As of the twenty-sixth, I am officially an adult! I can vote, I can see R-rated movies… If I knock off a convenience store, I can be tried as an adult!
Marluxia: "Do you plan to knock of a convenience store?"
No, I'm just making a point. You see, unlike some people, I am honest.
Marluxia: "You know how else you could go to jail? Copyright infringement. As such, I will not be giving a disclaimer." (Leaves)
(Sigh) Well, I don't own Kingdom Hearts, Disney, or Square Enix. But, I own some of the OCs in this chapter. Takuya and Mina belong to Shinku Ryuuga.
!
Chapter 79: A Win-Win Situation
"How did you survive without me during your other adventures?" Kairi asked cheekily.
They'd been back on the Unity for hours, and Sora's neck and shoulder muscles were killing him. It was an unfortunate side effect of fighting with a weapon in your mouth. Kairi had offered to massage his sore muscles after he had mentioned it to her. He had thought she was joking until she had crept up behind him on the bed and started rubbing his shoulders.
He felt like he was melting under her gentle, but firm touch. All the aching and tension in his muscles slowly vanished under her fingers.
"Honestly, I don't know." He answered her.
"Did Donald rub your back after every fight?" She asked jokingly.
Sora processed this image in his head, and then made an exaggerated gagging noise, causing Kairi to laugh. "You just put a horrible image in my head, girl!"
She giggled a little. "Maybe this will help." She stopped rubbing his shoulders for a moment, and moved to his side. She took his face in her hands, and kissed him softly. She held him there for what felt like hours before finally pulling away with a smile.
"Yeah, that helped."
She giggled again, and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. They both fell back onto the bed in each other's arms, kissing again.
Eventually, they fell asleep in each other's arms, Zira and the Brotherhood the farthest things from their minds.(1)
!
When a single lioness arrived at Pax Pacis in the place of Xarcs, everyone knew that there could only be one explanation: The Keybearers had been at the Pride Lands.
The lioness now stood in the meeting room. There were others there, as well. The Horned King stood in the room, near the center of the table. On the other side, standing behind Zira, was Sephiroth. Leaning against the wall near the head of the room was Ruxik.
And the Darkness at the head of the room was still there.
Projected magically on the table was an image of the late Xayn Shu, which stared absently ahead at nothing in particular. Presently, one of Xarcs joined it on the table, wearing the same expression.
Zira eyed it with a mixture of sorrow and anger.
"So another of our number has fallen." Said the voice that she now knew as Serndask, from the mass of dark clouds in front of her.
"Yes." She hissed out, stretching out the 'S', and sounding more like a snake than a lion at that moment. She bore her teeth at a mental image of Simba, Kovu, and Sora. "And I'll do whatever it takes to avenge him."
"Very well." The voice said. It directed its next question to the Horned King. "See that she is prepared for service here, and then begin your own mission."
"At once." The skeletal man replied. He beckoned to Zira, who followed him out the only door of the room, her claws clacking across the tile floor. That left Serndask, Sephiroth, and Ruxik alone in the room. The image on the table had turned once more back into one of the Door to Darkness.
"What did you want me here for?" Sephiroth finally asked, not even bothering to use the same respectful tone that others used when addressing Serndask.
"Sephiroth, I want you to summon Marluxia. Now."
"And Marluxia is?"
"The Absent Silhouette I assigned you."
"Right." He said dismissively. He reached into his coat pocket, and pulled out a card marked with the number 'XI.' He idly tossed it to the ground a few feet in front of him.
Nothing happened for a few seconds, and then a violet sort of portal opened up over it. It lingered for a moment, before fading away to reveal a man in a black Organization coat. He had shoulder-length, partially spiked pink hair, and blue eyes.
Marluxia, the traitor of Organization XIII, the Graceful Assassin, and one of the most powerful Nobodies ever 'born.'
He eyed the room and its occupants with a raised eyebrow, though he didn't seem at all surprised about suddenly being alive again. He simply looked mildly curious. His eyes finally settled on the Darkness in which Serndask resided.
