Holy crap! What's this? SAF IS ALIVE?! THIS IS BLASPHEMY. THIS IS MADNESS!
Yeah, sorry about not updating for, what, almost four months? x.x School and swimming got really hectic. I know that sounds like a pathetic excuse, but when you're frantically studying for an AP test in one class and trying to please your stupid teacher in another (English; but she hated everybody's writing so I didn't feel so alone), it's a little hard to get any creative writing in edgewise. Unless, of course, you're writing a stupidly long oneshot about your new OTP by the name of Paper Walls, but - but - SHUT UP! D:
Plus I got writer's block for this, which didn't help at all, let me tell you. But fortunately, I got back into the groove just long enough yesterday to write what is probably one of my shorter chapters. It's just a filler for all of you to nibble on until I can get my bearings on this fic back (I shouldn't have stopped writing it for so long, it was harder to get back into the mood for it).
So, enjoy, I guess.
Disclaimer- I didn't own Sora, Riku, Roxas, or KH before; what makes you think I do now?
Char eased the door shut behind her, turning so she could lean back against it as she did so. She pushed her bangs back out of her eyes and allowed a sigh to escape her even as her hair fell back into place; the sound of her voice echoed conspicuously throughout the empty hallway and she winced despite herself.
For some odd reason, baring such a large part of herself and the way she thought actually bore some kind of physical exhaustion on Char. She wanted to kick herself for it, because, as an annoying part of her mind kept telling her, she had to keep some things secret from him. As long as possible, at least.
She couldn't help but think back to when this journey had first begun, when she wanted to reveal absolutely nothing toward Sora and his allies. Just get revenge on the Organization, maybe kill some Heartless in the process… but not this. She hadn't bargained for nearly forgetting about Riku, or becoming friends with the others, or even experiencing these odd feelings for anyone other than Ienzo or Riku. The fact that she was actually letting herself acknowledge the latter only gave more proof of how much she was changing under Sora's influence.
Another sigh tore itself out of her throat. She could only hope that Xemnas showed up soon.
Conscience comes to Falcon in a haze. The first thing she knows is that she's warm, absurdly warm, and that something disturbingly soft is brushing against the slope of her shoulder. Green eyes open fully, albeit groggily, and she turns her head sleepily to find the source of these feelings. The sight that greets her induces panic, then annoyance, mostly toward herself.
Because she's promised herself that she'll never, ever, ever wake up next to Copperhead Sandgale of her own will.
At least they've both still got clothes on.
When she remembers the memory of yesterday afternoon, however, a sleepy smile of understanding appears on her face. Her eyes slip closed again and she presses back up against Copperhead's side, inhaling the faint scent of the cologne he was wearing yesterday and coffee.
Maybe this alliance – yes, that is what it is; an alliance, not… not… that f-word – won't destroy her dignity after all.
Falcon is walking home from school one day when the first Heartless appears. Fortunately, her reflexes are just quick enough that she can summon her Keyblade and slice into the small shadow the instant before its claws can tear into her stomach.
As she watches the wisps of black that are all that remains of the Heartless' body fade out into the early evening air, a sinking feeling begins to permeate in Falcon's stomach.
Because she knows this is just the beginning.
"Hold still, I can't put this on your wound if you're squirming."
"It hurts," Falcon pouts, but complies, shifting to get comfortable at her position on his bedroom floor.
Copperhead rolls his eyes, but a smile is on his countenance as he shakes his head and begins to squeeze some sanitizing lotion onto the gash along the inside of her arm. He murmurs a quick apology when Falcon lets out a low, sharp hiss of pain and twists the cap back onto the container. "Was the Heartless very big?" he asks, becoming serious.
Falcon sighs, flinching when she feels the gauze rubbing against her wound. "No, but it was – don't tighten that so much," she cuts herself off suddenly, glowering at Copperhead and clenching her teeth to try and combat the pain. He merely puts his free hand up in apology and resumes wrapping the bandaging around her wrist.
