FFN document editor, y u hate me so much? Now it's not even giving me the alignment/text formatting bar up top. D: Oh well. As promised, next chapter update of the month has arrived! I'm planning on churning out another chap or so before November is over - currently I'm at about 25k, and I told myself I'd get 40k done for NaNo - so here's hoping that goes smoothly.
Anyway, you guys don't care about my NaNo ramblings, so here's chapter 67. Enjoy!
Disclaimer- I do not own Kingdom Hearts.
Cloudy night blanketed the sky in a mixture of black and navy hues, the stars almost totally hidden by the clouds. Char shifted restlessly behind DiZ, hissing in annoyance at the cold and rubbing her Organization cloak-clad arms. She hated how she had to garb herself in the attire of her enemies - she didn't give an honest damn what her master said; they shouldn't need these cloaks to "combat the darkness" or whatever - but at least it was long-sleeved and kept her warm.
"For the love of the gods, when are they gonna get here?" she complained petulantly, tilting her head back so she could glower into DiZ's single, visible eye.
Just the one eye was enough to convey his stern admonishment of his single remaining apprentice, though. Char wondered if that was significant: the fact that with his six apprentices gone, he now felt the need to swathe his other eye in the red cloth that covered almost all of his face. She knew he had done that to properly hide him from his enemies - and his friends, if Mickey's lack of recognition for the man he had known was any indication - yet the feeling of a deeper meaning behind her master's decision made her shiver even more.
"They will arrive when they arrive, and not before," DiZ growled. Suddenly, his pupil shifted a little to one side of Char, and the amber iris widened slightly. "Ah. Here is our guest."
Char followed his gaze and immediately saw who he was looking at; the silvery hair of the taller being walking beside Mickey's own black-furred form gave him away. Turquoise eyes surveyed the dark, grassy surroundings of the field between worlds as the owner of those eyes continued moving forward. The determination clear in those orbs - almost as if the young man had just overcome an ordeal that he knew was far from over, yet that he was ready to face - reminded her inexplicably of Ienzo. The thought of the boy who had been her best friend sent an icy cold current of sadness and anger roiling through her, and she gathered her coat around her to warm herself.
The mouse and his companion halted before DiZ and Char. "So you've come," DiZ said quietly. Char couldn't blame him for speaking so softly - the sanctity of this place almost demanded it.
A sanctity that was broken instantly when the young man - Riku, she guessed - spoke, in such a harsh and strident tone she almost shrank back. Almost. Her pride stopped her before she could.
"What are you making me choose now?" Riku demanded.
DiZ gave Char an almost undetectable sidelong glance before looking back at the silver-haired boy. "Between the road to light, and the road to darkness," the older man said, gesturing to the diverging paths on either side of him.
Char couldn't hold back a snort at her master's deliberately cryptic words, but huffed and rolled her eyes when he gave her a simple, chiding look.
Riku eyed them for a few moments before speaking, and his words even shocked Mickey, who stretched up to deliver a wide-eyed look to his companion. Char's eyes widened as Riku's words echoed off into the silence.
"Neither suits me."
Without hesitation, he strode on past DiZ and Char, only looking at the latter once on his way by. "I'm taking the middle road," he announced.
DiZ's lips quirked almost imperceptibly, as though Riku's words amused him. "Do you mean the twilight road to nightfall?" he chuckled.
Riku stopped in his tracks and turned. "No," he answered levelly, coolly - almost like he'd rehearsed this whole thing in his mind before coming here, Char thought. Her brow furrowed at his brazen comments.
"It's the road to dawn," he continued peremptorily.
His words echoed in Char's head as she watched him resume his walk down the dirt path. The road to dawn. Was that really a middle ground? she wondered.
She didn't realize she had spoken aloud until DiZ responded. "I am not sure," he murmured, and the uncertainty in his voice startled her.
She shook that off when Riku turned around. "Your Majesty, are you coming?" he called to his animal companion.
"Oh! Right!" The mouse straightened and bounded after the young man; Char could only watch the dark-clad, black-pelted mouse's tread because of the silver chains that flowed out behind his hood as he ran. As he caught up, she could hear him ask something along the lines of why Riku was still referring to the king as "Your Majesty." The King's high-pitched voice echoed around them until distance silenced it entirely.
Char let out an irritated breath. "Well. That went well."
That effectively earned her a glare from DiZ, which she gladly returned.
"He will come to us soon enough," he muttered, in such a vehement tone that Char blinked. "He cannot restrain Xehanort's Heartless forever, and he will need his friend to help him."
Ansem's deep voice still echoed in the crevices of Char's mind as her eyes flickered open. For a brief, disorienting moment, she expected to see the window of the Gummi ship offering a view of the world outside, perhaps of the wispy green clouds of the world between worlds or the shrine-like buildings of the Land of Dragons – not a wall just to the right of her bed. And even the area smelled different…
When her memory caught up with her emotions, though, she closed her eyes again, sleepiness clearing away at once despite the action that should have heralded the opposite. A groan escaped her as the frustrations of yesterday poured back into her at full force, and she considered summoning her blades and taking out her stress on the wall.
Even her temper stepped aside long enough to realize what a terrible decision that would be, though.
She ended up just opening her eyes and pushing her head back against the pillow. Although she had fallen onto the bed in Falcon's guest room without bothering to warm herself with the quilt and sheets, Char had apparently moved around enough during the night to have dislodged said sheets very soundly from their former tidiness. I should probably fix that before I go downstairs, she reflected with a muted, closed-mouthed sigh.
Rolling over to face the room's entrance, she folded her arms across her chest as a sudden, unwelcome chill rippled across her back. Why, she did not know; but any attempt she might have made at figuring it out faded instantly when a familiar scent drifted into her nostrils, that of something Goofy had only cooked for breakfast once.
Not too fond of eggs, Char thought, but I'll take it. Only now that the fragrance of food had made itself known to her did her body remember she had neglected dinner last night in favor of satisfying her exhaustion. A hollow feeling coalesced in her belly, and she felt more than heard its rumbling.
Aloud, she muttered, "All right, already," and moved to sit up in bed. Ignoring the dizzy spots that swarmed her vision, she rubbed her eyes for a few moments before rising and glancing around for the nearest mirror. As fate would have it, right next to the bed lay the doorway to the restroom, from which her reflection was visible, lit by the morning sunlight as it was.
Vanity aside, Char had to wince at her rumpled jacket and disheveled hair, as well as the obvious crimson veins streaming starkly from her irises. Had she cried in her sleep last night? Considering she couldn't remember any concrete dreams other than the memory of when she had first met Riku, the certainty of that possibility remained unknown to her. She brought one hand to let her fingers brush over her cheek to be sure, but for the most part she couldn't feel tear trails.
The same cheek Sora had touched as he had leaned in –
Quickly, Char turned away from the mirror, running her fingers through her hair to untangle it and wincing when she caught a snarl. In a vain attempt to stave off the misery that remembering the last time she had cried had ushered in, she thought, Couldn't Riku have let me grab the hairbrush from the Gummi ship before he took me?
The dryness sounded strained, even in her thoughts, and she shook her head, eyes slipping closed, trying to ignore the brown spikes and blue eyes that imprinted themselves onto the inside of her lids. Drowning in her emotions had never proven lucrative in the past, she told herself firmly; the same would hold true now. The sooner she and Riku found the machine, the sooner they could leave.
Unfortunately, that resolution couldn't stagnate the flood of curiosity that washed over her at where Sora could be heading next. Knowing him, he was probably still asleep, despite the sun's peeking over the horizon and her own internal clock suggesting the contrary. Unless Goofy was already making breakfast, of course, in which case he definitely would have made a beeline out of bed.
Char's amusement faded and the pathetic chuckle that had oozed out of her died when she realized the similarity to how she had awoken this morning; after all, only the promise of food had gotten her out of bed. She let out a quiet, shaky sigh, pushing her bangs off her face only to have them fall back again. He has rubbed off on me more than I thought.