Everyone was dead silent for a moment. Sephiroth was looking at the pink hair with something between resentment, and amusement.
"I have a task for you Marluxia." Serndask finally said.
"And why should I do it?" He replied, dryly.
Orange eyes flashed within the depths of the Darkness. And for a moment, something seemed to flash in Marluxia's blue ones, as well. The Darkness in which Serndask resided seemed to bulge outward briefly, as if to swallow Marluxia.
The Nobody noted this display of power.
"Impressive."
"You'll listen to me, or the Darkness will engulf you again." Serndask said. His eyes had faded back into the blackness. "And I assure you, this time there will no return for you."
"Very well. I'll listen."
For now. His eyes said.
"There is a resistance movement in the remains of this city. You are to find its headquarters, and destroy every last being inside." Serndask said without preamble. "Use anything necessary. Heartless, Nobodies, I don't care. Just destroy them."
"Why not send me, then?" Sephiroth interjected.
"Perhaps because he knows I'll get the job done." Marluxia responded, half-turning to smirk horribly at the swordsman. But Sephiroth didn't rise to the challenge.
"I have another assignment for you, Sephiroth: He is a powerful alien creature living on a swamp world. I'll give you the specifics later."
"So when do I take my leave?" Marluxia asked dryly.
"Immediately. Now go."
Marluxia half-bowed, and turned around completely. He gave Sephiroth a smirk as he walked past, opened the door, and walked out.
Ruxik had watched all of this transpire. And the moment Marluxia had made his appearance, he had felt something like worry. He could now feel Serndask's gaze on him. And he also felt the smile that must have surely been there. A smile that said, 'We have a secret, don't we?'
!
The Headquarters of the self-named 'Pax Pacis Resistance Movement' weren't particularly impressive.
It was located just underground, beneath what had once been a town meeting center. Very few had ever known that a secret tunnel network existed below the city streets. The Heartless had passed over this place several times. And despite the fact that they could sense where hearts were, they simply never seemed to go down there.
The Resistance utilized these tunnels, keeping about eight hundred refugees safe beneath the surface of the world. This relatively small number of humans lived farther beneath the actual 'Headquarters' which was just beneath the town center.
As has been said, the Headquarters weren't particularly impressive. It was a thirty-by-fifteen foot rectangular room with four stone walls. They were engraved with various ancient characters that very few people ever studied. An educated person would be able to read the phrase 'Safety and Peace' written on the walls.
Three sturdy, wooden, rectangular tables were arranged around the room. These tables were strewn with parchments with various bits of writing on them, blueprints, and a few weapons of varying designs.
There were currently seven people in the room. And despite a great amount of time apart from them, Nehrut would have known them all in a heartbeat.
Prince Essej (though no longer in any position of power) had not, in fact, died when Xaynew's lightning bolt struck him. He now had a large burn scar on his back, but he was still very much alive. He had traded in his emerald robes of royalty for more practical clothing: a dark green leather jacket and shirt with black jeans.
Liz was standing right next to his chair, still clad in identical clothing from that fateful day three years previous. She had hardly changed, but her hair had grown a bit longer, and she had dark bags under her eyes as a result of having little sleep. She hadn't died when Xaynew had stabbed her. His blade had missed any major organs, and cauterized the wound immediately.
Mina was also present. She hadn't fallen to Xaynew's blade either. Her black and violet hair had lengthened quite a bit, and she now had it tied back into a pony-tail.
Takuya (the only one present who had fought Xaynew and come out totally unscathed) was standing behind her seat with his hands on both of her shoulders. His trench coat was tattered and torn in some places, and caked with dirt and dust near the bottom. The only thing on him that wasn't even slightly dirty or damaged was his sword and its sheath.
Altair Ibn La'Ahad was in attendance. He had perished with many others as the heart of Pax Pacis was consumed by Darkness. But he had come back with the others to the soon-to-be ruined city when a certain boy restored the worlds. His white cloak was caked with dry dirt, and his hood was down, showing a hard set, stubbled, slightly scarred face.
