Alright, chapter 46! And it's out relatively quickly in comparison with the last chapter. Heh, let's just say it's my way of apologizing for keeping you waiting on 45.
I forgot how awkward it is to write characters that aren't human. Thankfully I have some practice with that little art (I used to write for the Warriors fandom, back in the good ol' days when it wasn't filled with moronic preteen trash), but unfortunately that's what writing this world is - an art. Writing cats is hard - just trust me on that.
So you know how I said I was going to enjoy writing this world? This is part of the reason why. The other part is... well, you'll see ;)
Disclaimer- After almost two years of working on this fic, I still don't own. Pretty sad, huh?
Char really didn't want to have to deal with this.
Today was turning out to be one of the worst she could remember, and she had experienced plenty of those in the past few weeks; the scar on her leg and the healing wounds that Oogie's spikes had left on her back could testify to that. Yet she had never had the absolute joy of having the urge to lock lips with the Keybearer and also being confronted with the memory of her past sins in the same hour, let alone the same day.
She was snapped out of her own annoyance when a groan sounded from close by, and she watched, eyes wide, as the golden lion got to his paws, stumbling slightly at the difference that four legs brought to his sense of balance. A soft murmur of shock drew Char's gaze to the dark brown lion cub that, she assumed, Sora had transformed into. The Keybearer's now-feline face was contorted with a strange mixture of confusion and anxiety all at once; she could understand that it was mildly disarming to have the one who had continuously haunted one's dreams to show up in one's life for the first time.
"What…?" Sora whispered.
This was not good. This was not good at all. Char quickly cast her eyes about for Donald so she could give him a piece of her mind. Whether the duck had intended to split Sora's Nobody from the brunette himself or not, Char now understood all too well what Donald had meant by "what could happen" as the result of using that Heartless' staff to enter new worlds. She spotted a white, seagull-like bird with Donald's blue hat upon its head flapping its wings to stay in midair, staring at the three felines with an expression akin to Sora's own; the dog-eared turtle standing in a rather clumsy manner next to Donald just looked bemused at the new arrival. Char opened her mouth to speak and tried to take a threatening step toward the transformed mage, but her lack of adaptation to this new form caused her to stumble and nearly fall; her humiliation at her now-baby-like tread was stifled instantly by renewed dread when she heard a gasp, and she looked up to see what had just happened.
Roxas had managed to get his bearings, if only because he was leaning heavily against a rock across from the other four animals. Char made herself stand again as quickly as possible just as the Nobody snarled, "You!" and the Oathkeeper and Oblivion appeared in dual flashes of snowy white and dark black. Roxas stared down at the Keyblades on the ground – being that he had no thumbs in this form, he couldn't exactly summon them directly into his hands like he was used to doing – and muttered, "What's going on here?" with a trace of that anger toward Char in his voice.
"I could ask the same thing!" the redhead-turned-tiger growled, narrowing her eyes to icy slits at Donald. The mage merely turned his head away and grumbled something about having warned them something might happen.
Her frustration amplifying at Donald's lack of real response, Char whipped her head back toward Roxas and drew in breath to try to speak again, but Roxas beat her to it. "I want to know what's going on here. Now!" he hissed, his tail lashing. "One minute I was floating in nothingness, and the next I'm here! Did something happen to split me from –"
Char quickly cut him off; even though she had the sinking feeling that Sora was starting to figure out the reason why he was having so many dreams about Roxas, she couldn't have the brunette that she had been keeping so many secrets from knowing Roxas' true identity so soon. "Something must have happened when Donald tried to get us down here," she told Sora, and directed her glower once again at the aforementioned duck. "We got a little extra baggage."
"Oh, like this was my fault!" Donald squawked indignantly, flapping his wings rapidly. "I did what I usually do when I teleported us to other worlds." He directed those words at Sora and Goofy. "Something just went wrong, is all."
"Obviously," Roxas muttered, not taking his wary dark blue gaze off of Char even as he made his Keyblades vanish. She met his glare – which put the statement "if looks could kill" to shame – with a fiery one of her own, and soon he backed down, if a little reluctantly.
Sora had remained silent until now, a gesture that was strange for him; under any other circumstances he would be commenting on this new world and their new forms with wide, sparkling blue eyes. So naturally, it startled the others badly when they heard his voice, quiet and mildly nervous. "Is it just me, or is this place really creepy?" he murmured, trying to distract himself from the headache he was getting. It wasn't enough that Roxas had starred in so many of his sleeping moments lately; now the blond had to show up in the waking world as well. Today just kept getting stranger and stranger…
Looking around, Char and Roxas had to agree; the steam rising from the acid pits surrounding them, as well as the odd rock formations dotting and shaping the walls that rose up around them, was enough to make even the cynical Char shiver just a bit. "It's not just you," Roxas murmured.
Goofy suddenly let out a questioning sound, causing the other four to glance toward the sound of the dog-turned-turtle's voice. The sight that greeted them was a hyena, prowling forward with a strange look on its face. A flicker of movement caused Sora to swing his head toward it in a way that made the chain on his crown necklace jingle; he spotted two more hyenas moving in with the same expression on their canine features. The gray hyena suddenly threw back its head and its body shook with a series of cackles that echoed almost frighteningly inside the ravine. Instinctively, the five of them moved so that they were all standing back to back in a way that made each of them seem like points on a star.
"Heartless?" Sora asked, narrowing his eyes as more hyenas appeared on the wall ledges, as if summoned by their comrade's laughter.
"I don't think so," Char muttered, turning her head to fully take in the situation. From the looks of things, if this came to a battle… She mentally cut herself off, not wanting to think about how that would end.
"Yeah, Sora – I get the feeling they might live here," Goofy added nervously.
"Don't mind us. We're just passing through; we won't be any trouble," Donald called.
"Yeah," Roxas quickly cut in.
