Author's note: Here's the fourth chapter. I do not own the rights of Kingdom Hearts. It belongs to both Disney and Square Enix.
Chapter four: Darkness in Zero.
Once again in Twilight Town, Roxas and Xion who seemed more and more familiar to Roxas, but he didn't understand why she was familiar to him. He broke out of his thoughts, however, as he was supposed to tell her that their mission was once again in Twilight Town. They were supposed to eliminate a Darkside Heartless, not that Roxas knew what it was.
"...What's a Darkside?" he asked.
"I think it's that!" Xion pointed as she was alarmed on a giant Darkside Heartless, to which Roxas also noticed. It didn't seem to look happy either.
"It's HUGE!" Xion exclaimed, before she worriedly asked, "How are we supposed to defeat that thing?"
Roxas replied, "We can do it! We just have to both attack at once! Let's go!"
There was a moment of an awkward pause, but they quickly fought against the Heartless, attacking it at the same time as they could while avoiding in getting hit as well. However, Roxas was grabbed by the Darkside and dropped his Keyblade which landed near Xion. "Xion, throw it to me!" he cried out.
Xion quickly went to pick it up, but to her astonisment, it magically appeared in her hand. As if feeling familiarized and acting on instinct, she completely destoryed the Darkside, and Roxas fell and landed on the ground with a thud, before the Keyblade left Xion and returned to a surprised Roxas as he stood up.
"I did not expect that." He admitted.
"Neither did I." Xion admitted.
Looking at each other, they both smiled before bursting into laughter. Roxas then told Xion, "You earned the Icing on the Cake."
"Huh?" Xion asked, puzzled.
"C'mon, I'll show you." Roxas replied.
A little while later...Roxas and Xion were both on the clock tower after buying some Ice Cream, and Xion had to admit...she liked it up here.
"This is such a great spot." Xion said, smiling. "How'd you find it?" before she was handed an ice cream by Roxas.
"Sea-salt ice cream. C'mon, try it." Roxas encouraged.
Xion took a bite out of it, and blinked in surprise. "It's Sweet...and Salty."
"It's good, right?" Roxas replied, before explaining, "Axel brought me here to eat ice cream on my first day with the Organization. And then after my first mission, he got me ice cream again. Said it was "icing on the cake."."
Hearing this made Xion giggle, "You guys must be close."
"Huh?" Roxas asked, blushing, before he smiled again, and answered, "Yeah. Axel's my first friend. We always meet up here after work to eat ice cream and talk about stupid stuff."
"That sounds nice." Xion thought, before wondering, "Do you think I could be a friend too?"
Hearing this made Roxas happy with the idea, and he said, "Sure! Then we can all meet up here and eat ice cream together!"
"I can't wait!" Xion said excitedly.
However, both of them didn't know of the dangerous fate that would befall of them and the Organization.
Meanwhile, in the darkest part of Castle Olibvion, Vexen, Lexaeus and Zexion were having a conversation of their own on the troubles that are happening ever since they, Axel, Marluxia and Larxene arrived at the Castle in the first place.
"You detected something in the lowest basement?" Vexen inquired to Zexion, "Are you sure it's not a Heartless or the mysterious beings you detected earlier? Explain, Zexion."
Zexion nodded, "I picked up two scents. One of them was Maleficent."
"A double from the card." Lexaeus muttered.
"Yes," Zexion continued, "And the other scent belonged too..." but he was interrupted by Vexen who began to screech and complain loudly...a little too loudly.
"Marluxia and the others must be up to something above-ground." Vexen began to shout, getting more angerier, "Those disrespectful hooligans! They have no sense of solidarity!"
Zexion stared at him and asked, "Um...May I continue?"
But he was ignored, as Vexen continued to rant, "And the way they speak to their elders! They hardly spare me a second glance, let alone offer a word of greeting!" remembering in his head on how Marluxia, Larxene and Axel would just practically ignore him, and, really, who would want to pay attention to this idiot?