Pushing that thought away, she wondered if he had left Beast's Castle yet – and, moreover, what had happened to that castle's residents. If Beast had found redemption yet; if he had dredged up the courage to tell Belle his feelings for her; if the servants had remained within the castle after what he had done; if Xaldin had done anything unsavory. Char's eyes narrowed at thinking of Dilan's Nobody and the man he had been before the darkness had gotten him. For the most part, the smug bastard hadn't changed much between dying and now; except the slightly softer gleam his eyes gained when lighting on her had suffered a distinctive decrease.
No. She shook her head, hoping that would clear the remnants of long-buried grief that had suddenly flared up. Just because Dilan had taught her how to fight – had given her the twin swords she had used before the Hydra had snapped them in half with its teeth – didn't mean she owed him anything. Least of all sympathy and mercy.
Heart or no heart, he and the others were her – and Sora's – enemies now.
Which made her all the more determined to return to him: if not for her love, then for her hatred.
Turning on her heel, she started to make her way toward the stairs, whose presence hovered only vaguely near the more prominent annoyances of yesterday, only to hiss in surprise as her burned leg – yet another reminder of her promise to protect Sora – suddenly decided to make its presence known. Of course, now she knew where they had gone after Beast's Castle.
I don't think Char should pilot the ship again.
Leave it to her to land us in the wrong place.
Name's Megara; call me Meg.
Get out of the way…
If Sora were killed, I would be sad.
The old wound twinging had served as a subconscious switch to recalling which world Sora would probably go to now, at least if the map behaved the same way it did the last time they made rounds to the worlds. Struck by a sudden thought, Char settled into a sitting position on the floor and drew the knee on the uninjured leg up, allowing the burned one to remain extended. Out of morbid curiosity, she pushed the hem of her pants back to get a look at the afflicted area.
For the most part, it didn't resemble a laceration that would send as many little needles of pain coursing up her calf like it was doing now. Since it had healed a relatively short while ago, though, crimson still mottled her skin there and told her that yes, a legitimate fireball had assailed her flesh, and yes, the sign of it wasn't going away anytime soon. Char felt a little foolish at thinking the evidence of nerve damage that only Merlin and Aerith's continuously-applied Curaga spells had kept at bay would show on the outside.
She carefully stood, putting one hand on the side of the bed for balance. Thankfully, she could do at least that much without aggravating the reminder of what she had nearly sacrificed for Sora.
Before heading downstairs, though, she made sure to pull her pant leg back down over the area. If Riku caught sight of that, his concern would definitely prove too much for him to hold back, and she didn't know how she could explain the story behind that without giving too much away about the irony of the whole situation: her protecting Sora before she had even regarded him as a friend, let alone someone to love.
Would it be so bad to tell Riku about it, though? a voice prompted gently in the back of her mind. Just like it had yesterday. Char cursed aloud and lightly kicked the floor, pretending it was the nebulous identity of that voice.
Because I'd never hear the end of it from him, that's why, she thought irritably.
That's a lie and you know it. In an instant, the reasonable tone had swapped to a much more brusque, insistent one. It's only a key reason why you've stood by Sora for so long. And besides, if Riku knew about you and Sora, he could stand a chance with Kairi.
Char blinked at the oddity of the altruism in that last unbidden notion. She had caught herself wondering what it had been like for Riku, growing up as an extra hindrance to Sora and Kairi, but not to the extent of considering pushing him and Kairi together. That would never be the only way to get Riku to act on his emotions, and Char knew it. He'd spent his entire life as a leftover piece, after all; she didn't want to enhance any inadequacy even more.
Her mind slammed itself down over any more possibilities of telling Riku why she had hated his taking her from Sora so much today. How would she begin, anyway? No leads, this sucks, hey, by the way, I'm in love with your best friend and he's kind of in love with me too?
Besides, Char still had to figure out how to tell Falcon that she could give less of a damn about the dark-haired girl's feelings for him.
With that thought in her mind, the redhead headed toward the stairs.
Char emerged from the hallway connecting the spiraling staircase to the main part of the house and saw Riku already settled at the glass-top table in the living room, a steaming plate of eggs already half-demolished in front of him. In the kitchen, Falcon stood, back to them, apparently deep in concentration scraping the leftover eggs onto one plate with a spoon. The overhead light caught off another plate sitting next to Falcon's, and Char couldn't help raising an eyebrow at the fact that Falcon had actually taken the time to set her breakfast out for her.
"Do you know how Char likes her eggs?" Falcon was asking without turning around. A considerate question that sounded almost exasperated, as though it carried an obligation she didn't want to feel. The redhead's frown deepened at that.
Riku didn't see her approach, absorbed in swallowing another mouthful of scrambled egg as he was. "I'm not sure, really," he answered, after swallowing his food, a courtesy Sora had never extended. "She's not so fond of eggs."
"Oh." Falcon's arm halted in its steady movement for half a second before it resumed, her elbow bending at a sharper angle as the spoon encountered a particularly difficult piece of egg. Soon, it yielded to the larger amount of pressure and fell onto her plate. "I'll just make something else then. There's not much in the fridge, but I can figure it out."
Char decided the conversation had dragged on long enough and chose to interject. "Don't talk about me like I'm not here," she said, only half-joking.
Riku glanced up and saw her approaching, while Falcon twisted her head to look over her shoulder. "Morning," the gray-haired young man greeted.
Char gave a brusque nod in response, stopping in her tracks as it occurred to her that she had no idea where to go next. Her uncertainty must have shown on her face, because Riku's lips quirked upward just so and he patted the space on one side of him. "Sit down; Falcon's still cooking."
Holding back the gratefulness she didn't want to admit she felt, Char sat down at the side of the table that faced the door to the house: the only one, apparently. She caught sight of the vestiges of Riku's grin vanishing and elbowed him a little in the ribs. "Relishing my awkwardness much?" she muttered.
"Hey, someone has to."
Char rolled her eyes, but a smile tugged at her lips as she did so. At least one of them hadn't changed a bit.
"So," Falcon suddenly said, and the two of them turned to see her walking toward them with a plate full of eggs in tow. She settled down on Riku's other side and, setting the plate down with a muted clatter, tilted her head to the side at Char in a disturbingly familiar gesture. "I hear you don't like eggs?" she queried innocuously enough. Maybe she had decided to set aside any animosity she might feel for the time being.
Char shrugged, suddenly mildly self-conscious under that steady green stare. That, too, struck a chord of déjà vu within her, though not for the same reason the short, dark hair brushing her shoulders in a different way than usual had. Strangely, Char felt herself trying not to quail under the intensity of those eyes on her. Which was weird as all hell, considering everything Char had gone through; she could not begin to fathom why just having this girl look at her would facilitate the amount of fear shaking through her body that it was.
She shook it off and responded with a shrug that she hoped carried enough nonchalance to sweep away her completely unjustified fear as well. "I'm not fond of them, really, but I'll eat them scrambled if I need to," she said.
Falcon shook her head. "I'll just make something else. It's no big deal, really."
Char narrowed her eyes. Gods willing, this wouldn't turn into a test of which girl could demonstrate better hospitality in front of Riku; especially since what Riku thought lay so far beyond the things she cared for at this point. "Fal, come on," she growled. "Just scrambled eggs are fine."
She hadn't meant for any annoyance to slip into her tone; nonetheless, it had ended up in her words, making them sound more belligerent than they were. However, Falcon's reaction went beyond trying to rebuff any unintentional aggravation. She narrowed her eyes – another warning bell went off in the back of Char's mind, almost trying to say this is familiar this is scarily familiar why is it so damn familiar – and seized her fork from the table, her ungloved hand going white in the knuckles as she clenched her fist around it. "I told you yesterday not to call me that," she hissed.
Too late, Char recalled what Riku had told her about Falcon's aversion to that particular nickname: how Copperhead had dubbed her with the shorter version of her name when they had spent better days together. As those furious emerald eyes glowered into hers, it hit Char, absurdly, idiotically, that she almost expected those eyes to begin glowing gold at any moment.
Her eyes widened. Of course! The way Falcon had lowered her Keyblade, a blazing, angry look on her countenance, during the battle yesterday had reminded Char inexplicably, strangely, of Anxclof.