"It was really strong," she continues. Another sigh issues out into the air, and she lowers her head so that her hair is obscuring the side of her face. "I don't think I'll be able to handle them by myself much longer. It's like… it's almost like they're evolving."
Copperhead has remained silent up till this point, merely concentrating on dressing her wound, but when she utters the remark only meant for herself to hear, he stops abruptly. "You're not alone," he states bluntly.
Falcon blinks, raising her head to stare at him. "Huh?" she asks intelligently.
"I said you don't have to handle this alone," Copperhead repeats, violet eyes locked intensely, infuriatingly, on hers. "I'll help whenever I can."
Falcon blinks again, lowering her gaze in thought. She seems conflicted for a few moments, but reasoning wins over pride, and she meets his eyes again. "Okay."
"I said I'm helping and that's – what?" Copperhead grins. "All right! The Heartless brigade, Falcon and Copperhead – it kinda has a nice ring to it."
"I'm gonna go nuts," Falcon grumbles under her breath. (1)
Only now does she notice that his fingers have lingered much longer than necessary on the inside of her wrist. But strangely, watching him react so happily to her acceptance, she doesn't mind the contact at all.
"You should join the fencing club."
Falcon turns to face him; the abrupt remark has taken her aback. "Huh?" she queries intelligently.
Copperhead sighs and runs his fingers through the ends of his ponytail-bound hair. "I said, you should join the fencing club. I've seen you out there against those Heartless, and, well how do I put this?" He puts one finger to his chin for a few moments in mock thought, then raises that finger in realization. "Your footwork is sloppy, your attacks are haphazard at best, and last time you almost took my eye out."
"Oh, once and you're marked for life," Falcon grumbles.
She looks up at the sound of his chuckle and feels an odd tingling warmth along her spine at the warm smile on his features; thankfully, the feeling disappears when she mentally orders it to. "Look, the weekly sparring is helping," he tries to amend. "I just think you need some more practice."
Falcon stares at him; then a grin spreads across her own face. "Yeah," she says. "That's actually not a bad idea."
"5:15 p.m.
Today Copperhead and I went to a more secluded part of the Shadowed Desert. Admittedly it was kind of scary, because I've never been to that part of town before and all these thugs were staring at me like, I don't know, they wanted to rape me or something. But at least Copperhead was with me, so they kept their hands to themselves. Guess they thought he was my boyfriend (oh ye gods no) or bodyguard (yeah, I can work with that) or something.
Either way, we ended up in the forest leading to the abandoned citadel. It's really a pretty cool place, except that the Heartless have taken up residence there lately so now the place pretty much resembles a ghost town. Needless to say, it was the perfect place to train.
So we got our weapons out – just in time, it turns out. These medium-sized Heartless came out of the bushes and jumped right at us! They weren't as strong as any of the huge ones I've had to fight, but there were just so many of them. Thankfully I got away with a few minor injuries, but Copperhead, stupid arrogant bastard that he is, barely got a scratch at all. Lucky jerk. He didn't even brag about it on the way back home (once the Heartless had drawn back a little and we'd deemed it okay to leave), just had the nerve to constantly ask if I was okay. Hmph, what an asshole. He should know better than to ask me. Of course I'm all right, I'm a Keybearer, for the gods' sake!
Of course, I voiced this to him, and he got kind of a weird look on his face like he was trying not to laugh or something. I don't even know what he's thinking half the time anyway. Why would I want to? It's not like…
Let me rephrase that. I don't care what he's thinking because he's not even my friend at this point. At least, I…"
(The last part of this is not even legible, due to constant scribbling out.)
"I'm tired of messing with this. I'm going to bed. And I will not think about Copperhead anymore. I'm ashamed I've even let him into my thoughts for this long." (2)
"Hmm…"
The sound of squawk-like murmurs of contemplation filled the interior of the Gummi ship's main room as Donald paced throughout the room, new staff in hand and his eyes fixed on that staff. The other three members of the group sat in their respective chairs, following the duck's movements with their eyes – all except for Sora, whose gaze was currently fixed on the green mist ahead of them while he drove. Finally, Char spoke, a sigh audible in her voice as she ran her fingers through her hair. "Look, duck-boy, you're going to wear a hole through the floor if you don't stop."