"Yes, greetings are vital." Zexion agreed, "That's why our goal for this month is to make sure to say hello-" only to be cut off again.
"Nevermind! Just get on with it already!" Vexen snapped. Geez, this guy should go to 'How-to-control-your-tantrum-problems' school.
Lexaeus was surprised by this, as he thought to himself, 'Vexen...I had no idea you felt so disrespected.'
Finally, Zexion was able to continue, "The other scent belonged to...Riku."
"What!? Riku!?" Vexen exclaimed, "But that's impossible! He and that king were lost when they ventured beyond the door to darkness!"
"But there is one thing." Zexion told his companions, "His scent is very similiar to the Superior, just as the mysterious being that driven away the other visitor and caused Namine's disappearence. So similiar, that they're almost exactly the same."
Unfortunately, Vexen's suggestion seemed to be a very dumb one. "Maybe they're using the same cologne?"
Zexion slumped at this with a sweatdrop.
Meanwhile, Mickey and Aqua were continuing down the hall when they both stopped, and paused. They could both sense someone up ahead...to Mickey, someone quite familiar.
"...I think I know who's up ahead." Mickey said, starting to feel hope.
"Only one way to find out." Aqua agreed, as she and her friend broke into a run, but they didn't need to go far, as to their relief and Aqua's confusion, was a familiar boy who seemed to have stopped and stood from his walking for quite awhile.
It was Riku, and Mickey was relieved to have finally found him, though the King was confused on how Riku got here in the first place.
"...Maybe there is no turning back." Riku thought to himself, losing a bit on confidence and troubled by DiZ's words.
"Riku." Mickey muttered, slowly approaching his troubled young friend, with Aqua following.
Riku, not really turning around and thinking that he was hearing Mickey's voice in his head, muttered, "Your Majesty...do you really think I can reach the light?" in doubt with himself.
"Don't worry Riku." Mickey assured, trying to make the fifteen year old feel better.
"What if I open my eyes, but still only see darkness?" Riku asked worriedly.
Mickey sighed, finally having reached Riku, and told him, "Don't give up on yourself!" to which Riku finally turned around and to say that Riku was surprised and shocked would've been an understatement, especially since there was a girl he didn't recongise but felt he knew her at the same time.
While Aqua could sense the darkness in Riku's heart, she didn't want to make him feel any worse, especially since he's still fairly young. Riku's just lucky that he made it out of the Realm of Darkness quicker than she had.
"...Is that really you?" Riku finally asked.
"Uh-huh!" Mickey replied, but was caught off-guard when Riku gently touched his cheeks, and, being somewhat ticklish, Mickey cried out, laughing, "Whoa! Ha-ha! That tickles!" and the teen lets him go, relieved. Aqua laughed at the sight, finding it cute.
"I knew I'd find you." Mickey told Riku, but then he and Aqua gasped as Riku collasped onto the floor, but both sighed in relief as he was just happy.
Riku told them, "Ahh..I'm okay. Don't worry. Guess I'm just relieved. I've-I've been
alone so long that having someone else around is...is a little...overwhelming."
He then asked, "But uh, how did you make it here? And who's this? I feel like I've met her before."
There was an awkward pause, until finally, Aqua knelt down to Riku and replied, "We have met, ten years ago, with Sora. You grew up really quickly, Riku."
That's when Riku remembered; ten years ago, he was only five years old, while Sora was only four back then. Both of them were playing race, until they met a weird but pretty and very nice lady. "I remember now." Riku realised. "How...?"
"It's a long story." Aqua replied, "My name is Aqua."
Ever some explanations on what was happening, and how Riku was confronted by the mysterious man in a red cloak, how Aqua ended up in the Realm of Darkness and how Mickey was reuighted with Aqua, they came to the same conclusion; They were being lead to somewhere by someone.
"Riku, fight the darkness within you." Mickey told his young friend. "It won't be easy...but, even in the deepest darkness, there's always a little bit of light."
Hearing this made Aqua remember the story Kairi's grandmother once mentioned back in Radiant Garden ten years ago.
