, now he was going to have to repeat himself.
"I said…" He hesitated. "Do you want to dance?"
Char's frown deepened. "I don't dance," she stated flatly.
Something told Sora to just leave the matter at that, but something else told him not to leave it alone. "Neither can I!" he pointed out. "I mean, I learned how, but that doesn't mean I enjoyed it…" He blushed slightly at the memory of how many times he had stepped on Kairi and Selphie's feet while learning how to properly dance.
"Anyway," he quickly continued, "at least if you look stupid, I will, too."
"So looking stupid isn't as bad if you have someone to look stupid with?" Sora could have sworn that Char's eyebrows had nearly hit her hairline by now.
He looked back and noticed that a new song was starting; that a few couples were leaving the courtyard and heading into the palace.
"Come on," he urged more quietly, meeting her eyes. Since they were about the same height, it wasn't too awkward for him; aside from the whole looking-Char-in-the-eye thing, of course. "Just one song."
"All right, all right!" she growled at once, grabbing his hand. "If it'll make you shut up!"
She led him out to a relatively empty spot, just in case either of them screwed it up. Carefully, she rested her free hand on his shoulder, and tried not to shudder at the way his hand came to tentatively sit on her waist.
She anticipated an absolute bloodbath, but to her own shock, it… wasn't. As the song played on – a soft little melody that rose to a crescendo every once in a while, but not to the point of surpassing the slow-dance limit – she realized that the way her heart was pounding wasn't from nerves or disgust, but… contentment.
And yes, he truly was as bad of a dancer as he had said; but he let her lead, so he only ended up stepping on her foot once. As the song played on, still unnaturally long but not uncomfortably so, she steeled herself and came to put her head against his shoulder.
As for Sora, he was absolutely certain that she could hear his heart screaming against his chest, and he was absolutely certain that his hands were clammy with nervousness, but strangely, he didn't care. The fact that Char had allowed him to do this at all was still making his head reel, but aside from that it felt… sort of right to hold her like this. He tried to banish the thought from his mind, but it wouldn't go away, and after a little while, he stopped trying to make it go away.
Before they knew it, the song had ended, and Aladdin and Jasmine were parting from each other, and other couples were going inside, but Char and Sora remained there. Char hesitated; she had already removed her hand from his shoulder, and he had taken his hand off her waist, but they were still grasping hands.
Then his eyes slipped half closed and he started leaning forward, and Char's pulse suddenly spiked further than ever. Her mind shut down, seemingly only able to think the thought oh gods, he's going to kiss me.
His head slumped onto her shoulder and she heard a faint snoring noise coming from him. She narrowed her eyes, strangely half relieved. Of course.
"Sora?" she muttered, pushing his shoulder. "Sora?"
"He's tired," Aladdin said, coming to stand next to them. Char looked over and saw that his fingers were entwined with Jasmine's. "It's… kinda been a long day."
"Yeah," Char grunted in response. "But I refuse to carry him back to the ship."
"It's fine," Jasmine said, delicately putting one hand over her mouth to stifle her giggle. "Donald and Goofy will probably help carry him to his room."
"Hey!" Goofy's voice from nearby heralded the arrival of the two Disney Castle residents.
"What was that about carrying Sora?" Donald narrowed his eyes.
"The idiot fell asleep on me," Char explained, awkwardly pointing at the way Sora's head was still resting against her body. She shivered just a bit at the way his warm breath kept puffing against her collarbone, but tried to keep the action hidden from everyone else. "I think we should all turn in for the night."
"Yeah, we already locked up Jafar's lamp, so things should be fine around here," Aladdin said.
"Bye, everyone!" Goofy waved enthusiastically as they leveled Sora's body so he lay between the knight and Char's arms.
Char narrowed her eyes at Donald. "And you don't have to help… why?"
"Because I'm not tall enough," the mage answered rather smugly.
"Calm down, you two!" Goofy laughed nervously at the way Char and Donald were eyeing each other.
"Whatever," Char grumbled. "We'll set off again in the morning, then, I'm guessing?"
"Yup," Goofy nodded. "Sora already opened the gate."
"Really?" Char raised her eyebrows. "I missed that one."
"Probably because you were in the Gummi ship getting ready," Donald snorted.
"You know what, maybe I was!"
As night fell upon Agrabah, the memory of the dance with Sora ran through Char's mind again, and how she had felt when she had thought he was going to kiss her. Looking back, the notion was idiotic; why would Sora – the Keyblade-wielding, brown-haired, Kairi-chasing, dorky Sora – want to kiss her? Still, though, the thought made her just the tiniest bit excited.
Do I like him? she asked herself, and was ashamed to admit that she had no straight answer for that one.
-cough-Yes-cough-
Char: -_- -slaps-
(1) Credit for this little line goes to Yuri Lowell, the best Tales hero in the history of Tales heroes.
(2) Many apologies for any OOC for Genie from here on. For some reason, I have a really hard time writing him.
(3) Damn it, I kind of want to ship AxelAnxclof because of this part. D:
(4) ...beautiful? Go ahead, Sora, you can say it. XD