"I know!" the mage shot back instantly, whipping his head to glare at her. Char rolled her eyes and raised both palms in mock surrender. "It just helps me think, is all!"
"Well, you're going to have to make a decision soon," Sora pointed out without turning around to face his comrades. "Because there are a ton of Heartless ships coming up."
"You seem calm about this," Char pointed out, eyeing Sora with one eyebrow raised.
Sora raised and lowered one shoulder casually, but from where she sat, Char could see his muscles tense in preparation for the Gummi ship's clash with the Heartless. "Yen Sid said that there would be obstacles blocking the way to other worlds, right? Or something like that," he added, a little sheepishly.
"Donald, are ya sure your staff can even put us in danger at all?" Goofy queried.
"Of course!" Donald stopped in his tracks and fixed his glower on the knight. "My last staff got a special charm from His Majesty himself to allow magic that would prevent meddling in other worlds. This one doesn't have that."
"So basically, all we know for now is that this thing can kick ass, but at the same time it can also put us in danger if we try to use it for more complicated things?" Char tilted her head to the side as she began to understand.
"In a nutshell, yes," the duck muttered.
"Hold on!" Sora suddenly yelped, and without much more of a warning brought the ship into a sharp nosedive. Donald squawked and grabbed one of the chairs for support.
"Don't do that!" he spluttered, glaring daggers at the Keybearer the moment he had righted himself.
"Sorry!" Sora hastily apologized, still not looking at the others. "They've never come this strong before; what am I supposed to do?"
"So, Sora's crappy driving aside," Char said a little shakily, keeping a death grip on the board where the controls were – her remark inducing an indignant "Look who's talking!" from Sora – "we still have to make a decision about what we're supposed to do about landing in this next world."
"Right," Goofy nodded. "Didn'tcha say all the beings in this world are animals, Char?"
"Yeah," Char gave a single nod of affirmation. "We had to do a massive project on the Pride Lands at one point back home." She didn't notice the way Sora's gaze flickered toward her at the mention of her researcher days, and she missed the shadow that darted over his face. Even though it was the day after their experience in Christmas Town, he still felt a sort of irrational fury toward Char's master for everything he had done to her.
Then he brought his gaze back to the Heartless ships, and for the briefest of moments, his fingers froze on the controls.
"Key-boy?" Char called, practically shouting over the turbulence of the Heartless bombarding them. She shoved her way to the chair that was next to his to get a better look, and as she followed his gaze, she couldn't help but copy his reaction. "Holy crap…" she breathed.
"You're being ambushed!" Chip and Dale wailed helplessly.
"Oh, really, Captains Obvious and Obviouser?" Char hissed between clenched teeth, the grip on the arms of her chair turning white-knuckled as the Heartless' assault became more and more vicious. And the leader of it all, a six-legged Heartless ship, rotated in front of them, silhouetted against the sunlight reflecting off of the Pride Lands behind it. (3)
"C'mon, Sora!" Goofy screamed, and just like that, the brunette was knocked back to reality. He tossed back a hasty "Right!" and began frantically flipping switches and pushing buttons on the arsenal section of the controls.
"Move over!" Without waiting for a response, Char started copying Sora's movements, ice-blue eyes moving back and forth from the controls to the Heartless and back again. Firelight lit up the sky and pierced the green mist ahead of them as various missiles shot out of the Gummi ship and fireworks exploded all around the Heartless, briefly blinding it.
"What are you idiots waiting for?" Donald squawked at the top of his lungs, pushing Char aside and pressing a button on the edge of the control panel. Sora and Char couldn't see what that had triggered, but a flicker of movement outside drew their gazes just in time to see multiple missiles shoot out from the sides of the Gummi ship and embed themselves into the Heartless' remaining legs.