Cryptosporidium 137 (now known simply as 'Crypto' by everyone present) had also vanished and reappeared along with the world. He was the only person in the room who had completely withstood the test of time, not looking any different after three years.
The seventh person sitting at the table was neither native to the world, nor was he ever an official delegate to it. He was a teenager who wore a dark red, long-sleeved shirt. Over it, he wore a long, thick, black vest with several pouches in it. He wore a pair of jeans, and a thick leather belt. A pair of sunglasses was perched on his head, the lenses pointed upward toward the ceiling at the moment. But, these weren't what somebody first noticed about this person.
The first thing one noticed was that he was a dog-person. In fact, he hailed from Disney Castle: Goofy's teenage son, Max.
Sitting on the table in front of Max was a bronze long sword. The blade had a thin scarlet line painted down its length. The hilt had red bandages wrapped tightly around it, with one end hanging off stylistically.
"Well, we know what we need to do..." Max said, thinking very hard.
"We just don't know how to do it." Takuya finished.
"So that means that we are going nowhere!" Crypto shouted, firing a shot into the ceiling out of frustration. He wasn't the kind of alien who liked sitting around inside. He'd rather be outside blowing things to Kingdom Come.
"Peace..." Altair cautioned. "The last thing we need right now is for the roof to cave in."
"It's protected by magic. It's not going anywhere." To reinforce his point, he blasted the same spot in the roof another three times.
"Would you please stop that?" Liz said, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Let's just go over what we know again."
"We've gotten the rough layout of the castle from Altair's recons." Essej said, bending over a set of rough blueprints that they had drawn up indicating what the rooms were being used for. "The gummi hanger is on the third level. But it's been under really heavy guard ever since that prisoner broke out."
"What defenses exactly?" Max asked.
"There are at least fifty Nobodies inside the primary hanger at any time." Takuya elaborated. "And the outer doors are patrolled by Invisibles and Darkballs."
"If anyone would just listen to me..." Crypto began.
"We are not going to go in there blasting everything!" Mina shouted. "We have to think ahead!"
"So it's a few Heartless!" He shouted back. "We shoot them, we kill them, we get the ships and my saucer and blow this joint! It's simple!"
"Crypto, could you please just shut up for about three seconds!" Takuya interrupted.
"We need to get a dark matter warp engine attachment out of here before we do anything else." Max said. "Escaping this place will be pointless if nobody has a way to get back here later.
"Yeah yeah. Get the engine part, get it to your buddies. They're a bunch of freaking teenagers, for crying out loud!"
"So are we." Liz answered calmly. "And in case you haven't noticed, we've done pretty well so far."
"Agreed." Altair said, nodding his head. "Age is irrelevant. We need to get the part to these 'Keybearers', otherwise we are lost."
"That reminds me." Max said, a smile beginning to come to his face. "Hey, Essej, I forgot to tell you something kind of important."
"That being?"
"Before I left the castle, I heard that your old pal, Nehrut was traveling with the Keybearers."
There were a few seconds of silence after this statement. Essej, Liz, Mina, and Takuya all looked at each other, and then their faces broke out into huge grins.
"No way!" Mina exclaimed.
"The guy's still alive!" Takuya did a cliched fist pumping gesture. "Unbelievable!"
"How did he survive?" Essej asked the room.
"We helped him escape." Altair answered, gesturing toward Crypto as he did so.
"We did?" Crypto searched his memory. "Oh, yeah. The kid with the cool sword, right."
"If he's still alive," Essej said mostly to himself, "And he still has Presul..." He shared a significant look with Liz.
"The crystal?"
He was a second away from responding, when there was a loud explosion, and the whole room began to shake.
"Never fails!" Crypto picked up his weapon from the table and rushed out of the room through one of the doors in the room that lead to the surface. Three others led farther underground to the refugee quarters.
Altair pulled his hood back up, checked that his saber was still in its sheath on his belt, and followed him. Takuya, Mina, and Max ran immediately after him, weapons already in hand.