"Don't be silly," one of the original hyenas purred, revealing herself to be female in her voice as she circled them. She came to a stop in front of Roxas and drew her lips back in a grin, causing the honey-pelted lion to lean back slightly with a look of disgust. "We'd love for you all to stick around for lunch."
"Um… we didn't bring anything to eat," Sora answered, backing up a ways. He felt a bristle of fur against his back, caught a flash of dark red, and knew that he was unintentionally brushing against Char, a realization that was reinforced when the muscles of the back against his own stiffened. He could understand why – she had made it perfectly clear that excessive touching wasn't exactly her favorite thing – but why did the action of those muscles tensing feel more like a shiver to him?
The remaining hyena sniggered. "That's not going to be a problem," he giggled as he continued to circle them along with his two fellow hyenas.
"Try to use a little common sense," Roxas said, following the three hyenas with slitted blue eyes, as though in preparation to strike out at the next opportunity he got.
Goofy gulped audibly in sudden realization. "Gawrsh, Sora – I think we're the lunch!"
"Brilliant deduction, turtle-boy," the last male hyena grinned, licking his lips. As though to punctuate his comrade's words, the very first hyena cackled again.
Donald screamed, "No!" and took off; as if that were some kind of cue, the other four dispersed in opposite directions. Roxas immediately lunged at the female hyena, who was closest to him, but Char caught him with a swat to his back, since she couldn't exactly grab his wrist. "Don't be stupid," she snarled, even as he turned his glare on her. "You're not going to win this fight."
"I could if I could summon my Keyblades to the right place," he retorted almost instantly, clearly remembering his failed attempt to attack her.
"Well, put one in your mouth and hold the other with your tail or something!" Char hissed, her frustration growing ever further as she spotted huge jaws opening out of the corner of her eye. "Look – don't worry about it; we have to go!"
"Aw, don't leave," the male hyena shouted from behind them. "We were just about to have the main course!"
He reared back and opened his jaws to descend down upon them, and Char tensed, fully ready to defend Roxas if need be; as much as she disliked the Nobody, he was still the other half of Sora's heart, and if Roxas were destroyed, Sora probably couldn't fulfill his role in Char's vengeance on Organization XIII.
Then a roar reverberated through the air, sounding as if it came from close by. The hyena closed his maw and growled in disappointment. "Man, that Scar's got the worst timing," he grumbled.
"Just let him roar," the female protested silkily from where she had pinned down Sora.
"Nah, we'd better go see what he wants," the other growled, turning away. "Sounds like he's grumpy enough already."
At the female's huffed sigh of "Fine," all the hyenas waiting above leaped down from their positions and followed the three leaders out of the ravine, casting hungry stares toward the others as they went.
Sora rose to his paws and faced his allies with a look of relief on his face. "That was too close," he sighed.
Donald and Goofy let out sounds of agreement. Char and Roxas moved to stand on either side of the two of them, and Sora couldn't help but watch the way the two of them came up together. Even though they clearly despised one another, an unnamable feeling surged in Sora's chest nonetheless. He tried to search out the name for it, but then he saw Char stumbling slightly as she approached; he moved instinctively to steady her, only to stop as Roxas instantly lent her his shoulder, a grudging look in those dark blue eyes as he did so. That odd emotion grew slightly in Sora's heart again.
"Everything's harder on four legs," Char remarked, jerking her shoulder away from Roxas' touch and giving him a sound glare. Roxas simply scoffed and turned his head away, and Sora blinked. Why aren't those two getting along?
"Better start practicing," Donald teased.
Char rolled her eyes. "Easy for you to say. You're just flapping your wings. Like that's so hard."
"Guys…" Sora uttered a tiny sigh. Roxas glanced toward him with a sympathetic look of silent agreement.
"It's not so hard," Goofy tried to amend. The others turned toward him as he continued. "I found a trick to it while we were runnin' from them animals earlier. Here – let me show ya."
Anxclof had memorized how many steps she could take from one end of the pride leader's cavern to the other before having to turn back and retrace her steps. She watched her paws move as she paced; although she could boast about having visited so many worlds during her time as the Organization's Number XIV, she had never spent any time in this world – the Pride Lands, as Scar and his hyena cronies had called it. Needless to say, the female Nobody was still in slight shock and wonder at how much effort it had taken to get used to this new form – wandering around this world for what felt like years had been the only way she could think of that worked.
She found herself wondering whether or not Char and Sora had arrived here yet, and quickly shook the thought off, as the mere mention of the redhead was enough to send Anxclof into a fury of anger these days. The dark brown lioness inhaled and exhaled deeply, trying to purge that anger from her and calm herself down; she only succeeded in making her temper ebb just a little.
It hit her rather abruptly then, that she hadn't once thought of Roxas in her entire time here. Guilt washed over her immediately, infuriatingly; for what was her purpose if it was forgotten? I had to negotiate with Scar, she mentally argued with herself; it wouldn't exactly have done any good to start sobbing in the middle of a conversation with the one who now has all the Heartless in this world.
It was too late, though. Now that she had let Roxas back into her thoughts again, it was all too easy for the tears to start building back up behind her eyes again. She told herself to stop being so pathetic; if everything went well, then she would have him with her again soon enough.
Yet that didn't stop the sense of sorrow and dread – both of which set a lump building in her throat – at daring to anticipate what would happen if things didn't go as planned. And the feeling of a dam ready to burst became tangible in her eyes again.
"Stupid," she muttered under her breath, "animals aren't supposed to have tear ducts anyway."
This was going to be more difficult than Sora thought.