"I'll be alright." Riku told them, "I won't let that guy get his way." referring to DiZ.
"And we'll be there with you." Aqua told him, helping the teen up as the two stood up. "We should find a way out of this place."
"Don't worry, Riku." Mickey added, "We're always with you, and so are Sora and Kairi."
Riku smiled. It felt good to have friends with him. "Thank you, your majesty and Aqua."
Back with Zexion's group...
"Riku was once with the darkness. Perhaps that made him half-dark." Zexion chronicled with the other two. "And that's why I mistook him for the superior. Not because of his cologne."
"All right, already." Vexen said, rather annoyed, even though he's the one who brought up the cologne thing in the first place.
"But he's not the only problem." Lexaeus reminded, as he finished up a puzzle. "There's still the mysterious two visitors that appeared before Riku."
Vexen then remembered, "And two others; however, their darkness is almost none existant, and without Sora, things won't go easy. Perhaps the mysterious resident from the Realm of Darkness would be worth getting data from."
The other two were not amused. Either way, they and the other three Nobodies had so many problems at the moment.
Back upstairs, Axel and Larxene were watching through the security cameras, and were quite shocked to see Riku meeting up with King Mickey and Aqua.
"Explain to me how that little brat got here...!" Larxene grunted angerily.
Axel shrugged, "I'm just as lost as you are." turning to the cameras again, "And it looks like Riku and the King know that woman...If I heard right, they said that her name is Aqua."
He didn't flinch when Larxene punched one of the screens, cracking and smashing it in anger, as she grunted furiously, "That does it. I'm going to deal with them myself!"
"You might wanna cool down if we're gonna find a way to complete the offical plan." Axel's face grew dark when he concluded, "...If we're going to take over the Organization."
"Keep that under your hood, Axel, until the time is right." Larxene advised as she teleported away.
Once she was gone, Axel smirked and he said, "You would've been wise to do the same, Larxene."
Meanwhile, back with Sora and his group...
Sora, Namine, Donald and Goofy continued on their journey through out most of the day which the field around them was still refreshing. It was somewhat relaxing, a bit boring, but relaxing. During the journey, Namine found she enjoyed travelling, and actually wants to meet her original self, so Sora promised that once they found Riku and the King, then they can all return to their homes and Namine could live with Kairi like her own sister. Namine liked that idea. Eventually, however, they arrived at a beach that kinda looked like they were on a small island.
There were palm trees, fruit, and strangely, wooden boxes, a wooden tall watch-out tower(whatever that is), and a small hill that had old but fairly still in good condition cloths, ropes and sheets.
"Aw Phooey! I knew we should've gone the other way!" Donald complained, glaring at Goofy who shrugged apologetically.
"Well, there's no point in going back now." Sora pointed out, "Besides, we could end up bumping into that weird guy who tried to hurt Namine." seeing the Namine was nervous on the thought of going back again.
"I'm sorry if I'm in your way all the time." Namine sighed.
Sora felt a bit bad for hearing that, and said, "It's not your fault. It just happened this way. I mean, seriously, no one can predict the future, right?"
"Gee, the only thing I can think of is that we cross the ocean." Goofy said, pointing at the sea ahead of them, "But how're we gonna do that without a boat?"
This gave Sora an idea, one that was supposed to get him, Riku and Kairi to see other worlds before but failed. This time, it might actually happen...with out two of his best friends, though. But still... "We can always build a raft." he suggested.
"What!? Are you crazy!?" Donald exclaimed to Sora in shock.
"You mean...like before?" Namine asked, referring to when before she was born, back when she was still whole with Kairi.
The spikey-haired teen nodded, saying, "We might actually get somewhere, even though it could take a while as we're in the middle of the ocean." he then gestured around the things on the beach, "Plus, all of this stuff would come in handy in making the raft anyway."
Even Goofy agreed, "Yeah, and we can all work together and get it done in no time. Ah-yhuck!"
"Aw nuts." Donald grumbled, knowing he was outnumbered.