Essej and Liz looked at each other, silently agreeing that the discovery that they had just made would have to wait. He got to his feet, and softly kissed her on the lips, just in case it was his last opportunity to do so.
He walked over to one of the other tables in the room, and picked up a long, five-foot long staff from it. The staff was made from a strange, dark blue wood; two long pieces of it twisting around each other over and over. At the head of the staff was a large, spherical, silver jewel, which seemed to glow from the inside. Engraved into the jewel were runes similar to those on the walls. An educated person would have been able to read its name in them: 'Licentia' meaning 'Freedom.'
A sadly rare commodity on Pax Pacis these days.
Liz put on a pair of fingerless gloves, and the two ran after Max and the others, closing the door behind them.
!
The seven of them emerged from a trap door that had been hidden under a large speaking platform at the head of the meeting hall, which was a large building with only one room. All the windows had been broken to varying degrees, and the front wall had been almost entirely blown away. The debris of several chairs and other things were still strewn all around the room. Crypto was out first, and he was also the first attacked.
A pair of Shadows leapt at him the second his head poked out of the trap door. He brought his weapon to bear immediately, firing bluish electricity through the first one, out its back, and into the other one.
He boosted the rest of the way out of the trap door with his jetpack. Takuya was following right after him. He leapt out of the trap door, and ran directly at a Large Body walking toward him. The Heartless lifted a hand to smack him away, but he leapt entirely over it, landing on its other side.
He drew his black katana from its sheath, and stabbed behind him into the Large Body's vulnerable back. He cut a Neoshadow in half when it charged at him, and then did the same thing with its partner.
An arrow flew over his head, catching yet another Large Body in its throat. A Crimson Jazz floated into the room, moving toward Max. As it moved, fiery red and gold basketball-sized orbs appeared all around him.
Max slashed upward at one of the orbs, destroying it. He spun around like a top, destroying three more orbs in one swing. Then he gripped his sword with both hands, and swung it like a baseball bat, taking out the last two.
The same Heartless continued toward him. Max took up a fighting stance that looked slightly reminiscent of a baseball player getting ready to swing his bat. But before he was even able to make a move, there was the sound of a spell being calmly uttered back near the trap door.
"Congelo Inimicus."
An icy gale blew across the room, it was cold enough to stop every Heartless in the building in its tracks, yet somehow it didn't affect the non-Heartless.
Takuya smiled toothily, and turned his head. He saw Essej standing by the trap door with Liz. He was holding his staff out in front of him with the gem pointing outward. It was glowing light blue.
He spun it over his head, and the gem changed color from blue to a deep reddish-brown. "Motus-us!" He slammed the end of the staff into the stone floor. The whole ground shook, and huge stalagmites burst up from under each of the Heartless, wiping them all out instantly.
And just like that, the room was empty again, but no one put away their weapons. They knew good and well that there was more to come. As the stalagmites sank back into the ground, Altair spotted a black-garbed figure standing on top of a ruined building.
Without hesitation, he pulled a long, throwing knife from an inside pocket of his cloak. He took careful aim (and by his standards, taking careful aim took only about one and a half seconds), and threw the knife at the figure.
His actions attracted the attention of the others, who followed their eyes to the direction he had thrown the knife. They noticed the figure, and immediately Crypto started firing. Mina loaded another arrow, and let it fly.
But the figure vanished from the top of the building just as the projectiles were about to strike. Everything was silent, the only sound being the quiet pitter-patter of the drizzling rain now striking the ground.
They were all still as statues, weapons at the ready, just waiting for some sign of the cloaked figure.
But then, there was a warping of space in front of them, something like a corridor of Darkness, but there was something unique about this particular portal, it was tinged with a deep red color, almost like fresh blood.
Or certain rose petals.
From this portal stepped the black-cloaked man, this time with his hood lowered, showing off pink hair and blue eyes.
"Organization XIII..." Max said to himself. Among the group he was the only one who knew the whole story of the Organization, though he had told the others the gist of it.