Before she could begin any letter-arranging to see if her comparison was accurate, though, Riku, whose presence had completely vanished into the recesses of the moment, reached forward and seized Falcon's wrist that gripped the fork. "Calm down," he murmured softly. Char barely caught his words, but apparently they sounded loud and clear to Falcon: her entire body stiffened, then relaxed. Astonished at how calmly he had subdued her, Char watched as he continued. "She didn't mean anything." Dryly, he added, "I told her about how much you hate that nickname, so it's not like she did it on purpose."
The redhead thought about repeating her prior statement – demanding he not act like she didn't sit right there, watching Falcon's eyes grow the size of the egg-laden plates in front of them and the crimson dust over her cheeks as her pupils flickered down to his ungloved hand wrapped around her wrist – but decided against it.
Then Falcon sighed, tugging her arm away from Riku's grip. "You're right. Sorry," she added to Char, genuine contrition in the apology. Although it rankled Char a bit that only Riku had solicited that contrition, she said nothing of it, only shaking her head in silent acceptance of the apology.
"Well," she said, "I'm just really hungry."
Falcon nodded. "Right. I'll get you a plate. Sorry," she repeated, and quickly got up to gather the remaining eggs onto the still-empty plate in the kitchen. She cursed once as her knee bumped against the underside of the table in her haste, but recovered relatively fast and bustled off to the kitchen again.
Riku lowered his hand back to the table and couldn't help raising an eyebrow at Char's awkward, painfully obvious attempt to steer the conversation away from the past and back to food. In this whole situation, what exactly to do eluded him: siding with either of them was a stupid idea, and yet taking sides seemed like such a juvenile response to the tension that coated and thickened the air between Char and Falcon.
To distract himself from the whole thing, he took a sip of his coffee, inwardly grimacing at the bitterness that lanced across his taste buds as he did so. He would have wondered why Falcon kept something with so much caffeine sharpening the flavor in her house when she barely drank it, but he already knew why. He could still remember the day when he had asked her about it a couple of weeks ago, when an embarrassed smile had marked her words as she told him.
"Copperhead used to live here, and he brought all that strong stuff with him." She had laughed a little self-deprecatingly, as though she could barely believe she had once loved such a man, and stared down into the impassive dark surface of her drink. Trying to find memories in its depths, maybe. "I just never really felt like throwing it away after… he left. And besides, putting a ton of milk in it is usually enough to balance it out."
Riku held back a sigh. Despite her insistence of having grown used to having that specific kind of coffee every morning, he had seen the shadow that had flitted across her features at mentioning Copperhead's name. A mild tremor in her voice had accompanied that shadow, shaking through her words even as she paused. Recalling that day only shoved the fact that he still didn't know the source of her acrimony toward Copperhead into Riku's mind all over again.
He set his mug down and risked a sidelong glance at Char, who now fidgeted under the table, fingers tapping against her crossed legs in a show of uncertainty. Falcon had brought her a plate back and was now fastidiously consuming her breakfast, but Char remained staring at seemingly nothing, her eggs remaining untouched. Even though Falcon's moment of ire had passed, he found himself wondering about the way Char's eyes had widened at Falcon's fierce glare. Despite the fact that he could have just chalked the gesture up to surprise at the older girl's ferocity and left it at that, Riku liked to think he knew Char well enough to notice when realization flitted across her features.
And her expression just now fit realization all too well.
The redhead's icy eyes flicked toward him then, as if detecting his gaze burning into her. Upon seeing how he failed to look away, she raised an eyebrow in an unspoken question, albeit with an odd expression darkening her face.
Sensing that now was not the best time to discuss any possible revelations, Riku shook his head. Later.
The fine, crimson eyebrow lifted further, but she made no attempt to pry. Her hunger became too powerful for her to fight any longer then, and she lifted her fork and began to eat.
Char fought back a sigh, even though the amount of food in her mouth would have muffled it anyway. She loathed admitting it, but Sora had darted briefly across her mind when she had seen Riku watching her. How he would have jolted in shock before staring down at the ground, while his best friend just looked on impassively, waiting for her response.
The sooner we get this done, the better. Gods, I hate missing someone this much. She hadn't even missed Riku this much when leaving him.
What's Auron doing talking to Hades?
The incredulous question raced through Sora's mind as he poked his head out from behind the blue-swirled stone door. Pointing his Keyblade at the door had allowed it to open, dividing by the jagged line at its center, but when the brunette had caught sight of just who stood behind that door, he had quickly pulled Donald, who had peered around his legs to get a better look, back behind him.
"Hey!" Donald squawked indignantly. "What was that –?"
Goofy clapped a hand over the duck's beak. "Shhh," he whispered, nodding fiercely toward the man and the god standing just within.
When the perennial mist cleared just enough for Donald to catch sight of why they were hiding, his eyes widened and he clamped his bill shut.
"Okay," Hades was saying to Auron, "let's review. State your crime, prisoner."
"Prisoner?" Sora murmured, surprised. Even from here he could discern the smirk in Hades' voice and fought the sensation of disgust slithering up his back. When he thought about what this guy had done to Char – and, really, what he had almost done to him – revulsion tempered the shock that permeated his being at Hades' moniker for Auron.
"Remember when you guys fought Cerberus?" Goofy asked quietly. "I bet Hades caught him again."
"But that can't be right," Donald said around the hand still over his mouth, making his words muted and all but undecipherable. "Auron's a warrior, remember?"
But then Auron was speaking, and the three of them leaned in to hear better.
"I exist," he muttered, eyes trained steadily on the ground in front of him. "That is my crime. It is… inexcusable."
At that Donald swiped Goofy's hand away from his face so his gaping in bemusement could be visible. Sora couldn't stop the incredulity that filled him as well; last time Auron had said a few self-deprecating words, yes, but not to the extent that he found just existing in and of itself something condemning…
"What's with Auron?" he thought aloud. "He never acted that way before."
Before either of his friends could silence him, Hades turned away, the movement shifting their attention back to him. "Okay," he waved one hand dismissively, "so you made one lousy mistake: you exist. Hey, no big deal, right? I'm a forgiving guy." He folded his arms across his narrow, black-clad chest. "You keep up the end of our little deal, and I'll overlook a transgression or two." He pivoted back around to face him, dim light catching on his sharp teeth as he bared them in a grin. "We understood?"
Auron nodded. Even though his back faced them, Sora thought he caught a glimpse of the warrior's muscles tensing. "Right. Defeat Hercules."
"And his meddling friends," Hades added.
That crimson-clad form stiffened – and now Sora knew he could see a hint of hesitation in Auron's stance. "No," he argued, shaking his head. "Just Hercules."
Sora's eyes grew huge, and it took every ounce of self-restraint in his body to hold back a gasp. At least he remembered fighting the monstrous Cerberus at his side; making sure Hades' fireball hadn't removed Char from the world of the living entirely; offering to become their guardian as Sora carried her back to the Coliseum. That ruled out the possibility of Hades wiping Auron's memory, at the very least.
When he voiced this to the others, Goofy blinked at him. "But Sora, uh, I don't think Hades can do that."
"It was worth thinking about, right?" the Keybearer protested.
Ironically, Donald ended up hissing at them to stay quiet.
Hades brought a finger to his chin, tapping the grisly nail against his face in thought. Sora just thanked the gods that Hades' tirade hadn't permitted him to detect their presence yet. "Oh, I'm sorry, have you forgotten who's in charge?" he purred. As he spoke, he leaned one elbow on Auron's shoulder, pulling it back to seize the man in a vice-grip. His fingers tightened, allowing multiple chains of red-violet energy to circulate over the place of contact. While Auron snarled in pain, Hades brought up his free hand, and Sora, Donald, and Goofy could only look on, horrified, as one, two, three fingers sprang out.
Then he brought up his hand, and a miniature version of Auron appeared in his outstretched palm. The fiery striations surrounded the smaller Auron as well, stretching out to the end of Hades' elbow and making the end of his short sleeves ripple in the resulting gale.
"Hercules and the other four," he spat. "I haven't seen Key-boy's little princess yet, but I'm sure she's lurking around here somewhere."
You're one to talk about lurking, Sora thought, fury clouding his common sense and very nearly making him spring forward, Rumbling Rose first. Thankfully, Goofy grabbed the boy's arm before he could act on that impulse.
"Are we clear?" the god of the underworld growled into Auron's ear.