With that, the four of them, I mean, the five of them if you want to include Jiminy, all prepared and looked around the beach to collect the supplies to being the development of their raft to continue their journey to find their friends.
Back in the World that Never Was...
Just as Roxas and Xion returned to the Castle after having ice cream and talking and becoming friends, in front of them was an over-panicking Demyx who was showing a rather annoyed Saix who was writing something down on his clipboard, and reading up, uh, ahem, Demyx's version of a report.
"So you are stating that you saw the man in red who also eliminated Xaldin on your mission?" Saix inquired, into a breaking point of going berserk.
"It's the truth!" Demyx said, practically groveling, and placing his hands together as if he was praying, "Please don't Dusk me! I'm begging yooooouuu!"
His response was being whacked on the head by Saix's claymore, and Demyx cried out, "OW!"
"I'll give you a lecture later as soon as I post an important alert to the remaining members, including the ones who would return from Castle Oblivion." Saix muttered, and pulled Demyx up by the ear, which was a strange sight to Roxas and Xion who both glanced at each other in confusion.
Once Demyx quickly ran out of the room, but ended up dropping his report, Saix placed a piece of paper onto the window, as Roxas and Xion both gave their reports to No.7 who said nothing, though he was mentally disappointed that the two youngest members were already doing more work than Demyx ever did when he first joined the Organization.
Once Saix left as well, picking up Demyx's report and mentally cringing on how badly it was, like a child's hand writing or speaking gibberish, Roxas and Xion both looked at the billboard, and took notice that there was a picture of a man in a read cloak, bandages on his face, his red eye shown, and an explaintion that said, "We have recently discovered a dangerous man who could be a threat to the Organization. One member is already reported eliminated. Be cautious."
"Somebody's trying to eliminate the Organization?" Xion asked worriedly.
"I wonder who he is and why he would be dangerous." Roxas thought, though his mind returned to Axel and, frankly, the young blonde was now worried about his red-haired friend.
Xion muttered, "I hope he doesn't find his way here."
"Yeah." Roxas agreed.
Meanwhile, back in Castle Oblivion...
As Riku, Mickey and Aqua continued their way through the mysterious Castle Oblivion, Aqua couldn't help but keep on feeling like she's been in this place before, but cannot understand how or why, especially since she could feel Master Eraqus's Keyblade react once and awhile. They made it through their memories, one of each so far. They passed through Aqua's memory of Castle of Dreams, Riku's memory of Agrabah, then through more of the memory worlds that Aqua visited ten years ago, and then through Riku's memories just recently-the same worlds Sora visited.
Thankfully Mickey didn't have to go through his own memories, but it was bad enough having to go through more illusions like the time before he even became a king.
"I wonder how many floors this castle has." Mickey couldn't help but mutter.
"There's something familiar about this place, but it doesn't make sense." Aqua thought.
"I'm starting to feel a little bit lost here." Riku admitted, "No wonder it's named Castle Oblivion."
Suddenly, someone appeared in front of them, and the trio quickly got into defence stances, as Larxene was now confronting them, as she greeted, "Are you enjoying your stay in Castle Oblivion?"
Sensing the darkness in this blonde-haired woman, Aqua inquired, "I take that you're with Axel?"
"Too clever." Larxene said, "I'm Larxene. You know, I never expected you three to make it out of the Realm of Darkness. You must be tougher than I imagined."
"How did you know that!?" Mickey demanded, as he and Aqua both summoned their Keyblades, and Riku summoned his Soul-Eater blade.
"I'm not telling." Larxene grinned evilly. She then frowned at Aqua and muttered in annoyance, "It's unfair though that you came to this place, blue-head. Why are you here?"
Mickey and Riku were puzzled on why Larxene seemed to dislike Aqua who was just as confused. But still, the three of them remained silent and prepared to fight if they had to.
While this was happening, Vexen, who appeared earlier, was hiding behind a piller, and just as he was about to approach Riku, Larxene just had to arrive before he had the chance. While the blonde-haired man grunted angerily as he thought how Larxene ruined his plans on getting data from Riku, Mickey, Aqua, Riku and Larxene fell silent, and turned to the piller.