Goofy's suggestion had been to spin around in circles to move in the desired direction, but, as Char dryly pointed out, everyone knew that that little trick would only work for the knight due to his turtle form. So the three felines spent the better part of an hour trying to get the hang of moving about on four legs while Donald and Goofy took a lookout position – the dog-turtle on the ground, and the duck higher up – to watch and see if those hyenas decided to come back. More than once, Sora found himself nearly crashing into Char or Roxas – he even collided headlong with the latter a few times, which was a rather painful experience – much to their chagrin. And more than once, Sora found himself apologizing hastily and continuing his routine with his facial fur heated from embarrassment. Even this he did a little absently, for his mind was still on the way he had seen Roxas and Char interact earlier.
The brunette immediately told himself to stop thinking that way. Char, as she had amply proven over this journey, didn't usually get along with someone she had just met right off the bat; if anything, she was more apt to insult them, a lesson Sora had learned all too well in the first few days he had known her. From the way Roxas acted in Sora's dreams, the blond also seemed to be the same way – his friendships with Axel and Anxclof had been built up over a period of time, and even then, sometimes Roxas didn't tell his two best friends everything.
But the thought of those dreams – and the boy that Sora had never even met before suddenly appearing in his life right after Donald's staff had created that splitting feeling in the brunette's skull – brought another headache to Sora, so he tried not to think of those dreams and focus on the task at hand. Riku. Was Riku really here or not? The chocolate-furred lion couldn't hold back a small giggle at the mental image of Riku, somewhere in the Pride Lands, practicing moving around the way Sora himself was doing now, in a way much akin to a child learning to walk. The amusement faded a little when Sora figured that Riku probably would have mastered it already. That thought spurred Sora to crouch down before leaping up to dash across the clearing; as he skidded to a stop, he concentrated, and the Hero's Crest appeared in his jaws, much to his pleasure.
"Show-off," he heard Char mutter from nearby, and unconsciously, his grin grew.
"Do you think we could get going, Sora?" Roxas asked, coming up to stand beside his Other. The golden lion blinked a little at the enthusiasm clear in Sora's breathless expression, when it was turned toward him.
"Yeah, I think so," Sora answered loftily, his voice only a little muffled around the Keyblade clenched in his teeth.
Char turned her glower to Roxas. "Told you it could be done," she growled. When the two males simply tilted their heads in confusion – Sora's expression one of almost adorable bemusement, while Roxas' was a cool, questioning one – she sighed irritably and explained, "Summoning your Keyblades in this form."
Roxas simply snorted. "Whatever," he grunted, and in dual flashes of light, the Oathkeeper and Oblivion appeared, the white hilt in his jaws and the black hilt all but covered by his tail curling over it to hold it. He narrowed his eyes when Char summoned her swords in the same manner.
She noticed his now-cold demeanor and rolled her eyes. "Sorry to copy you," she said in a sarcastic tone that suggested she wasn't sorry at all. "But I can't think of another way to do this."
In response, the Nobody turned away, clearly not wanting to deal with this right now. Char looked briefly surprised, as if she had expected a sharp retort as to her own creativity; then she sniffed and turned up her nose at him.
On the sidelines, Sora groaned under his breath. Trying to get two people he knew so well to get along was going to be harder than he'd thought. And this was coming from the Keyblade master who had faced countless Heartless and enemies throughout both his journeys.
"Alright then, let's go!" Donald said when the three felines approached him. Goofy looked a little uncomfortable as his gaze shifted from one wildcat to the other; he had obviously heard the conversation and sensed the tension thick between Char and Roxas, but thankfully, the dog-turtle had decided to say nothing about it.
The five of them made their way out of the nearest exit from the ravine and acid pits, which gradually thinned out to reveal a still-desolate, but less ominous landscape. Sora shuddered slightly when he caught sight of what was unmistakably half of a still-intact ribcage on the ground, and he made an effort not to show his own fear to his friends, merely stepping around the bones. More bones littered the ledges that rose up around them, ledges that were, thankfully, not as high up as the ones that lined the walls of the ravine.
A flicker of movement caught the group's eye, and as one they turned their heads just in time to see a creamy-colored lioness charge past them, followed by two large Heartless, whose faces were masked by hollow skulls. She whirled around as she stopped and snarled threateningly at the dinosaur-like creatures, who merely reared back in response. Her eyes flicked to the left, toward the five animals that were watching the scene with widening eyes; then she rapidly whipped to the right and raced off, while the Heartless followed after her.
Sora followed them with his gaze before turning back to the others. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" he asked, rather tensely.
"That we're ready if you are?" Char narrowed one eye in the illusion of raising one eyebrow.
"Let's go," was all Roxas said.
Sora gave a single, determined nod before chasing after the lioness and leaping in front of her just as she turned around. He heard her murmur of slight surprise and knew it must be strange to have to be defended by an adolescent cub, but he spoke boldly enough. "Stay back; we've got this," he called back, flashing her a grin over his shoulder.
Char and Roxas were already laying fiercely into one of the Heartless, which stomped about the path in an attempt to get away; but two sets of dual swords wielded in such skilled– tails? Jaws? Sora didn't really know – were proving to be too much for it. Sora tried not to think about that weird feeling that had taken up residence in his chest yet again at the sight of the two of them working so well together; he just leaped at the other Heartless, which Donald and Goofy were having difficulty taking down.
At the same moment that Sora charged, the Heartless abruptly seemed to notice he was there. It whipped its ball-and-chain-like tail toward him, the spiked end of which crashed right into him in a blur of bluish-white fire. The blow startled Sora badly and knocked him backward, but he didn't notice anything more severe than a few shallow cuts along his side as he jumped back into the fray with a series of blows to the Heartless' head. He frantically dodged around the other dinosaur's tail even as he leaped on the Heartless back and, twirling his Keyblade in a flourishing gesture in his jaws, brought it down, hard, upon the one part of the back of its neck that wasn't covered in bone masking. The Heartless roared in pain and bucked in an attempt to shake Sora off, which proved to be in vain as the Keybearer finished it with one last blow to the head.