"Yes," Auron croaked. "Hades."
"Lord Hades?" the other prompted, tightening his grip on Auron's shoulder and causing the tendrils of flame to multiply rapidly.
"Lord Hades." The words emerged sounding as though he had ground them out through clenched teeth.
"Good," Hades praised him, releasing him at once. As the light from the flames faded, Auron slumped down just slightly, in as large a display of pain as he would let himself show, even oppressed by Hades. The god turned on his heel and waved a hand over his shoulder, flicking off a stray bit of energy as he did so. "Now get to the tournament. Hercules first, then the others."
"Understood," Auron muttered.
Sora craned his neck and saw Hades lift up the now clearly-tangible, miniature version of Auron. As their enemy's shoulders shook in a few sadistic chuckles, Sora whirled back around to face his friends. "That's how he's controlling Auron!" he informed them, jerking a thumb over his shoulder. "That doll… statue… thing."
Another pause ensued, during which he knew he expected a female voice to comment on his lack of articulation. Trying to shake off the sorrow that yawned inside him at her absence – it wasn't bad enough that he had spent just about all of this morning keeping every mental image of her staunchly out of his mind, only for it to hit him just how much avoiding her memory hurt – he heard Donald huff out, "Man, what a jerk."
"Who, Hades?" Goofy asked.
Donald gave him a sardonic look. "No. Auron. Of course Hades!" he shouted suddenly, startling the knight to the point where he nearly fell over. Sora cast a brief, panicked look at where Hades and Auron were talking, but apparently the former had vanished and the latter was approaching them.
"Guys," he hissed out, prodding Donald with one foot to get the irate duck's attention. Donald whipped his head toward him, as did Goofy, one with annoyance and the other with confusion. Both expressions sluiced off their faces at once when they saw Auron striding toward them.
"Are you okay, Auron?" Goofy asked, but to their confusion the warrior stalked right past the trio. Sora followed the man with his eyes and felt dread settle thick and dark in the pit of his stomach as Auron crossed the threshold of the stone door mottled with blue patterns, passing the group entirely.
Heading straight toward the two demons that served Hades most closely, who according to Hercules ran the Underworld rendition of the upper realm's tournament.
"He's not really…" The boy gulped.
"Come back!" Donald yelped, setting off toward Auron at his equivalent of a breakneck speed. Sora and Goofy followed close behind the mage, eventually passing him up with the Keybearer at standard point position.
He risked a glance back, seeing his two comrades loping steadily along close by, and the thought crossed his mind that maybe he didn't deserve to be the one at the front.
Not if he kept losing his friends the way he did.
"You guys need more leads, right?" Falcon asked, turning around from where she had just rinsed off their dishes. "I've got a few places we could walk around and search."
Riku and Char exchanged a glance. In light of their conversation yesterday, when Char had spotted the citadel's silhouette creeping ominously up from the distant, tree-dominated horizon and learned just why Riku had never ventured near it, the gray-haired young man could almost hear Char's thought process. I'm guessing the citadel isn't one of those places.
He spotted her opening her mouth to speak and immediately gave her a glare, narrowed golden eyes carrying a peremptory aura about them. "Don't," he muttered, so only the redhead could hear it.
She met his glower in kind, before seeming to figure out just why he had cut her off and huffing out a sigh. "I was just going to ask where all these places were," she growled. "Calm down."
Falcon blinked, emerald-surrounded pupils shifting from one teen to the other and back again, but she said nothing of it. "I was thinking we could ask the mayor if he's seen anything strange about," she explained. "He tends to keep pretty close tabs on all the troubles in town. Well," her voice obtained a distinctively scornful tinge, one that permeated her next words and made them more venomous than they should sound, "Copperhead does for him, anyway."
Char noted the way Falcon all but spat out the name and shoved down the most obvious question before it could cross the fat, glow-in-the-dark line between the tip of her tongue and audibility. She had loathed and rebuffed all of Sora's attempts to worry her past out of her, after all; she figured Falcon probably wanted the same courtesy extended to her.
Didn't stop the need to know from needling and burning at the redhead, though.
At the very least, now she knew what Copperhead did in his work for the mayor.
"Anyway," Falcon went on, briskly, as if trying to shake her caustic attitude off, "we can check city hall first." A moment passed, and Char wondered if Falcon was contemplating whether or not Copperhead was working today.
It proved to not matter, in the end, because Riku chose that moment to interject. "Actually, it might be better that we're going there first," he confessed.
Falcon blinked, eyes immediately gaining a newfound glow as his voice reverberated throughout the house. Char noted that the extreme oddity of a teenage boy's relatively young-sounding timbre resonating from the body of a man in his twenties had all but lost itself on Falcon. That, or she had just spent the entire month she had known him growing accustomed to it. With a thrill of mild guilt, Char reflected on the odd taste left in the back of her mouth whenever she caught a distinctively Xehanort-esque expression on Riku's countenance. Then again, that might have just originated from the fact that she had known the true identity of Riku's current form in another life.
"And why is that?" the dark-haired girl asked, tilting her head to the side.
Riku must have noticed the glimmer in Falcon's eyes, for he cleared his throat a little awkwardly before speaking. "I… well, we…" He hesitated, then – actually hesitated, and Char had to do a double take before it sank in. Of course: they had enlisted Copperhead to help them look only yesterday. Due to his connections, Char knew she had to push aside the annoyance she, personally, felt toward the blonde-haired man; if he could facilitate finding the machine, more power to him. Falcon, however, was another matter entirely, what with her obvious enmity toward him.
Whether Riku's tentativeness arose from knowing about Falcon's not-so-little crush on him or having to tell her just who would be joining them today, Char did not know. Either way, it kept him from giving the most important piece of news.
Recognizing that he wasn't going to say it before her and Falcon's hair matched his, Char rolled her eyes and, placing one hand on the table, stood up to face Falcon better. The older girl stood a few inches shorter, but she managed to meet her curiosity-filled eyes anyway. Almost a shame that I'm going to piss her off beyond all rational thought in a couple of seconds. "We may or may not have asked Copperhead to help us out yesterday," she announced.
As she spoke, Falcon's face underwent a not-so-subtle transformation: from genuine interest, to blankness, to widened eyes at the mention of Copperhead's name, and finally to distortion into fury. "You're kidding me, right?" she spat, striding forward and glaring right into Char's eyes. It reminded the redhead of Anxclof all over again, but much to her own relief, she managed to stand her ground against the fiery anger that surged all around her and darkened the room.
"Unfortunately, no," Riku muttered. Char heard his cloak swish as he stood and could feel his incredulous glower searing into her.
Falcon spared him a brief glance; for once, her attention had focused itself completely on Char. Apparently this revelation had left her so furious she could barely speak. "I… Just… Why?" she snarled at last, all her anger pouring and distilling itself into that one disbelieving word.
Riku's head turned just a little to look at her. "He's got connections, Falcon," he pointed out, weariness rather than intimidation buried in his voice. It gave Char the distinct impression that he had dealt with Falcon's outbursts about Copperhead before. "Besides, it won't hurt to have the extra fighter if we run into Heartless."
Falcon hesitated, as if knowing his words held more than a tiny grain of truth to them. In an instant, though, the faltering mask of aggravation had affixed itself back in place again, and she shifted her glare from Char to Riku. "Connections or not," she said through clenched teeth, "you couldn't have asked me before you went and blabbed everything to that greasy-haired ass?"
"No, I couldn't have. Because you would have said no, and then we wouldn't get anywhere," Riku cut in quickly as the older girl opened her mouth to shove an indignant interjection into his reply. Her jaw clamped shut at once, and she made a guttural noise of irritation deep in her throat as she glowered down at her feet. From the viciousness with which she did so, Char figured she was probably imagining the floor was Copperhead's face.
More gently, Riku went on. "Look, we have to do all we can to find this thing Char's master made. If Copperhead helping us out means the worlds can be saved, then it's worth a few minutes of your discomfort. Right?"
"Word that a little more bluntly, why don't you?" Char muttered. She caught Riku's muscles tensing very slightly, as if he had forgotten she still stood beside him; but his turning and giving her a stare that said you're one to talk stemmed her flood of annoyance.