"Who's there?" Mickey demanded, causing Vexen to panic, like, comically as he tried to figure out what to do without screwing up badly. Panicking so badly that Vexen was sweating nervously. He could either run away, or battle, or just talk, and in his head, this went all around in circles, you see.
Finally, he opted for optain C, and came out from his hiding place. "Hmph. Have you no manners?" Vexen muttered as if he didn't panic at all.
Larxene groaned in sheer annoyance, "Ugh. Just what I need-another idiot to irritate me." referring to Vexen.
"IS THAT ANY WAY TO SPEAK TO YOUR SUPERIORS!?" Vexen asked back to Larxene in anger. "BESIDES, I WAS HERE FIRST!"
"Yeah, well, it took you long enough to confront the lady here and the mouse and this brat!" Larxene argued. "Besides, now that that's mentioned, I hate kids and idiots!"
As the two Nobodies got into a heated argument, Riku, Mickey and Aqua all quirked eye-brows, all dumbfounded and confused, having huge sweatdrops on their heads as well as they witnessed the two argue to the point of them fighting each other, of Larxene's lightning and Vexen's shield-ice blasting at each other, and narrowly avoiding the trio who got out of the way and were briefly forgotten.
"I think this would be a good time to make a run for it." Mickey suggested in a whisper to his friends who both nodded in agreement, and as silently as they could, Mickey, Aqua and Riku dashed away from the two Nobodies and had already entered the next world of illusions via memory cards(Psst! No, it's not a PS2 memory card, but the cards that are crown-shapes. Okay?).
The results of Larxene's and Vexen's battle ended quite badly for the two of them.
In fact, Axel just witnessed the two destroying each other via an extra small camera he snatched earlier as he hid in the hallways from Marluxia. Despite that he now knew that he was right about Marluxia and Larxene, Axel couldn't help but think about what would Zexion and Lexaeus do if they think he destroyed Vexen and Larxene. Sure Marluxia had to be eliminated, but he was troubled if he was suddenly framed for their deaths.
'Traitors must be eliminated.' Those were the rules of the Organization. Axel sighed. He had figured out Marluxia's original goal was to lure Sora here to use Namine to take over the Organization...not that it would work anyway.
"I could always go and kill time by finding those two mysterious guys without getting killed." Axel thought to himself as he stared up at the ceiling. "Man, what a pain." he groaned.
What he didn't know was that the most dangerous enemy in red was closer than he knew.
"Vexen and Larxene are no more." Zexion told Lexaeus. "Both destroyed each other out of annoyances. It's deplorable, because we're all the same. We should be working together, but now that Vexen and Larxene are gone...that leaves more work for us."
'Why do I get the feeling I'll be doing Vexen's work?' Lexaeus thought to himself as he looked at the chores board on the wall.
Zexion continued, "At least it's now clear that not only Marluxia is trying to take over the Organization, but Riku has joined with the King once more, along with another Keyblade wielder who could also be a threat to the Organization. It's time to get serious. We're next."
After the two of them silently drank their tea, Zexion muttered, "Lexaeus..."
Hearing this, Lexaeus was silent, thinking in mental annoyance, 'I knew you'd make me do it.'
"Go and capture Riku and eliminte his friends. Don't disappoint me like Vexen."
With this, Lexaeus stood up and summoned his Axe Sword before leaving.
It was only ten minutes later that Zexion thought to himself, "What is Axel's motives, I wonder?"
"Nobodies to not have motives." An unfamiliar voice spoke behind him, startling Zexion to turn around...only to be grabbed by the collar and he was then...sickenly punched into the stomach by DiZ who then tossed him into the wall, crashing into the shelves, where Zexion layed motionless, and was fading away into nothing.
DiZ's eyes glowed red again, as he muttered darkly, "I will wipe out all Nobodies...My next victum is approaching my puppet." before he teleports himself away to his next phase.
Back with Riku and his group...