He jumped down and spotted that Char and Roxas were standing nearby, having already finished off the Heartless they had been fighting. Donald raised his staff to heal the various wounds along Roxas' body, to which the honey-furred lion only gave a nod of thanks. Once again, Sora was struck by the strangeness of having someone he had only met in his dreams appear in the real world, even more so now that he knew it was true.
No one but a Keyblade wielder could have taken out the Heartless as quickly as Roxas had.
"You alright, Roxas?" Sora asked, approaching his comrades with a concerned look at the aforementioned lion.
"Yeah," Roxas nodded.
"Thank you all. You really saved me." They all turned to see the lioness gazing at them gratefully.
"We're just glad you're okay," Goofy said.
"Did you see any other Heartless around here?" Char queried, brisk as always.
"Heartless… is that what they're called?" The older female tilted her head briefly to the side, then shook her head. "I don't know if there are any others…" Seeing the confused looks on their faces, she continued, "I don't usually hunt outside the Pride Lands."
"Pride Lands?" Char mused, her eyes flicking toward Sora. He could almost see the gears turning in her brain, thinking that perhaps "Pride Lands" was just the generic term for this world and not how the natives saw it.
"Hey, um…" The Keybearer took a few cautious steps toward the cream-furred lioness, whose eyes lit up in curiosity. "Do you know if a guy named Riku is here? Or maybe some bad guys in black?"
"Or this big moron named Pete?" Char added.
The lioness looked bemused for a moment at the barrage of questions, but she merely shook her head in response. Sora sighed. "Okay…" He was beginning to grow tired of this constant search; the sense of homesickness that had begun within him at the start of his journeys was so overpowering now that it nearly brought tears to his eyes, impossible as crying may have been. Riku, where are you?
"We might as well go take a look anyway," Sora called back, disappointment audible in his voice. Char exchanged a glance with Donald and Goofy and opened her mouth as if to speak, only to close it and look down at the ground. Roxas simply gave Sora a look of sympathy, almost as though he understood all too well what his Other was currently going through.
"Wait – the Pride Lands are dangerous." Sora blinked at the sudden urgent tone of the older lioness' voice, his own disappointment newly eclipsed by confusion. "Scar and the hyenas have made things unbearable for everyone. There's no food left. They've driven off the prey. We're about to starve!"
"Wait, wait, wait. Hold up," Char interrupted, holding up a paw for silence. "Why can't you just drive this Scar guy off and be done with it?"
"It's not that simple," the lioness said, sighing and closing her eyes. "Our old king, Mufasa, would have never allowed this, but when he died, Scar took over." A small shadow seemed to pass over her eyes, so quickly that Char couldn't be too sure. "He's the worst…" Seemingly unable to find words, the lioness merely shook her head again. "He's a tyrant," she murmured.
"We can handle a little danger," Sora said, flicking his tail. "You just saw us pound those Heartless, right?"
"I guess you're right…" There was still some doubt in her voice, but when she lifted her head, a spark of hope flickered in her eyes. "You could be just what the kingdom needs," she mused. "Maybe you could help us."
"You mean take out this Scar and all those hyenas?" Roxas gave a skeptical look.
"So if this Scar is your king…" Char muttered, her eyes widening as she put all the pieces together. She jerked her head up and stared at the older lioness. "Wait, let me see if I have this right. You want us to take down your king?"
The lioness gave a single nod of confirmation.
"Wait just a minute," Sora said, and ran back to his waiting comrades.
"This is insane," Char said immediately.
"Char!" Donald yelped, casting a look toward the waiting Pride Land native nearby.
"Well, you're thinking it too! Right?" Char's gaze swept over the group. "You saw all those hyenas earlier. Remember that it was Scar who called them back? To prevent them from making us their next meal?"
"As if we could forget," Roxas snorted, earning himself a renewed glower from Char.
"As I was saying," the tiger growled, turning back to Sora, "those hyenas are obviously his elite guard. And you saw how many there were. What if we couldn't get past that guard? Then it'd all be over. Poof. No Destiny Islands, no Riku, no Kairi, no King Mickey – just the inside of some dog's stomach to look forward to for the rest of your lives! Maybe even some stomach acids if you're lucky!" Char pounded one crimson paw on the ground. "You're just going to have to tell her to find some other hero."
"But if they had one of those, don't ya think they woulda found him already?" Goofy pointed out.
"Yeah! If this Scar's the bad guy, we obviously need to take him out!" Donald added fiercely.
Roxas said nothing; he only narrowed his eyes at Char. "You know what I think?" he asked suddenly.
"Not that I care, but what the hell, you might say something valuable," Char answered, giving a catlike smirk when Roxas hissed something vulgar under his breath.
"I think you could care less about what happened to this world. Why would it matter to you anyway?" the golden lion continued silkily as Char tried and failed to mask her surprise. "It's just more research fodder for you, isn't it? The fall of this world to Scar will probably make for some drama anyway. 'And so the Pride Lands were taken over by the tyrant Scar'…" Roxas shook his head, his lips curling back in a snarl. "It's pathetic."
"Roxas!" Sora gasped, unaware that his own face was beginning to contort in anger.
"Guys, calm down," Goofy whispered frantically, looking from one lion to the other and then back to the waiting lioness. To the two Disney residents' alarm, Roxas and Sora looked ready to pounce at each other at any minute.
"If I didn't care what happened, I wouldn't even be here in the first place!" Char hissed, causing both males to turn and look at her: Roxas with unmistakable hatred, and Sora with waning fury. "I'd be waiting back on the Gummi ship like a good little damsel. Now shut the hell up and let's figure out what we're going to do about this!" She couldn't hide the way her voice was starting to tremble; the way the situation had almost gone out of control was still making her heart pound tangibly against her chest.
Sora stared at her, his chest heaving with the remains of his anger toward Roxas, then the chocolate-pelted lion took a deep breath to calm himself. "You're right. She's still waiting for us to decide what to do about this."