Falcon remained silent a moment longer, then her shoulders slumped from their stiff position and she sighed; this time persistence and rage did not shape the sound into more of a huff, but resignation and exhaustion turned it softer. "You're right." She lifted her head, every trace of vexation sliding off her face with the action. "Let's get this over with," she sighed, already making her way toward the door and grabbing her black jacket off the hook hanging off the back of it.
Blinking, Char exchanged a glance with Riku – not out of bemusement, but out of slight exasperation. As odd as it may have seemed, Falcon's attitude about this whole situation – about having to spend such close time with someone whose very name she abhorred – had swept over the room and seeped into the hearts of the others there. Accordingly, the amber stare that met Char's carried a bit of mild annoyance that he probably didn't mean to feel as well.
She really hates him, Char thought. The puzzling nature of Falcon's reactions today – practically using her fork as a weapon when Char made the mistake of shortening her name; all but lashing out when Riku had informed her exactly why heading to the city hall first was the best decision – cancelled out some of the blatant obviousness inherent in that thought.
Of course, thinking that brought her nose to nose with the main question screaming silently behind all this – why why why – and so Char put a firm proverbial muzzle on her thoughts before they could tempt her into becoming a hypocrite.
Some amount of her internal conflict must have darted across her countenance, because Riku raised an eyebrow; like before, though, when she had denied him the chance to see her realizing how much Falcon's temper resembled Anxclof's when roused, Char shook her head firmly at him. Later.
He reeled back a little then, mild frustration etching itself into the downward curve of his eyebrows and the set of his jaw. Char wanted to promise to tell him later – only those two thoughts she had just denied him, though, and not the real reason why bitterness overtook her at thinking of how Riku had taken her from Sora – but before she could open her mouth to at least entertain fulfilling that urge, Falcon turned around.
"You guys coming?" she queried, though the hollow quality to the inquiry suggested she could really care less.
"Of course." Riku swept forward, his cloak rippling like a telltale shadow in the sunlit living room as he moved toward the door.
It took Char a couple of seconds to realize she should probably follow.
Hastily, she started along close behind, nearly tripping over the rug in her lack of regard for where she was going. Falcon had already opened the door and headed out at a brisk trot, allowing the soft spring air to drift in; but Riku already had one foot positioned outside and so caught the startled grunt from Char as her foot caught. He glanced over his shoulder at her, and shame prickled up her spine at the amusement tugging his lips upward.
"Don't hurt yourself," he chuckled.
Char huffed and pushed past him, assuring that her shoulder shoved into at least his bicep as she left him behind. Dammit, but she had forgotten just how tall Xehanort had been compared to her in the past, how she had had to crane her neck just to look him in the eye.
And now he's our greatest enemy, she reflected with a shudder of revulsion.
No sooner had her foot crossed the boundary between the house and the front yard that a spurt of agony lanced up her leg. Before she could stop herself, Char let out a hiss of undisguised surprise and pain; for as it turned out, her injured calf had picked that precise moment to flare up.
She froze as a bemused noise emitted from behind her. So many possible explanations for her uncharacteristic outburst rushed through her head at that moment, but as Sora was so deeply entwined first and foremost with that particular scar, all of said explanations tripped over each other and fell flat. "You okay?" Riku queried. "I did tell you not to hurt yourself."
Char managed to shake her head. "It's nothing," she ground out, hoping with every ounce of her being that her failing to turn around would conceal her emotions. Allow her wistfulness at thinking of Sora and physical ache at remembering that day to remain invisible to Riku.
Panic seized her then, keeping her from gauging Riku's response other than a doubtful "hm." The injury gave an insistent pang that shook through her calf as she took off ahead, leaving him to catch up.
Riku blinked a couple of times, reached out a hand and considered calling out her name to at least set some sort of tether on her, but the leaves of the trees surrounding Falcon's house had already pretty much swallowed her up. With a sigh, he had to wonder how long it would take Char's mind to process that she had no clue where she was going without either him or Falcon.
Then again, he had never been here before, so he had no room to mock Char about her hasty flight.
However, the fact remained that he did need to follow them, before Falcon turned a corner and the gently-swaying leaves of the forest surrounding her home all started to look the same. With a weary grumble, Riku moved to catch up.
Char didn't slow up in her sprinting until the sight of a distinctively female, black-clad shape loomed up in her vision. Due to the clouds currently concealing the sun high above, the dappled shadows from yesterday had made an exit, allowing Char to catch sight of Falcon that much more quickly.
The sound of the redhead's heavy panting made Falcon turn to see just who was charging up behind her. As Char slowed to a rather clumsy trot to match the other's, she glimpsed something like eager anticipation die down to a faint disappointment that nearly matched apathy.
Falcon stifled a growl of annoyance as she found not the fabric of Riku's dark coat greeting her gaze – because he stood so much taller than she it was almost ridiculous – but the exhaustion-clouded icy eyes of the latest stranger here. She still felt a vague tinge of embarrassment over what had happened at breakfast, but somehow, in light of Char's closeness to Riku, couldn't quite find it in herself to give more of an honest damn than that.
Still, though, she figured if they had to work together, envy would only hinder the both of them. That and Falcon fully intended on saving every ounce of aggravation for when they saw Copperhead. Crimson flashed across Falcon's vision at the slightest notion of it, but she tamped it down, allowed the sunlight whose rays were beginning to penetrate past the clouds to eradicate the fury from her eyes. "Morning," she greeted briskly.
Char blinked; clearly she had expected a flatter response, an obligatory request as to what exactly the redhead was doing here. However, the curiosity behind Falcon's next predictable response got the better of her, and she queried, "Where's Riku?"
"What? Oh." Char shook her head as her mind caught up to her words, and Falcon fought the mighty urge to roll her eyes. At least pretend you were listening. The redhead shrugged, one foot lightly kicking at the ground as she kept pace with her elder; the movement dislodged a pebble and it went rattling to the edge of one of the tree roots nearby. "He's back there," she announced, hitching a thumb over her shoulder to indicate behind her. A beat, then, "We had a minor issue, is all," with more than a hint of discomfort marring the seemingly-dismissive words.
To Falcon, the term felt like a lamely used euphemism more than anything else. She raised an eyebrow, the few manners she cared about anymore receding into the back of her mind. "Just a minor one?"
Char raised and lowered one shoulder, not meeting Falcon's eyes. "Yeah. I guess."
Falcon grunted in acknowledgment, before silence fell over the two of them. The quiet oozed into the air and permeated the atmosphere between them, amplifying Falcon's already-heightened discomfort. She gave Char a sidelong glance, only to look back down again when she saw the uneven pace of the redhead's walking. Despite the fact that she matched Falcon step for step, from the bulge of her jaw, it looked like pain lanced through her leg with every step.
Then Falcon frowned. What was she doing, being curious about someone whose connection with Riku rivaled hers? For all she knew, Char could destroy the chance at happiness that Riku's arriving at the Shadowed Desert and befriending Falcon had given her; could snatch away the tentative, proverbial hand of friendship whose grip Falcon had shunned since that bloody night with Copperhead and Xemnas and her parents.
You stupid girl, you might as well just call them Heartless and leave it at that. What was left of your parents died that night, and you know it. You know it, Copperhead knows it, Riku would know it if you trusted him enough.
The thought reached into Falcon's heart and ripped open the wound she had thought long closed, albeit badly healed and numbed with time, with talons so agonizing, so damnably real, that she almost gasped aloud.
She didn't realize her vision was beginning to blur until Char spoke her name and she glanced up to find a distorted view of the redhead watching her.
Char's eyes widened a fraction as they met Falcon's, the force of her surprise halting her unsteady limping in its tracks. It took a couple more steps on Falcon's part before it hit her and she stopped as well. The girl of eighteen months ago might have spared Char a couple of blinks and a query as to what the problem was; now Falcon just felt dull. Tired.
So damned drained.
And the day hadn't even properly begun yet.
The girl of now just stared wearily back at Char, whose fingers had begun to twitch at her side.
The redhead hesitated; the proper thing to do would be to step forward and embrace Falcon, whose tears had come so suddenly, but somehow, she got the feeling the dark-haired girl would just shove her back. Besides, getting this particular fact off her chest took precedence over whatever emotional issues plagued Falcon.