The man heard him. "Yes, Organization XIII. Though we are now only a shell of what we once were, it seems." He said this without any tone of regret or sadness in his voice, his tone was merely conversational.
"What do you want?" Essej stepped to the head of the group.
"Quite simply, I'm here to kill you." Once again, a conversational tone.
"Well, thanks for being straightforward with us, at least." Mina took careful aim between his eyes, closing one eye.
"You're welcome. Now there are two ways we can do this: You can fight, and I'll kill you painfully. Or, you can stand down now, and your death will be… relatively painless."
"Gee, thanks for letting us choose, mister!" Crypto said. "But, I think I'm just gonna kill ya anyway." His blaster had changed into a bulkier weapon, which let off a red glow from its ammunition cartridge. He leveled his weapon, and launched a glowing red grenade-like projectile at Marluxia.
But before it detonated, Marluxia simply kicked it directly into the air without moving any other part of his body but his leg. The ion detonator flew ten feet into the air, before exploding harmlessly above them.
"Well then..." Marluxia said, his lips curling into a smile. He slowly raised his right arm straight up into the air, palm up. A single flower petal (it could have been a cherry blossom, or a rose, it was hard to tell) appeared a few feet above his head. It floated gently down for a few agonizingly slow seconds, before landing in his palm.
There was a brief flash of light in a long section across his open palm and over his head. Black, thorn like patterns appeared there in that brief amount of time. Then finally, the form of a large scythe appeared there with a burst of sakura petals. The handle was long and green, and slightly curved. The blade itself was pink, with a gold Nobody emblem on it. The whole weapon looked a bit like a huge, deadly flower petal.
"You've sealed your fate." He said, swinging the weapon down to hold it behind him, into a fighting stance. He snapped his fingers in his free hand.
The area behind him was suddenly filled with Heartless. There were two Behemoths flanking him, and a huge mass of Neoshadows and Armored Knights. Around a dozen Invisibles floated above him. A handful of Dusk, Samurai, and Assassin Nobodies prowled around the space by Marluxia.
"Take no prisoners!" Marluxia shouted. He swung his scythe in a wide arc, and a large, red-rimmed disk of dark energy shot from it at the group of defenders.
"Defendo Amicus!"
The head of Essej's staff turned violet, and a near-transparent shield of the same color appeared in front of the seven of them. The disk exploded against it, but caused no harm to anything but the pavement in front of it.
"Spread you wings, Ryuumaru!" Takuya cried out while the shield was still up. His katana extended into the cleaver-like sword 'Ryuumaru.' It had been a long time since he'd done it, but it still felt comfortable in his hands.
"Dragon Lightning Strike!" Green lightning gathered around his hand. He clenched his fist and punched the air, sending bolts of green electricity into the sky. They came back down seconds later, striking dozens of Heartless and leaving small craters in the ground.
But Marluxia saved himself by lifting his scythe, and blocking the electricity.
Crypto and Mina opened fire on the Heartless as they began to advance, cutting down most of them before they got near enough to do any sort of damage. Max, Liz, and Altair rushed into them, attacks flying all over the place and taking them out before they could even touch them.
Takuya and Essej went for Marluxia himself.
The swordsman struck down at Marluxia's head. The Silhouette raised his scythe and blocked the attack with the handle just below the blade. He disengaged, and struck at his chest.
Marluxia vanished in a shower of flower petals, which all disappeared the second they touched the ground. He reappeared on the back of one of the Behemoths. That Behemoth lowered its head as Takuya ran toward it. Electricity crackled in between its horn and two tusks, connecting and forming a ball of dark energy in front of its head.
Takuya stopped in his tracks, looking at the crackling energy which was now only feet away from him. The Behemoth let out a roar as it released all of its energy toward him.
The swordsman jumped as high as he possibly could, and was just able to get out of the blast range. But he was still pushed into the air by the force of the blast exploding against the ground.
As he spiraled through the air, Essej ran through the battle, beating Heartless away with the head of his staff. He stopped in front of the Behemoth. "Procella!"