"At any rate, we can't just go around knocking kings off their thrones," Roxas said, still looking quite irritated, but not seeming ready to leap at Char like before. "No matter how evil they might be."
"Yeah, 'cause that would be meddling," Donald said with a nod.
"Then again…" Sora thought aloud, sapphire eyes beginning to glow with some new realization. He looked from one ally to another, his gaze resting at last on Char, for some reason. "If they see that I'm stronger than their king, maybe they'll make me their next king!"
"Keep dreaming, Key-boy," the tiger sighed.
Sora laughed and lifted his head in a mock-royal manner. "I'd have to refuse, of course."
"Right…" Donald muttered.
"Still," Sora said, deliberately making his voice louder so that the lioness could hear, "I'd like to see the Pride Lands, so…" He took his eyes off of Char, much to her relief, to sweep over his group again. "You guys don't mind lending them a paw, do you?"
"I've already made my decision," Roxas muttered, fixing his glare on Char, which she returned in kind. Sora fought back another sigh and the urge to give in to his growing frustration toward them; he just grinned and nodded before turning and trotting back to the lioness.
"There he goes again." Char rolled her eyes.
They watched the conversation between Sora and the lioness; Char couldn't help but cast a wary glance toward Roxas, only half-listening to what Sora himself was telling the Pride Land native. The tiger was sure that had Sora not intervened, Roxas would have attacked her – killed her, if given the chance. It was a new feeling for her, traveling with someone who harbored so much hatred for her that he would try to disguise his anathema toward her – rather poorly, if his behavior so far was any indication – every time he so much as looked at her. Char couldn't really blame him, though: if she herself had been kidnapped and thrown into a virtual world, then left in blissful ignorance until her memories of her friends and love returned, she would feel the exact same way when confronted with the one who had caused it all. She didn't bother denying the fact that she had assisted in Roxas' capture; she, after all, had had as active a part in it as Riku had. And she knew full well that at this point she was as much DiZ's accomplice as Riku was.
A sigh wove itself out of her in a way that made her chest move with its heaviness. She missed the mildly uncomplicated days that she had spent with Riku in Twilight Town so much it hurt sometimes: the days when the worst burden she had was the memory of watching the only friends she had in this world becoming Nobodies, or trying to keep her heartbeat to a minimum when Riku was around her. Now, she realized, she was, in essence, sharing Sora's burden of saving the worlds and finding his friends, whether she liked it or not. As much as she wanted to see Riku again, the feeling of that task weighing down upon her shoulders was an unwelcome one.
Besides… She fought back another sigh.
She hadn't thought of Riku in that way since Port Royal, when she had dreamed of him. It was an inexplicable feeling, one that she didn't want to think about, since when she dared to consider it, the image of a certain spiky-haired, Keyblade-wielding brunette replaced the silver-haired emissary of darkness.
Char surfaced from her reverie just in time to see the lioness give a single nod and bound off in the opposite direction. Sora headed back to the group. "Nala's going to go on ahead and tell the other lionesses," he explained, revealing the lioness' name. "We're supposed to meet her up at a place called Pride Rock."
"Gotcha," Roxas said. Char cast a sharp look in his direction, but he was looking at Sora, dark blue eyes narrowed in determination. She supposed that he figured he may as well work with his Other for the time he had to be here.
"So… did she say where this Pride Rock was?" asked Donald.
Sora hesitated before shaking his head. "Uh… no. But I think if we keep going, we can find it," he added hastily at the skeptical looks on Char and Roxas' faces. No matter how much they hated each other, the Keybearer thought dryly, at least they thought alike. "She said to just look out for the thorn-like rock sticking up into the sky."
"That should be easy to find," Goofy said hopefully.
"Let's just hope we don't get killed by Heartless along the way," Char muttered.
Roxas stared at her. "You're not looking forward to this, are you?"
"Not at all."
The scene on top of Pride Rock was one that was greeted with bemusement and awe by the hyenas and lionesses watching, albeit with some wary anger on the latter's part. The Avenger Nobodies clashed blades and danced about the surface of the rock, to the wonder of the simple-minded hyenas; the occasional howl of laughter was heard when one Avenger was nearly knocked down by the other, but soon both lesser Nobodies were back in the fray in dual blurs of silver.
Anxclof, who had summoned her Nobodies to keep the hyenas amused, watched from nearby, where she was curled up into a comfortable position on the grass bordering the rocky hill that led up to Pride Rock's surface. As thin as the grass was, it offered some comfort compared to lying on the stone floor. She would have gone to the king's den, but Scar was currently talking with Pete there, and she didn't want to confront a lecher and an idiot all at once; just one of those kinds of people annoyed her enough. Scar was a cunning and powerful leader, she couldn't deny that, but at the same time, the way he watched her made her shudder a bit, especially since her current form was that of an adolescent lioness. Anxclof knew that in the wild, anything was acceptable as far as mating went, but she would rather not be the victim of pedophilia, even more so since she was already in love with someone else.
Unbidden, the words that Char had spoken at Beast's Castle, what felt like so long ago, came back to Anxclof's mind. Neither you nor Roxas can feel anything, because you don't have hearts!
Could someone with no heart love someone as much as I love Roxas, Char? Even you, the one who allegedly can feel more than I can, have trouble admitting what you feel for Sora. Who's the one with the lack of feelings here, anyway?
A flicker of movement caught her eye and she turned her head just in time to see Scar emerge from his den in a languid movement of his body, followed by… she didn't even know how to describe the form Pete was currently in. He looked like a cross between a lion and an ape, for some reason; was Maleficent trying to make fun of him with the way she had disguised him? Anxclof couldn't hold back a small giggle at the thought.