Her heartbeat accelerated, despite the simplicity of the thing. I don't like Riku. Simple as that. However, even with all the evidence to the contrary, Char found herself wondering how in the name of the gods she would lead into it. I've seen the way you look at him sounded almost accusatory. I need to tell you something was just cliché as all hell, and he's all yours was a blatant lie, considering whose heart really held sway over him.
Char sighed. The Sora in her told her she was probably overthinking this whole matter, which, really, would prove counterproductive to the point she wanted to get across anyway. And yet she had to wonder why she felt she had to tell Falcon this in the first place. Somehow, she felt like it wasn't to gain Falcon's friendship. Friendship seemed a little too strong for what she wanted from the other.
Trust, maybe, was a more fitting moniker.
Either way, the sound of footsteps from the forest behind them began to echo in Char's ears, insisting she had to do this now.
"About Riku… I don't…" She swallowed, stared down at the ground. Why was this so damn difficult? "I don't like him like that," she finished, at last. Pathetically. "Not the way you do."
Maybe once. But Sora changed that.
Falcon's tear-filled eyes widened as Char mentioned Riku's name, and a noise that sounded suspiciously caught between a grunt and a gasp tore itself from her, seeming to tunnel up from a barely touched place deep inside her. Just as suddenly, though, that shock faded, replaced by a show of apathy that came across as more obligatory to Char at this point. "I don't like him that way," she demurred. Evaded.
Char rolled her eyes, annoyance sweeping the remnants of her sympathy under the figurative rug in her chest. "Sure you don't. And I'm here because I want to be."
The two of them stared each other down for a moment, during which Char suddenly, with a thrill of almost-maybe horror, considered telling Falcon the real truth. That the reason Char herself had never acted upon her feelings for Riku in the past, vehement denial aside, was because his memories of Kairi had always shadowed her.
But then a voice behind them called out, "Hey guys!" As one, the girls turned and saw the very boy – man? Person clad in the form of a Heartless? The terms to describe Riku had snarled themselves so intricately together in Char's mind that she suddenly had no clue what to call him – that had taken precedence in their discussion only moments before. Black fabric swished as his coat swung in response to his halting in his tracks, and he leaned over to catch his breath, only lifting his head to give them an annoyed look. Watching Xehanort's form running like Riku had would almost amuse Char, if not for said discussion.
"Char," he growled, speaking around a series of pants, "the next time you run off like that, I'm just gonna open a portal in front of you and send you to someplace dangerous." Although the threat was an idle one, the irritation on his face and drawing his brows down gave all evidence to otherwise.
Char raised an eyebrow, hoping a show of nonchalance would hide her previous indecision. "No you won't. I'm still your friend." Tacking that last part on proved a mistake, for the flippant words turned into a desperate plea as her mind echoed them. Kidnapping and precarious truce aside, she liked to think some vestige of their friendship – some memory of the days when they had eaten sea-salt ice cream together, when they had dragged Namine away from her work for a day to spend together, when the numbers on the computer screens regarding Sora's memory progress had engraved multiple lights into the inside of her eyelids – lurked in the back of Riku's mind.
She pushed her doubt away, though, knowing it was unfounded. Yet even with that attempt to eradicate its presence from her, it only seemed to grow.
Gods. I must have gone soft, if I'm worrying about this.
If he detected her shift in mood from affability to melancholia, Riku said nothing. He just looked to Falcon, who straightened immediately at having his gaze focused on her. Green eyes focused intensely on him, her mouth opening just slightly, as if in light of what Char had just said, merely making eye contact rendered her breathless.
Watching this, Char couldn't help but wonder if revealing she would not compete for his affections had been one of her better decisions. If anything, now Falcon's hopeless dedication would only increase, and Riku's discomfort was directly proportional to that.
Hopeless dedication, huh? Char thought of Sora – of how she had been so willing to throw herself in front of Anxclof's Keyblade, to take the brunt of every blow and bear the pain of every radiation ray that sliced into her, to die for him if that meant he escaped the Nobody's wrath unscathed – and found herself choking on a self-deprecating sigh. We are more alike than I thought.
"You know the way to the city hall, right?" Riku was saying. Pulling herself out of her thoughts, Char focused her attentions on the conversation at hand. Riku had come forward while she had pondered about Sora, and now he stood in front of Falcon, gazing down at her as he spoke.
Falcon nodded, a bit of sardonic exasperation overtaking her prior nervousness. Only the notion of her old love could break the trance lowered onto her by her new one, it seemed. "Yeah," she muttered. "Unfortunately."
More than a hint of bitterness crept into her voice, along with the same sorrow that had wrapped its agonizing shroud around her and coaxed those tears to her eyes. The extent of its grip on her now, though, struck a raw and deep chord within Char, and she opened her mouth to speak, not knowing what to say. After all, only a few days before she had reflected on the futility of trying to soothe grief that would never go away.
Perhaps, in her involuntary response, she was channeling Sora again.
She heard a distinctively masculine voice cut in then, and almost perfunctorily turned her head to look at Riku. The emotion that unwound the tight furrow created by his eyebrows and pushed every ounce of discomfort or awkwardness brought to him by knowing how Falcon felt sent a wave of surprise crashing over Char.
Because she would never have anticipated that extent of sympathy from him toward anyone other than Sora or Kairi.
Maybe because he understands what it feels like to lose someone he loves. To have never had that person's love in the first place.
It made Char wonder, and then promptly condemn that curiosity, about what had happened with Falcon and Copperhead all over again.
"We need all the help we can get," Riku reminded her, gently. Folded his arms, and waited.
Falcon drew in a deep, shaky breath that rattled on the way down. Her eyes slipped shut, as if the tall silhouette on the inside of her eyelids could assuage her, and then opened again, obviously brighter even from where Char stood off to the side. "I know. But just…" She hesitated, head angling down to stare at the ground. "Why him?"
"He's all we've got, Falcon."
Those five words seemed to snap her out of a stupor: she jerked her head up and stared at him, almost as if that one sentence carried more weight and significance than he could ever realize. It dawned on Char that she almost expected Falcon to shatter right then and there and bury her face against the front of Riku's coat. Inanely enough, the first thought that came to Char's mind was she won't want to cry there, the leather's terrible at absorbing things like that.
Not that she knew, or anything.
Not that the first few nights after her and Ansem's hasty flight from Hollow Bastion had taught her that.
Falcon did nothing, though: just looked at him with anxiety and terror clear in her watery eyes and her countenance. To Riku's credit, he stared back at her fairly evenly, only the slightest shift in his arms crossed over his chest belying any sort of nervousness of his own. It took a few agonizing, overly long moments, but Falcon eventually sighed in defeat and turned away. "No. You're right. If he's with us, we can find the machine that much faster."
Riku gave a brisk nod, before seeming to remember she couldn't see it and quickly following it up with words. "Lead the way, then."
Before he had even finished, she was trudging off, moving down the dirt path at a speed that contradicted her previous reluctance so completely it made Char blink. Just like that, the fact of what had just happened sank in, and she fought back a cringe. Reduced to the third wheel. Again.
However, she repressed the annoyance that rode the coattails of that thought and fell into step beside Riku instead. The pain in her leg had gone, she noted, and felt mildly guilty at just how grateful she was that it had stopped after his arrival.
"What were you guys talking about?" he asked, before she could steer the conversation soundly away from the memory of the trembling glimmer in Falcon's eyes.
Char froze for half a second – just half a second – but began moving again at once. "Not much," she replied, just as brusquely. "Girl stuff. You know how it is."
She didn't dare look over at him, but she did hear the eye-narrow in his voice, the upcoming affirmation that she had spent the last sixteen years not worrying about said girl stuff and why she was starting now was beyond him. "Char…"
"Riku…" she parroted back at him, casting him a glare that told him Not now.
Not now? Riku thought incredulously, clenching his fists. Making sure she could see the sign of his frustration in that gesture. She was leaving so many things for later – the future, that fleeting, ephemeral concept that always lay closer on the horizon than one would assume – and the amount of irritation that filled him at her continuously dodging his queries almost got the better of him at that moment.