Aqua and Riku were both somewhat surprised that they both were in Olympus Coliseum and met the villian Captain Hook, before they and Mickey finished off the last two worlds from their memories and eventually arrived in yet another white hallway. In front of them, however, made them get into defence stances once more, as Lexaeus stood in their way, glaring at them.
Riku's eyes narrowed, as he muttered, "You're one of those guys in the black coats."
"I take that you're like Axel and Larxene." Aqua added.
"You've done well thus far, the both of you." Lexaeus told Riku and Aqua. "But to possess your powers, possing another, and fearing the darkness...what a waste."
Riku was about to retort that he doesn't fear it, but Aqua held out a hand to stop him, and she told Lexaeus, "That darkness has no interest in any of us."
"And you're wrong about Riku." Mickey added, "So go away!"
The larger man was not impressed. "If neither of you surrender, then you will all disappear!" as he surrounds himself in red and dark aura which causes a gust of wind to blow at the trio who tried to block the gust with their Keyblades and Soul Eater Blade, but they struggled against the strong pressure before it stopped.
"I, Lexaeus, will not yield to the frail heart-of an infantile coward! Now, stop resisting-and let the darkness in!" Lexaeus roared, before leaping into battle and prepared to slam his weapon at the trio, but they dodged out of the way just in time, before they counter attacked and clashed against the Nobody was very strong as he was not only tall and strong muscular.
"Light!" Mickey aimed his Keyblade at Lexaeus as a beam of light shoots out from the weapon, and actually caught the Nobody off-guard. Lexaeus was even more caught off-guard when Aqua casted her Thunder spell, doing some damage.
However, he did thrust at the two of them, knocking them a few feet away, before Riku counter-attacks Lexaeus, slashing at him on the back before avoiding the larger man's counter attack. Using a cure spell, Mickey and Aqua both rejoined Riku in the battle, and the three of them preformed a trinity power of light, fire and water, twirling around and hitting Lexaeus multiple times when he tried to attack them, but failed.
Once the attack is over, all four of them have become exhausted. Lexaeus was the first to break the silence, "Such powers...and yet, Riku, you refuse to join us."
"Why would I want to join you?" Riku demanded.
"If you continue to fear the darkness...you will eventually lose sight of both the dark and the Light." Lexaeus warned.
"Go ahead of waste your time." Aqua told the Nobody, "Keep trying to convince Riku with your mind-games. It'll never work!"
"And none of us will let you win either!" Mickey added, "There's no way Riku's gonna let his heart fall into darkness again."
This made Lexaeus furious, as he yelled, "Don't mock me!" but before he could attack, something slashed at him, causing him to freeze in shock all together, and his weapon dropped with a large thud on the ground before it vanished. Behind him, was Marluxia, who grinned evilly as he had his scythe in hand.
Aqua, Riku and Mickey all gasped in sheer horror of what just happened. I mean, who wouldn't? Marluxia just KILLED Lexaeus!
"It appears that things turned out quite different." Marluxia said, smirking.
Grunting in realisation as he began to fade away, Lexaeus muttered, "You traitor..." before adding to himself, "Forgive me, Zexion...this was a fight I shouldn't have started." before he faded and disappeared completely.
"You just..." Aqua was in shock, unable to say what she wanted to say. "You killed him!" she finally managed to say at Marluxia who grinned at her.
"He was in the way." Marluxia spoke, and Aqua and Mickey both gasped as they recongised his voice...the one they met earlier. "Welcome to Castle Oblivion, Keyblade bearers."
"You're the one that lead the king and Aqua here?" Riku demanded.
The pink-haired man(who had the idea of having his hair pink anyway? Not that I don't like it, because pink is my favorite colour.) chuckled, and replied, "Clever boy. However, I have no use for you; it's Aqua that I want."
At that response, Aqua, Mickey and Riku quickly healed themselves with curuga magic from Aqua who demanded at Marluxia, "What do you want from me!?"
"I could use an aid from you...you are my last resort in taking over the Organization." Marluxia finally admitted, "So, what do you say, my dear?"