"Hey, Scar! Check this out!" one of the hyenas barked, pointing with one paw at the Avengers. Anxclof, mildly curious, looked back to see how her Nobodies were faring, just in time to see one pin the other to the ground with its deadly blade to the other's throat. The tables had turned, she noted, seeing that the Avenger who had won was the one that had been knocked down earlier.
Scar simply narrowed one eye and looked at Anxclof in a silent request for an explanation. "They're scouts of mine," she said, getting to her paws. "I summoned them to keep your little lackeys amused."
"Hey!" the hyenas yowled as one, but Scar actually smirked at Anxclof's insult. Pete was staring at the Nobodies with a look of shock on his gaping face.
They didn't notice the creamy-colored lioness slip around the other side of Pride Rock, behind the pointed structure.
Deciding she had had enough, Anxclof flicked her tail, and at once the Avengers stopped fighting and headed over to her, with the aura of soldiers waiting for orders from their general. The brown lioness opened her mouth to speak, but a voice cut her off. She saw the owner of the voice – a hyena that Scar had sent to scout – just before the dog spoke.
"There are a couple of lions traveling in the plains, with a tiger, a duck, and this weird-lookin' turtle. Both lions have keys."
"Right on time," Anxclof muttered. At the same time, though, she couldn't help but wonder about what the hyenas had said. Two Keyblade wielders?
A spark of hope ignited within her, but she shook it off. It can't be.
She turned to her Avengers, already mentally rearranging her original orders. "Go out to the plains and keep Sora busy," she commanded. Darkly, she growled, "Do what you want to the others, but make sure he and Char make it out alive. They both belong to me."
The Avengers nodded and leaped gracefully off of the edge of Pride Rock, landed gracefully on their feet despite how high up it was, and made their way out to the plains. Anxclof watched the two silvery blurs weaving their way across the grassy ground below and turned to Pete. "You've already got Heartless out there, right?"
"Uh, of course, madam," Pete stuttered.
Anxclof rolled her eyes. "Don't call me that."
"Yes, sorry, madam – er, I mean –!"
"Never mind," the lioness sighed.
As the five of them trekked through the bone-littered stone valley, Sora discovered, much to his immense relief, that taking out Heartless was much easier with two Keybearers laying into the enemies at once. He wasn't sure whether to be pleased or more confused at that: pleased that the Heartless were being taken out so easily, or confused that there was even more confirmation of the dreams being real, as Roxas had wielded the same two Keyblades in Sora's dreams. Sora was still trying to figure out his connection to Roxas, which was more than a little difficult, considering the Heartless that attacked them at every turn. The brunette guessed that since there were two Keyblade wielders here, the Heartless were even more eager to obtain those Keybearers' hearts. Oddly enough, though, the Heartless always shied away from Roxas after attacking him for a little bit and threw themselves at Sora instead.
Eventually, the eerie bone-covered ground of the ravine cleared out to thick grass that prickled the felines' paw pads and made them sigh in relief. "At least the ground's soft now," Char muttered. Her icy eyes surveyed the plain in front of them before catching on a rocky structure sticking up from the grassy landscape. "That must be it," she called back to the others, jerking her head toward the rock.
Sora followed her gaze and his eyes lit up. "Hey, yeah! That makes sense. Good eye," he told Char, who gave a nod of thanks to his compliment. Roxas' eyes flicked over to them, but he said nothing.
The five of them made their way across the savannah, defeating Heartless along the way. Thankfully, no more of those dinosaur-like Heartless showed up; Roxas, however, felt more than a little suspicious of the lack of difficult enemies. Maybe he was just a little on edge – being ripped from his Other's mind and finding himself in a lion's body, traveling with the young woman who had kidnapped him tended to do that.
He shifted the Oblivion in his tail's grip, trying to get back to the task at hand – paw, whatever. He figured as long as he was here, he may as well help Sora as best he could.
Maybe Anxclof would show up again in the process.
Roxas was pulled out of his thoughts when he heard the duck let out a squawk of surprise, and the blond jumped back just before Donald's tail feather landed in his face. "What's going on?" Roxas growled.
Sora simply pointed with his tail, and Roxas followed his Other's gaze.
At once the Nobody gasped in shock, rearing back and nearly dropping the Oathkeeper. His eyes were wide as he stared at the creatures that he had often trained with back in the Organization.
Then this means…
The Avengers seemed to balk only a little at the sight of their mistress' love interest; it was obvious that they recognized him despite his feline form, because otherwise, they would not have hesitated at all. It was only a split second of second thoughts on their part, though – in the next few moments their blades were whipping through the air as they danced toward and around their opponents.
"Not these again," Sora panted, barely dodging one of those deadly swords and getting nicked by the tip in the process.
"We'll just keep pounding 'em till they get the hint!" Donald roared as he cast a fire spell on the Nobodies. They leaped back, seemingly startled, only to recover quickly and rush back toward them.
"They're much stronger than they were last time we fought them," Char muttered, already fighting panic at the sight of Anxclof's Nobodies. If the Avengers were here, then Anxclof was in this world as well. And more than anything, Char did not want a repeat of Beast's Castle and the race against time that had followed. Her icy eyes narrowed. I'm not letting that happen to Sora again.
She noticed Roxas standing off to the side, unarmed, with his own dark blue eyes wide. "A little help would be nice!" she shouted back at him, ducking around one Avenger's sword.
She didn't dare turn back for fear that she'd get sliced open when she wasn't paying attention, but she got no response from him. Oh, you're helpful. I thought you were going to help Sora.
An instant later, however, a flash of black and white caught her eye and she watched as Oblivion's shaft ripped into the Avenger's skull and the Nobody vanished entirely. Char landed on her paws and glowered ferociously at Roxas as he landed beside her after completing his airborne assault. "I would have appreciated that earlier, when I was fighting for my life," she growled.
Roxas narrowed his eyes, his claws unsheathing. "You know perfectly well why I didn't want to fight back."