What else are we going to leave to "not now?" First Falcon's outburst this morning, then her running out the door, and now this?
Not to mention her feelings about Sora.
He held in a snarl with more than a little difficulty. As it was, the weight of his anger held itself against the back of his throat and threatened to choke him before he could swallow it down. Expressing this much concern about someone other than Sora or Kairi was an odd feeling, and tasted odd on his tongue, but the feeling did exist, much to his chagrin.
Focus, he told himself. City hall first, dealing with Falcon's emotional issues with Copperhead. Later you can ask Char…
Later…
So many things left to later.
But the problem lay in the future's arrival.
For some reason, Sora hadn't expected the miniature statue of Auron to feel so light and soft in his fingers. He'd thought it would match both the fortitude and hardness of the warrior – and, now that what seemed like his memories had coursed from the statue into the minds of Sora and his companions, the difficulties of his past as well.
"This must belong in Auron's heart," he realized. "Everything he's been through, everything that made him what he is…" He turned to Donald and Goofy, who still stood behind him and eyed him curiously as he went on. "Once Hades took that away, he made Auron his puppet. Right?" he added tentatively.
Sounds about right, phantom Char remarked.
Donald completed that mental remark with a nod in reality. Then his recognition faded into sympathy. "Yeah, but if those were Auron's memories…"
"He must've had a pretty rough life," Goofy finished, bringing one hand to his face and curling his fingers over his chin.
Sora nodded in agreement, and empathy for the man who had fought at his side only once. "In the end, though, that made him stronger," he mused. In spite of himself, he couldn't help wondering if all this would make him stronger in the end. Losing his home, discovering he wielded such a powerful weapon, finding his friends again only to lose track of them…
Looking at the statue in his hand, though, the brunette knew that saving Auron – and Hercules – came first. According to Hercules, the statue held in the brunette's hand housed Auron's free will. However, this revelation had only occurred after the brooding warrior had crossed the lake of noxious fog to the dome beyond. Hercules had gone into Hades' arena to stall while Sora, Donald, and Goofy fetched the statue back, but Sora knew their friend's stamina could only last so long.
He lifted his head and met each Disney resident's eyes in turn. "Let's give this back to him."
"Yeah!" Donald nodded vehemently.
Pocketing the statue, Sora turned, only to yelp in surprise as a Dusk rose up practically on top of his foot. Donald echoed the Keybearer's sentiment when three more appeared between him and Goofy, who sprang apart, weapons in their grips in an instant.
The three of them inched together until Sora could feel the back of Goofy's shoulders shifting as he adjusted the shield in his grasp. With a flash of light, the Rumbling Rose Keyblade materialized in his hand.
As if on a silent signal, one of the Dusks that had surrounded the trio leapt forth, straight at Sora. He flung it off him in an instant and charged after it, a sense of freedom lightening his body as he lay into the Dusk with all his pent-up frustration. Every Heartless that had fallen to his Keyblade sent Saïx's words from two days ago ringing through his head – every Heartless slain releases a heart, create Kingdom Hearts, we can exist – reminding him loud and clear that every pink heart floating up to the sky, every bit of ichor that clung to his Keyblade after the fact, only helped their enemies.
Nobodies, however… Nobodies were more than fair game.
The part of Sora that still felt slightly obligated toward Roxas' existence – at knowing that he had one of the enemies he was currently tearing apart residing within him – protested weakly before vanishing in the face of Sora's resolve. He couldn't afford to falter now, he told himself; Roxas' life aside, these Nobodies were threatening the worlds. If they want to find a way to exist, they need to find a better way to do it.
The Dusk yielded to his steady onslaught at that moment, and he whirled to see what his friends were doing. As it turned out, three more Dusks chose that moment to leap onto him. If they weren't what they were, he would almost have called it vengeance for their fallen comrade.
One of them managed to score its talons across his forearm, and he recoiled, crying out in pain. Ignoring the heat that rushed to the wound, he concentrated briefly before allowing his magic to explode forth from him. The resulting release of energy caught all the surrounding Nobodies in the crossfire and effectively destroyed him.
Bereft of enemies to fight, Sora glanced around, eyes eventually lighting on the white-feathered shape frantically casting in all directions to combat the multiple Dusks converging on him. Sparks flew in all directions, but the Nobodies were seemingly immune to every lightning bolt that cascaded down through them.
He made as if to assist Donald, then pulled himself up short as Goofy shot forward in a blur of pale green. The Nobodies caught on the edges of the shield, and, recognizing his chance, Sora dashed forward, slashing into them just as multiple flames met the Dusks' bodies. The heat of Donald's Fira spell seared into Sora's skin, but he remained unburned, miraculously enough.
"Be careful, Donald!" he called, wincing as the laceration on his arm began to send insistent pangs throughout him.
"Sorry," the duck said, genuinely contrite. He tossed a Potion in Sora's direction, which the brunette caught gratefully and gulped down. Wiping some of the blue liquid off his cheek, Sora tossed a "thank you" in Donald's direction before reassessing their adversaries.
It was almost unnerving, how easily they had slipped back into only supporting the three of them; then again, they had spent the entirety of their last journey like this, growing used to looking after each other in battle. Only the arrival of Char and her respective battle skills had forced them to shift their priorities.
Despite the loss, though, the loss that still sent needles of fear and worry and self-deprecation into Sora, he, Donald, and Goofy were beating back the Nobodies fairly steadily.
At least until six more appeared and advanced on them.
"Oh, come on!" Sora groaned. Behind him, Donald uttered a frustrated squawk, and Goofy looked up long enough for his eyes to widen at the sight of all the Dusks.
Ironic, then, that an instant later, a dull white blur sprang from out of nowhere and collided with the Dusks. Sora could only look on, eyes growing wide with shock, as the blur swung around, and was the dim light of the Underworld catching on a blade and making it glimmer as it heaved into the Dusks?
More white shapes were leaping from the window that looked out at the swirling vortex of souls just outside. Sora heard Donald and Goofy's cries of surprise and fear, but only now understood why.
The Avengers converged on the last remaining Dusk, two pushing it into the corner with their swords even as the third swept out to the side and thrust outward. One quick blow, and it was over; the lesser Nobody yielded with a squelching sound that sounded almost nauseating.
If the Avengers were here…
Sora froze up, horror permeating every fiber of his being as his battle adrenaline began to wear down and his mind began putting the pieces together.
Then that meant…
"I shouldn't have had to do that," a sickeningly familiar, decidedly sane voice commented.
Roxas stirred inside Sora's heart then, the trace memories of the days he had spent with the owner of the voice currently reverberating throughout Hades' chamber flickering inside the true being's mind and heart. Eating sea-salt ice cream with her and Axel at the top of Twilight Town's clock tower; Roxas blocking a boulder that had dislodged and come crashing down from the roof of an Underworld tunnel; Anxclof shyly accepting the emerald-adorned necklace that Roxas and Axel had helped her steal from the greedy Agrabah merchant; Roxas watching Anxclof attentively from his throne as she milled about behind Xemnas.
Just like that, every bit of resolve Sora had just instilled in himself about what he had to do to the Nobodies shuddered violently within him.
Sora was dimly aware of Donald and Goofy immediately moving to stand at his side, staff and shield ready to protect him if Anxclof chose to attack. The former narrowed his eyes into an intimidating glare, yet with a hint of concentration as well, as though mentally running through all the spells he knew. Goofy tightened his grip on his weapon and stared determinedly out at the opening to the souls beyond, where the voice originated.
Sure enough, the girl Sora had hoped – no, prayed – never to see again lay stretched out, form easily slipping into the curve offered by the circle-shaped window. Its sill, if Sora wanted to put such a mundane term to the vision to the true world of the dead. The green light of said world lined her white-clad body in a preternatural, eerie glow.
"Morning, boys," she greeted, one eyebrow cocking lazily over an emerald eye. She waved a hand then, and confusion assailed Sora only briefly before multiple lights flashed in his periphery. He turned just in time to see the Avengers vanishing at her command.