For a moment, there was silence. Then in a near-blinding explosion of light and colors, the Heartless was no more.
"Great job, guys!" Chip and Dale cheered, jumping up and down. Goofy's shoulders slumped and he collapsed to the floor in an exaggerated sigh of relief. Donald hovered over the control panel, chest heaving visibly, before falling over against the chair with an audible murmur. Char and Sora merely stared at each other, breathing hard despite the lack of physical exertion, idiotic grins weaving their way across both crimson and cinnamon-framed faces. Ice blue met sapphire for an exhilarating moment, and in the duration of that moment, an odd emotion went through Char, making its way throughout her body with warm fingers. She wasn't sure of its name – relief? pride in Sora? – but she did know one thing.
She wanted to kiss him.
Wait, what?! The redhead shook these blasphemous thoughts away just as Sora turned away, effectively breaking the eye contact. She lowered her head slightly, frowning to herself as she thought.
"Whew!" the brunette exhaled, grinning at Donald and Goofy. "Glad that's over."
"Can I come back out now, a-hyuck?" Goofy gulped.
Donald had just righted himself on top of the chair he had been leaning against and was now grumbling to himself. "Well, I can't really not try to use this thing after we went through that," he grunted, shaking the staff in his hand.
"Oh?" Sora perked up. "So we can go into this new world! Right?"
"I didn't say that!" Donald rebuffed instantly. "I was just considering the possibility."
"Well, we gotta use that fancy wand if we're goin' to this world," Goofy pointed out, having uncurled from his previous protective position. "'Cause just goin' like we are would be mu… mu…"
Donald gave a huffy sigh of impatience. "For the last time, it's meddling!" he barked.
Sora couldn't hold back his amusement at the sight of his two longtime allies arguing like always. "Okay, okay," he laughed. "We're going to have to take the risk."
Donald had been glowering at the dog, but at Sora's words the mage's head whipped toward the Keybearer in disbelief. "You can't possibly be serious!" he growled. "Didn't you just hear me? It could be risky for all of us!"
"We won't know until we try!" Sora argued. "Besides, Riku and King Mickey could be in this world! We shouldn't just leave that possibility alone."
Donald opened his mouth in preparation to snap back, only to close it as Sora's words sank in. "Hmph, you're probably right," he muttered, folding his arms. "All right. But!" he immediately squawked, raising one feathered finger. "If there's any sign that something's going wrong, we go right back to the Gummi ship! Got it?"
"Yep," Sora agreed, rather absently; he felt too much excitement bubbling within him at the possibility of finally tracking down Riku. "So we just need to get all the supplies, and then – Char?" The brunette cut himself off and tilted his head to get a closer look at the redhead, who seemed deep in thought about something. "Are you okay?"
"Hm?" She blinked and stared at him for a few moments before answering. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just thinking."
"Oh. Well…" Sora hesitated, suddenly feeling a little apprehensive. "We were just saying how we're going to go down to the new world as soon as we've got everything together."
"I heard that part," she answered dryly. "I'm ready whenever you are."
"Okay…" The Keybearer couldn't help but wonder what had come over her, but he brushed the thought away for now. At the moment, exploring the Pride Lands was all that really mattered.
"Four, you say?" the ragged-looking old lion mused, narrowing his eyes in a way that made the pink scar stretching over one eye shift on his face.
"Yes." The adolescent female lion gave a single nod. She spoke rather tentatively, putting her answers together as though she were used to using human terms. "There'll be a young… male, wielding a key, and two other males, along with a female with two swords. They'll probably want to stop you any way they can."
"I see." The older lion inclined his head very slightly in what was probably a gesture of respect. "Not since Simba have I had such competition for power."
"Oh, trust me, they probably won't want your throne," the young female snorted, rolling her emerald eyes. "No, this is just an annoying little thing they do, sweeping through place after place. Ridding it of 'evil' or something like that." Her eyes narrowed at the thought.