"I know, but even you realize that you have to help us for as long as you're here," Char hissed.
"I don't have to do anything," Roxas shot back. "For example, I didn't have to complete Sora. He could still be floating in that containment pod in Twilight Town right now and I could care less."
"Well, you'd be the only one!"
"At least I was happy in Twilight Town. Ignorance is bliss, right?"
"Then Riku kidnapping you was actually a good thing? That's what I'm getting out of what you're saying."
"It was the exact opposite! There's another thing – I didn't have to go with you to Twilight Town, did I?"
"Did you have a choice?"
"Roxas! Char! Make yourselves useful over here!" Donald screamed, effectively ending their conversation. They tore their eyes away from each other and glared at the duck, who was swooping around the remaining Avenger and leaving a swathe of damaging magic in his wake, before charging toward the Nobody and attacking it fiercely with their respective weapons of swords and Keyblades. Char caught Sora's eye, for he was slashing at the lesser Nobody from the other side, and he grinned briefly at her before redirecting his determination at taking out his opponent. She didn't know why, but a shiver that had nothing to do with the temperature went up her spine.
With the five's combined efforts, the second went down much more easily than its ally. Goofy sighed in relief as his shield reappeared at its standard position on top of his shell, and Donald nodded in enthusiastic agreement. "I thought we were done with those Nobodies," he grumbled.
"We're not." Sora, Donald, and Goofy turned to look at Char when she spoke. "A set of those lesser Nobodies – besides the Dusks – usually means that their master is close by."
"So… you think a member of the Organization is here?" Sora's eyes got huge.
"Most likely." Char gave a single, dark nod. "We should be ready for battle as soon as we get to Pride Rock."
"And how do you know?" Donald challenged.
Char let out an exhalation of annoyance and rolled her eyes. "How do I know everything else that I've told you on this journey? I read it in a book. Now are we going to sit around here and debate on this all day, or are we meeting Nala at Pride Rock?"
Sora almost smiled. Now that was the Char he knew and…
And…
Somehow he didn't feel comfortable with even thinking the last word of that little aphorism.
"Sora?" The sound of Goofy's voice jerked Sora rather abruptly out of his thoughts, and he nodded. "Yeah, we're going to Pride Rock. Let's go."
Contrary to Char's words of warning, no Nobodies appeared when the five animals made their way up to the ledge that the rock structure itself shadowed. There were no hyenas in the area, although Sora swore he heard a few cackles carried on the wind and shuddered unconsciously every time. A group of lionesses were sleeping on the stone ground, and not even Roxas could hold back a murmur of sympathy at seeing how emaciated they were. Nala was right; Scar really is starving them, the golden lion thought.
A shift of movement just ahead of them made the group avert their eyes from the lionesses. They saw Nala coming toward them with an odd-looking gray ape, who was using a gnarled stick with what looked like orange fruit attached to its top, to walk properly, by her side.
"What's with the monkey?" Char hissed at Sora, who just shrugged.
The two came to a stop, and Nala leaned over to her companion to murmur, "That's him." Sora couldn't help but feel a little nervous at the attention he was getting, even more so when the baboon abruptly came forward with a surprisingly smooth gait and leaned forward to get a better look at him. "Uh… what?" Sora asked awkwardly, trying not to lean back even as the baboon was putting a hand to his chin in thought.
Finally he moved off, using his stick for balance, and swept his gaze over the rest of the group; Char's eyes widened slightly at the way those old orbs lingered on her, but otherwise, his scrutiny of the others was relatively equivalent to Sora's.
Nearby, the lionesses were awakening; they raised their heads and glanced around to see what was going on. Everyone watched with bated breath as the old ape went back over to Nala and whispered something into her ear. The cream-colored lioness listened for a moment before her eyes widened and she reared back; Sora watched with a feeling of growing disappointment as the baboon shook his head and Nala sighed, hanging her own head. The group of lionesses echoed that disappointment and settled back into their previous sleeping positions. Without looking back, the ape turned and started back to the other side of Pride Rock.
"What is it?" Sora asked, even though he had a feeling he already knew.
"I told Rafiki you might be able to help us force Scar and the hyenas out of the Pride Lands," Nala explained, raising her head so she could talk to them properly. "But he says it won't work." She hesitated, speaking slowly, as if putting her words together as she said them. "You see, whoever saves the Pride Lands will be our next king, and… well… he has to have the right qualities."
"Meaning…?" Sora's shoulders slumped.
"In a nutshell, she basically just told you you're not kingly material," Char cut in roughly. Inwardly, she was wondering why this Rafiki monkey had to be so damn picky. Sora had saved more worlds than this one; why shouldn't he be "qualified"?
Then again, she probably wouldn't want a dork for her leader either.
"I'm sorry you came all this way." Nala seemed genuinely apologetic.
"It's cool." Char flicked her tail. "We've been running around far longer than this anyway."
"Yeah, it's okay," Sora added, giving a half-hearted smile.
Nala's eyes shifted about before she crouched low and leaned in toward them almost conspiratorially. "You'd better leave before Scar finds out you're here."
"I guess." The Keybearer sighed.
"Before who finds out you're here?" A loud, disturbingly familiar voice startled them all, especially Roxas and Char, who knew that voice all too well: the former recognized it with a gasp and a sense of growing joy, while the latter recognized it with a gasp and a sense of growing dread. And in the next few seconds, the owner of that voice appeared around the pointed, thorn-shaped rock, dark brown fur bristling, jaws opened in a snarl, and emerald eyes narrowed in a glower.
Anxclof.
"Well, isn't this a pretty little reunion," the female Nobody laughed, raising a paw. As she did so, a group of Avengers appeared at her flanks in flashes of silvery-white; they fell into their battle stances the instant they materialized. "Long time no see, Char."
And then her eyes fell on Roxas.