"I thought… Char said she wouldn't be back!" Donald growled, shaking his staff furiously at Anxclof. Sora could vaguely recall the redhead announcing that as she had staggered up to them in the castle courtyard, just after the others had fled from King Mickey and his desire to let Sora search for Riku and Kairi alone. More vividly in his memory, though, he recalled her tears soaking into his shoulder, the first liquid expression of her emotions since their journey had begun, and how his fingers had found purchase against a tangle of her hair.
And were those tears pricking at the back of his eyes too?
Anxclof sighed, straightening and pushing off the windowsill. Her feet hit the ground, creating a thud that drove right into Sora's ears and knocked him out of his reverie and brought him back to the situation: The girl who had tried to kill him more than once, the girl that one part of him loved, was standing here, now, right in front of them.
And walking toward him.
She didn't falter in her step in the slightest as the three of them raised their weapons at her. "What do you want?" Sora demanded.
"Calm down," she said, fairly ironic considering her behavior from just a few days ago. Considering the way her mentality straddling the glow-in-the-dark line between rationale and complete loss of control had shown in every word in Hollow Bastion's corridors.
I will kill you, and then Char, and then you other two idiots. And, hey – if that doesn't work? Whatever. I'll kill you as many times as it takes until you stay dead.
You know, stepping in front of someone who's getting ready to kill you? Really not such a good idea.
Feral rage had flickered across Anxclof's eyes then, and yet now she seemed relaxed. Calmer. Sora narrowed his eyes, muscles coiling, ready to lash out at any moment if this show of nonchalance belied a deeper fury.
"I'm not going to try to kill you," she went on, earning a skeptical snort from Donald. She cast the duck a glare. "It's true. Look." To prove her point, she reached into her pocket and pulled out a chain with a lightning bolt-shaped charm attached at its end. Only Roxas' presence told Sora this must be her Keychain. The sudden movement of her dropping it on the ground made the three of them jolt up, startled.
"How do we know you don't have something else you can hit us with?" Goofy asked, in as close to a growl as he could get.
Donald gave a sound that sounded caught between a squawk and a snarl in agreement.
Anxclof shook her head. "You guys don't know how to listen, do you? I said I'm done with revenge." She sighed, bitterness ingrained so deeply into the sound that Sora had to blink; had to wonder what introspection she had done between fighting Char and now, to change her attitude this much. "Really," she murmured.
Maybe it was that moment that Roxas chose that moment to flare up in Sora's heart and inject a stream of desperate sympathy into the suspicion that filled him. Maybe it was just Sora's own capacity for empathy kicking in – not likely, considering what he knew he had to do to the Nobodies, but not too far out of the realm of possibility.
Either way, he forced himself not to leap up, Keyblade swinging, as Anxclof reached out and touched his injured arm. He did wince as the contact, gentle as it was – Anxclof being gentle toward him wouldn't have even gone together if it weren't for Roxas – sent a dully aching pang throughout the afflicted spot.
"You guys really are hopeless without Char, aren't you?" she commented.
"Hey!" Donald shouted indignantly, staff raised and magic already beginning to percolate at the bristly tips of the broom head; but Goofy stuck his arm out, shield first, to dissuade the mage. Grumbling, Donald lowered his weapon and peered around the star-shaped shield to hear the conversation properly.
Sora blinked at the lack of animosity in the female Nobody's voice as it formed Char's name: almost obscene, in light of recent events, but missing nonetheless. Like with Saïx before Anxclof, the boy felt something inside him collapse as she mentioned the girl he cared for and missed so much already. Perhaps his grudge toward her, perhaps his pride; still, he felt he had to ask his next question anyway. "Do you know where she is?" he begged.
Anxclof hesitated. Only when her hand dropped back down to her side did he see that she had failed to let go of his arm after first assessing the remnants of the wound that had escaped the healing comfort of the Potion.
"She's safe," the female Nobody admitted at last, and Sora let out the breath he hadn't realized he was holding. Behind him, Goofy uttered a murmur of relief, and even Donald relaxed a bit, before seeming to recall the others could see that much and just smirking instead. As if to say ha, I knew it all along.
"Thank goodness," Sora sighed, Rumbling Rose growing slack in his grip.
He caught a glimpse of those green-surrounded pupils darting down to the floor, where her own Keychain lay out of reach. Seized by a sudden wave of panic – something that told him if he didn't ask her the next question now, he would not find out until it was too late – he blurted, "Is Riku with her?"
The part of him that Char had left her influence on began to berate him at once at just how little sense the question made; after all, Anxclof could hardly know who Riku was. Much to his surprise, though, she only stiffened for a moment before shaking her head. "I can't say," she answered, quietly. Evasively.
So completely the opposite of who she was that Sora's confusion and eager anticipation warped into frustration at once and made him want to stride forward and shake her until she told him the truth.
"She can't say," Donald mocked in a stage whisper, with a huff of disdain.
That earned him a raised eyebrow and irritated stare, the only point in this entire conversation that Sora could fully recognize the girl who had followed him and impaled him with her Keyblade and managed to accomplish her goal only twice in the last month. She folded her arms, all the while not taking her eyes off Sora. Is she seeing Roxas in my face right now? he couldn't help wondering, and also couldn't help wishing that weren't the case. No matter what the Organization thought, he wasn't his Nobody. He knew it, Char knew it, and Anxclof knew it. Hadn't she chased him this far for that very reason?
Anxclof, former Number XIV, Blade of Vengeance, lovesick Nobody, met the eyes of Sora, Keyblade wielder, savior of the worlds, lovesick boy, and spoke the words that would both lift his heart and drag it down at once. "I can say that she does miss you. She already misses you, more than anything.
"And for that," she added, a spark of her old fire flaring in her eyes, "you have to keep going and persevere. I already know what I'm living for."
Listening to the determination that crept into her tone, Sora thought at first she was referring to Roxas. Yet the shadow that crossed her face, the darkness that served as the complete opposite of the desperate hope and happiness when she mentioned Roxas and avenging him and gathering him to her side again, told him this wasn't about his Nobody anymore. Her countenance matched… resignation, more than resolve, now.
As if she knew what she had to do, and would adhere as staunchly to this new resolution as she had her old one. Would cling to this as easily as she had clung to hatred for Char and Sora born from love of Roxas.
She leaned down, retrieved her Keychain from the ground, and turned away. The dim light catching on the bolt-shaped charm brought all three of them back to attention – especially Sora, whose mind had delved far more deeply into puzzling out Anxclof's emotions than he would have liked to admit – but she only shoved the chain back into her pocket, not even bothering to turn to face them. "You've got somewhere to be, right?"
Auron, and Hercules, and Hades. The boy's fingers slipped into his own pocket, scraping against the contours of the statue that held Auron's free will. Predictably, the extra reminder that they were operating on borrowed time didn't help Sora's predicament, didn't magically alleviate his lack of understanding on why Anxclof was here and why she hadn't shoved her Keyblade between his ribs yet. "Yeah, but…" To his own embarrassment, he trailed off, not knowing how to finish.
"I don't get it," Goofy said, speaking for all three of them. "Why ain't you attacked us yet?"
This time, she graced them with a view of the side of her head as she glanced back over her shoulder. For some reason, the lack of brightness to the one visible eye confused Sora, as if he had expected tears to slide down her cheeks.
She's not like that, Roxas whispered in the back of his heart, and it hurt to hear that soft voice sharpened with a defensive edge the way it was.
"I told you, I'm done with vengeance," she repeated, very softly. Subdued. Trembling, almost. To Sora, the words didn't translate into I'm done with Roxas.
They translated into I'm done trying to bring back something that will never be the same.
She extended a hand to open a dark portal and stepped into its unyielding depths, heading to gods only knew where.
Sora found he couldn't share in his comrades' glee as their constellation-selves up in the sky glittered. No matter how much he tried to shake the hollow feeling at knowing a certain red-haired girl didn't stand at his side, no matter how much amusement he tried to muster at seeing Phil's dropped jaw and hearing Meg's amused chuckles, he could accomplish neither of these things. The only thought ringing through his head was she should be up there too.
And down here, as well.
So I can't blame any of you for wanting to kill me for slipping in so much SoraAnx. Really, I can't. Also Char/Falcon, which I find myself shipping a bit and hate myself for.
P.S. If I got to 300 reviews by the end of the month, it would kind of rock my world a tiny bit. ;)
Review, please!