"Never!" Aqua boldly replied, ready to fight along side King Mickey and Riku, as she glared at the pink-haired man.
However, just before anyone could do anything else, another familiar man appeared, this time, the bright red hair was enough for anyone to recongise who arrived after failing to find his other targets. "Hey. Hope I'm not interruping?" Axel greeted, and Marluxia's face now grew dark. "It's just, I mean...I'm wondering what we're gonna do, now that it's just you and me." Axel continued.
While Aqua, Mickey and Riku had no idea what the redhead was talking about, Marluxia growled, "Axel...you have some nerve...If you hadn't gone and searched for the other two mysterious occupants..."
At this, Axel chuckled, "Even so, were you seriously trying to overthrow the Organization?" and a sound of a 'shing!' as he summoned his chakrams. "You know what happens to traitors." before he leaped forward and tries to slash him, but he evades using super speed. Marluxia tries to slash Axel, but he jumps out of the way.
While they two were fighting, Marluxia yelled, "Organization lapdog!"
"That's what you get for betraying the Organization!" Axel pointed out, as he threw his chrakrams at Marluxia who blocked them with his scythe, before the weapons returned to Axel who caught them skillfully, but then he had to block Marluxia's energy wave with difficulty.
But then another energy wave moved passed Axel and made it's way towards Aqua, Riku and Mickey who gasped in shock, before Aqua responded by summoning a barrier to protect herself and her friends, and Marluxia laughed at this, causing Axel to realise that his opponent just turned his attention to the trio.
"Hey! We're not finished yet!" Axel yelled out.
But Marluxia only responded to Axel with a 'Heh' before saying to Aqua, "If you wish to find me, Aqua, then come meet me in the next room. But first...you must take out Axel for he tends to do your friends harm." before he teleported away, just as Aqua, Riku and Mickey gasped, but knew that they couldn't catch him disappearing.
"Aw man, would you look at that? You let him get away because of you appearence." Axel told Aqua who got into a fighting stance to fight him. He chuckled, "Listen, Aqua, you aren't gonna fall for Mister Flower Petal's stupid little trick, are you? He just wants to make you angry so that you can end up forming darkness inside you."
Hearing this made Aqua gasp, slowly realising that, much as she hated it, that he was right. Mickey and Riku both glanced at each other, wondering what they should do. The three of them were confused as Axel dismissed his chakrams, as he said, "Hey. I just wanted to get rid of Marluxia. If you want do it, then I'll be a gentlement and let the lady go first. Be my guest." he ordered Aqua towards the stairs.
Seeing that the trio didn't move, Axel waved his hand at them with a gesture, 'Shoo, shoo!' saying, "I said, go!" before asking, "Do you want to fight me that much? You guys don't want to get me serious. I might actually destroy you."
"Shut up!" Aqua snapped. "I'm sick of you people!"
"That's the spirit." Axel smirked, impressed of the young woman's bravery. "Don't let him beat you. I need you guys alive. Good luck." before he vanished, now that his mission is complete.
"What did he mean by, needing us alive?" Riku asked, supicious.
"Aw, I'm pretty sure Axel was just tryin' to confuse all of us." Mickey believed.
Aqua, not wanting to have her heart casted into darkness, replied, "You're right. I guess we just have to stop Marluxia and find a way out of here." declaring, "Lets go."
"Aqua, Riku...Are you both okay?" Mickey asked, worriedly.
"I'm not sure, but, I can't give up now." Riku was the first to reply.
"Maybe the darkness has gotten to me too." Aqua muttered sadly on the other hand, "But I know that I can't give up either."
Despite still being worried for his friends, Mickey still followed the two of them up the stairs for the final battle against Marluxia, all of them and Axel unaware of DiZ's next move.
A/N: Sorry that this chapter seemed extremely rushed, but I wanted to get Castle Oblivion out of the way as this is a, somewhat a prologue mode before we go for the main storyline of this story.
In the meantime, fellow readers, please continue your amazing reviews, and I'll see you again in the next chapter.