The jewel of the staff shone gold, and a broad bolt of lightning shot from it at the Behemoth's mouth.
And to his utter horror, the massive Heartless simply opened its mouth. The lightning flew down its throat with absolutely no negative effects. On its back, Marluxia laughed.
Nearby, Max swept his blade through the side of an Armored Knight. He saw the prince's look of shock, and understood why it was there. "Aim for the horn!" He shouted over the noise of the battle, blocking the twin attack of a Samurai Nobody. He pushed the blades off with his, and drove it through its chest.
"What!" Essej asked over the sounds of battle, leaping aside from one of the Behemoth's massive, striking hooves, and smashing his staff into the head of a Neoshadow.
"He said aim for the horn!" Liz shouted. She kicked a Shadow in the face, and caught the descending blade of an Armored Knight in between her hands. She kicked upward into its crotch area (though for a Heartless, this wasn't a particularly sensitive spot). The Heartless backed off.
"What!" He still didn't get the message.
"They're saying to aim for the horn you deaf moron!" Crypto was taking pot shots at the floating Invisibles. He stepped back from a leaping Neoshadow, and blasted its face at point blank range.
"What!"
"For crying out loud, I'll do it!" Crypto juked around the Heartless, running toward Essej and the Behemoth. He took careful aim, and launched an ion detonator at the horn in the center of the creature's head. It bounced on the top of its head for a moment, before exploding in a flash of bright red light.
The blast was enough to shred its horn to bits, which soon after dissolved into dark wisps of smoke. The Behemoth let out one final bellow, before it collapsed. Its front legs buckled, and it keeled forward. Its huge form lingered there like a massive dead animal, before fading away almost a full minute later.
But Marluxia wasn't there.
"Where'd he go?" Essej asked.
He hadn't expected a response from right behind him. "Right here."
He ran forward, the scythe missing his ankle by a margin of centimeters. The weapon was embedded in the pavement, but the Nobody was able to rip it free easily, and advanced toward Essej immediately.
He swung wide, nearly decapitating the prince. Essej backed away, but blocked the strike with his staff, which -surprisingly- didn't break, bend, or splinter under the attack. He backed away, blocking two more consecutive attacks. When he thought he saw a break in his defense, he stretched his staff out toward him. The jewel turned scarlet.
"Flamma!"(2)
A great, roaring, stream of flame shot from it towards Marluxia. The former Organization member back flipped away from the fire, just beyond its range (though it did roast a few Heartless). When he landed, he reeled back, and fired another dark red disk at the prince.
The attack was a few feet away from him, when Takuya shot down like a bullet, and landed directly in front of it. Ryuumaru came up in a defensive position. The attack smashed into the blade, pushing its wielder back a few inches, but not hurting him.
He turned his head to address Essej. "Let me take care of this punk."
"Always showing off, huh?" he responded with a grin, but he rushed off into the battle.
Takuya turned to face Marluxia again, and smiled at him past his blade. They stared each other down for a moment, before Takuya swung his blade vertically. "Hell Shock!"
As he swung the blade, energy formed on its edge. When it hit the ground, all of this energy was released in the form of a huge arc of green energy, outlined in blood red. It tore across the pavement, and cleaved any unfortunate Heartless that were in the way in half.
Marluxia's eyes widened and he dodged to the right of the blast as it came at him, though it still clipped off part of his coat.
He gazed at Takuya for a few moments, amazed (as much as a Nobody can be) at such a degree of power. He was then showered by a cloud of dirt and debris. He turned his head slightly, and saw the small building behind him come completely crashing to the ground, crushing some Heartless.
It had been unstable already, but holding. The attack aimed for him had been the straw that broke the camel's back and pushed it over the edge, to ruin.
He turned back to Takuya, just in time to raise his scythe and block an attack that would have cut him in two. He looked him in the eye. "I suppose I'm obligated to ask you to switch sides."
"Well, I'm obligated to turn you down."