Any kind of insult or angry remark that had been percolating in Anxclof's mind flew right out of her head when those dark blue eyes met hers. "Roxas," she whispered.
In the same moment, he gasped, "Anxclof?" and Sora took a step back, staggered even more at seeing the same girl who had tried to kill him in the past – had succeeded at one point, even – standing in animal form in front of him. This, combined with Roxas' appearance, was almost too much to bear.
It seemed to Char that the two Nobodies seemed ready to run toward each other in a strange reenactment of a cheesy reunion scene from a novel – indeed, Anxclof was already beginning to move toward them – but a low hiss from behind the group froze them all in their tracks.
"Hey, look – a snack."
Immediately, Char whirled around and summoned her swords to her maw and tail, clenching her jaws to hold one and curling her tail around the other. Her eyes darted from one hyena to the other, widening as she realized that these were the same three from the incident in the ravine.
"A snack?" the female laughed. "Nah, we got us a five-course meal here!"
"Stop!" Anxclof snarled, and her own Keyblade appeared in her jaws. "If you harm Roxas at all –"
The unmistakable sound of a lion's roar sounded from disturbingly close by, effectively cutting her off. The hyenas all craned their necks to see their master standing on the stone ledge. "It's Scar – the king," the main male hyena said, while his companion cackled beside them.
"And Pete!" Donald gasped. True enough – even in the grotesque caricature of a lion that was Pete's disguise: that was him, all right.
The lean, orange-furred lion standing beside Pete descended from the ledge on Pride Rock to the ground, using the rocks that offset the hill to add a dramatic flourish. Char felt a smirk tugging at the corners of her lips when Pete tried – and failed – to do the same thing. "My back…" the huge lion groaned as he got to his paws, while Sora sighed and waved a paw, as if to say some things never change.
"Roxas!" Anxclof suddenly cried, and Sora turned just in time to see his four companions surrounded by hyenas; his previous amusement was instantly replaced by panic at the sight.
"Sora!" Donald squawked.
"Help!" Goofy cried.
The orange lion seemed unperturbed by the scene in front of him; he just turned his head to the now-standing lionesses. "Go on, ladies – you've got some hunting to do," he purred.
"The herds have moved on, Scar. We can't hunt in a land with no prey," Nala protested.
"No prey?" Scar chuckled and gestured to Sora and his comrades with a disdainful paw. "Then what do you call this?"
"Scar, you bastard!" Anxclof snarled, and immediately charged toward the circle of hyenas with her Keyblade ready.
Scar merely stepped in front of her, halting Anxclof in her tracks. "Did you forget the terms of our agreement, Anxclof?" he queried, nonchalantly bringing his tail to brush her flank; she immediately flinched away, her glare not wavering in the slightest. "You obey me. I hold all the cards in this game."
"Anxclof!" Roxas shouted back, trying to get through the hyenas and failing, much to his frustration. Finally that frustration grew to its peak; he snarled, "Get out of my way!" and his Keyblades appeared. But Pete merely flicked his tail, and a group of the dinosaur Heartless surrounded the hyenas, reinforcing the circle.
"They're all yours, Scar," Pete smirked, casting Anxclof a smug glance as he turned and ran off in the opposite direction.
Scar licked his lips as he crouched down in preparation to pounce on Sora, who alone stood outside of the circle. Those glowing green eyes flicked with amusement to the circle of hyenas and Heartless alike, where the sight of Roxas frantically slashing at the Heartless to get through them was still visible.
Then Scar's gaze landed back on Sora, and he wiggled his rump to pounce…
…only to be thrown to the side as, to the Keybearer's complete and utter shock, Scar had just been intercepted by a now-Keyblade-free lioness.
"Get out of here!" Anxclof screamed over her shoulder, frantically dodging the blows that Scar was throwing toward her.
Well, you don't need to tell me twice! Ignoring his confusion as to why Anxclof was willingly protecting him – Roxas, more like – Sora whirled around and, nearly tripping in his desire to get away, dashed off in the opposite direction. The Heartless made as if to follow, but Anxclof gasped, "Make sure they get away!" In an instant, the Avengers she had summoned earlier were slashing and ripping at the Heartless' vulnerable areas, keeping them back as long as possible.
With the Heartless gone, Donald, Goofy, Char, and Roxas easily got past the blundering hyenas. The duck and the dog-turtle escaped hastily enough, but the two felines stopped in their tracks. Anxclof was still wrestling with Scar, clearly on the defensive from the rapid attacks he was trying to rain down on her, unable to concentrate long enough to summon her Keyblade and finish it. The lionesses looked on from nearby, shocked at Anxclof's betrayal of their so-called king.
"What the hell are you doing?" Anxclof roared. "I told you to get out of here!"
"I'm not leaving you!" Roxas yelled back, his Keyblades still in his grip.
"If you don't get out right now, those Heartless will tear your shell apart! And then they'll go after you." Anxclof didn't look toward them, but Char knew that the female Nobody was speaking to her. "And we can't have that, now can we? Now take a little instruction and go!"
"But –" Char couldn't explain it; something was holding her back from just letting Anxclof take her punishment. As much as Anxclof loathed Char herself for what she had done to Roxas, Char didn't feel the same degree of hatred toward Anxclof, even after all she had done to Sora.
"You too!" Anxclof barked. "Don't get me wrong – I want to be the one to strike you down."
Char narrowed her eyes and resisted the mighty urge to roll them. How nice.Yet even she understood the seriousness behind Anxclof's words; she wouldn't be putting her life on the line if she had no ulterior motive. It was just the way Number XIV worked.
So the tiger turned and ran after the blur of chocolate brown that she knew was Sora.
From the hesitant-sounding footfalls behind her, she guessed that Roxas was doing the same.
Ugh, for some reason, I feel like I made Roxas severely OOC... I haven't written him in so long, though. I guess that's to be expected.
Review?