And when you and your merry band of idiots show up here, Char… I'm going to make you regret having ever joined them in the first place.
"Anyway," she continued, "you can probably just send some hyenas or Heartless after them. It might not destroy them completely, but it'll at least weaken them considerably." The last part was added mostly for the older male's benefit, because anger had begun to glimmer in his eyes at her previous statement.
Maybe that freak Pete showing up wouldn't be detrimental to her plans, after all. After all, he had equipped the new king of the Pride Lands with powerful Heartless to use at his disposal.
Anxclof lifted her gaze to the cloudy skies, inhaling and exhaling the heavy air deeply. She had a feeling that a storm was going to come sooner or later.
Roxas. I'm coming. (4)
"Okay, so is everybody ready?" Donald asked.
They were all standing near the entrance to the Gummi ship; Sora, Char, and Goofy were standing in a line in front of Donald, who wielded his staff.
"As ready as I'll ever be," Char muttered, just softly enough for Sora, who was standing next to her, to hear. The corners of his mouth twitched in an impulse to smile; it seemed like she was back to normal from whatever had plagued her thoughts earlier.
Donald simply frowned, and when the other three nodded in consensus, he raised his wand. "Okay then, here goes anything," he murmured, voice trembling ever so slightly, which caused Sora to blink in surprise. Donald never got nervous about anything. Clearly, this whole situation was making the mage uncomfortable.
The brunette had just enough time to feel the slightest pang of doubt about this, and he had just opened his mouth to voice that doubt when light descended upon him and his comrades, and he got the unpleasant feeling that he was free-falling off of a forty-foot cliff.
In the back of his mind he understood that something was going wrong, something was going horribly wrong, because he should not be feeling this sharp ache in the back of his skull, almost like something was squirming within him, begging to be set free; and he had the strange feeling like something inside him was splitting off from himself in a strange caricature of cell mitosis, and he wondered if anything like this was happening to the others; he hoped not, because through the white-hot pain in his head that was so sharp he couldn't even scream against it he knew he wouldn't wish this on anyone else.
But then the next thing he knew the light was clearing, and he was waking up feeling considerably smaller than before, and instinctively he knew that Donald had changed him into a more suitable form for this world. The Keybearer wondered vaguely what kind of animal he had become; a quick rudimentary scan over himself – a flicking tail, a budding mane that spiked up at the top in an imitation of his human hairstyle, and a coat of chocolate fur with a creamy underbelly – confirmed that he had been transformed into a lion. He felt a surge of pride in himself; lions had always been one of his favorite animals.
A cry of surprise from nearby brought Sora to rather clumsily turn his head in that direction. This form's gonna take some getting used to, he thought.
His eyes focused in on the one who had produced that gasp. He recognized the feline creature as Char at once; the dark red color of her fur, stark against the dark stripes that mottled her pelt, kind of gave that away. He figured that Donald had probably decided to make Char a tiger to make her seem more natural-looking; a random dark red lion would probably have been incredibly conspicuous.
But all these thoughts flew right out of Sora's head when Char uttered a name, still in that breathless tone of shock and – what was that, anger? – as she stared at the butterscotch-colored lion lying prone on the ground.
"Roxas?"
Told you there was gonna be a twist in this chapter ;)
(1) Anyone who knows where I got this line from gets a virtual cookie. Yes, a virtual one.
(2) This is an entry from Falcon's diary, in case you don't know. I was going to make that clearer, but I didn't really have a chance to do that very smoothly. And that part in the parentheses (sp?) is like Anxclof is viewing it from her mind's eye.
(3) Remember that stupidly strong Heartless you have to fight in the little Gummi ship path before the Pride Lands? Yeah...
(4) Back in chapter 43, Anxclof vanished into this random portal of light that was in the little field between worlds. This is where she ended up.
I'm looking so forward to writing the rest of this world... X3