He pushed the scythe off of him, and came in with a flurry of very fast and powerful attacks. Now it was Marluxia who was giving ground fast, expending huge amounts of energy just blocking the attacks.
Amazing strength...
Finally, he slipped up. Marluxia had room to escape, and ran past Takuya, tripping him with the butt end of his weapon as he passed. It may have seemed cowardly, (and indeed, Marluxia was the first to admit it) but it was a life and death situation. He knew that if he continued to fight that kid much longer, he'd lose.
So he chose instead someone who looked like an easier target: Altair.
The assassin was currently occupied fencing with an Invisible floating just above the ground. The assassin's fast, agile strikes and thrusts seemed to be more successful than its wide, though more powerful swings.
After a while of dueling (and a few cut down Shadows, here and there) Altair had stabbed it through the chest in the place a heart would have been on a normal human. Two Neoshadows converged on him, and pounced at the same time.
He pulled a short blade from the scabbard on his back, and swept it through the first one, while cutting the other in half with his saber. He appeared not to notice Marluxia running up from behind him, weapon raised.
But assassins always seemed to know.
Altair released a thin hidden blade from within his left gauntlet. It slid into place neatly where his ring finger had been amputated. A single glint of light was all the warning that Marluxia had, and it didn't even register with him.
The blade slashed across Marluxia's face, leaving a long scar stretching from his lower right side of his chin, to the top left side of his temple. A burst of the dark smoke that was like a Nobody's blood immediately burst from the new opening in his face. He let out a shout of pain and shock, and staggered backwards…
Directly into Takuya's outstretched blade.
Marluxia let out a choked, gasping noise as Darkness began to seep from the gaps between his flesh and the blade. He looked down at it for a moment, and his scythe slipped from his hands, hit the ground, and vanished in a burst of flower petals.
This isn't over yet... If the Heartless can just-
But the Heartless had abandoned him, it seemed. Just as the blade had pierced his stomach, they had vanished through corridors of Darkness, leaving for who-knew-where. And Marluxia knew good and well that they could have, and would have stayed. His condition wouldn't stop that unless he ordered it.
Somebody else had ordered them to retreat.
"Let this be a warning to your buddy, Serndask!" Takuya said. The edges of his sword began to burn with green fire, and for a second, it seemed that his eyes had turned to slits. "Whatever he throws at us, we can deal with it!"
He released all the flames at once into Marluxia's body, not just horribly burning him, but throwing him hundreds of feet through the air, over buildings, to finally land painfully two streets away.
The former Organization member lay there spread-eagle on the ground for what felt like an agonizingly long time, but was actually only a matter of seconds. Darkness seeped from his body as it dissolved.
"Why...?" Was all he said.
"You fool."
The voice had come from nowhere, yet everywhere at the same time. Marluxia craned his neck in every direction in an attempt to see its source, but couldn't for a long time. But finally, through the rain splashing into his eyes, he saw what appeared to be a thick cloud of pure Darkness approaching him from down the street.
He struggled in vain to get to his feet, or even to move at all. Serndask was coming for him.
The cloud stopped in front of him, but Marluxia still couldn't see a face inside of it. He stared up into it for a long time, feeling something like terror, before Serndask finally spoke.
"I know of your traitorous thoughts, you pathetic fool. Did you honestly expect that I would let you live?"
"What...?"
"I could have simply eliminated the Resistance myself had I wanted. Why do you think I sent you instead?"
He laughed. "This was a trap, Marluxia. Whether or not you succeeded in destroying them didn't matter to me. No matter the outcome, I would win."
And for just a moment, the Darkness of the cloud seemed to solidify into a face. Marluxia's breath caught in his throat, before a blast of unbelievable Darkness came at him, scattering whatever was left of Marluxia all over the street, until nothing remained but flower petals falling to the ground.
Soon, those were gone, as well.
!
Well, this was a fun chapter for me. What did you think?
(1) Yes, it's a pointless scene. But you know me, I couldn't help myself!
(2) All in Latin. Don't know why I did this exactly, but why not?
Please leave a review!