"It's all gone wrong! Everything! Every. Single. Last. Thing. Wrong!"
Josef had nothing to say to that.
"The plan? Gone wrong! Terribly wrong. Horribly wrong. In the history of wrong things, there has never been something that went more wrong!"
Again, Josef made no comment. Just continued to stand off to one side, eerily motionless, dull lifeless eyes staring off into space.
"Sora seeing my face? Also wrong! Gah, he saw me! Me! I can't believe I let him see me, he was never supposed to- What is he going to do now? What's he going to say?! What will he think?!"
It seemed Josef was still at a complete and utter loss for words.
"And trying to kidnap that girl? Wrong, wrong, wrong! Oh god, so very wrong! What were we thinking? What was I thinking?! I never should have agreed to it! Even if it actually could've somehow helped Riku, I never should have-"
You have failed me…
The voice slithered back into her mind like the venomous snake it truly was. Hissing in annoyance, the girl in Riku's hoodie halted her furious pacing, both hands grasping at her head as she snarled through her teeth, "Shut up! Shut up, shut up, shut up!"
A heavy sigh whispered through her thoughts, one that made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. You disappoint me, child. You had the girl, you merely had to get her through the portal, and yet she managed to escape your grasp. Most displeasing indeed. However, it is still possible for you to recover from this unfortunate little mishap. The girl is still yet within your reach, you simply have to go after her again and-
"No!" she snapped, stomping one foot down.
A hush fell in her head for a few seconds, almost ominously so. Then, Excuse me?
"You heard me!" she spat, pointing and turning her glare on Josef. As if he were the one she was arguing with and not some creepy disembodied voice possessing her mind. For his part, Josef continued doing his best impersonation of a statue: just as stiff and twice as oblivious to the world around him. "I won't do it! It's wrong, I knew it was all along and I never should have let you talk me into it in the first place!"
How very cruel of you, the voice purred slyly now. So unwilling to do this one trifle act that could very well save the life of your dear friend and-
"Don't you dare use Riku against me again!" she slammed her hand against Josef's chest. He didn't seem to mind or even really notice. "This just can't be the only thing that'll help him, there has to be another way! I'll find another way if I have to, you hear me?!"
The voice went silent once more, and she almost felt like it was currently taking a moment to study her. Scrutinize her. When at last it spoke again, it was with a deadly calm now. Am I to understand then that you steadfastly refuse to go after that girl then?
She crossed her arms and squared her shoulders, giving a firm nod, eyes filled with stony resolve. "That's right."
Very well then, child…
A sharp gasp escaped her as searing pain suddenly lanced throughout her entire being. She fell to her knees as putrid green flames sprang up from nowhere to wreath her body, swirling around her form from head to toe.
If you won't do as you're told, then I'll just simply have to force you.
"Larxene!" Axel sneered through his teeth.
"What?! Where, I don't-Ow!" Blinded by the sudden darkness that engulfed them, Sora's hiss of pain was accompanied by a low thud as he accidentally banged his hip into something.
Rolling his eyes, Axel snapped his fingers, sparking a tiny flame to dance along his fingertips and provide some dim light to the gloom. "This help, Squirt?"
"Thanks," he smiled back sheepishly, squinting slightly at the new source of brightness. Then he frowned, glancing around where they stood in the hallway just outside their assigned guestrooms. "What, you really think she caused this? Couldn't it just be a plain ol' power outage?"
"Ya really think after all the crazy BS we've been through today, something so normal as like a squirrel chewing on the lines caused this blackout? Nah man, this has that zap-happy witch's name written all over it. That hag could make it lights out for the whole damn city in her sleep if she really wanted to," he muttered back, whole body tense as his eyes continuously searched the shadows around them.
"...yeah, you're probably right." Sora looked more on guard himself now, narrowing his gaze out into the darkness that wavered just beyond the light of the small flame. "Bet she's about to attack."
Axel snorted. "Yeah, no shit, Sherlock. She's definitely making her move, only questions are where and who against. Let's go track down the girls."
He'd only managed to take a step however before Sora stopped him with, "Wait, we should find Flynn first."
"Why?" he scoffed back with a shake of his head. "Larxene's not after him, she's after the gals. She could give a rat's ass about Pretty Boy."
"But we actually know where Flynn is, it'll only take a sec to grab him. Besides, the girls got their powers to protect them and can take care of themselves, least long enough for us to snag Flynn first who's practically defenseless."
He batted a hand through the air, "Dude's got a frying pan, he'll be fine."
Sora gave him a flat look.
Tossing his hands up, Axel relented, "Alright, alright, we'll go get Captain Skillet first, just make it snappy!"
They sped off down the hall, the flame leaping from Axel's hand and whizzing ahead of them, lighting the way for them like a super-charged firefly on steroids. It made the shadows bounce and stretch in disconcerting ways along the walls as they rushed past. Not to mention it was a bit unnerving how oddly quiet everything was around them, the only sound coming from the muted thud of their footsteps pounding against the carpet.
No doubt about it. This place was Spooksville with the power out.
Thankfully, it didn't take long before they were barreling through the door leading into Mr. Tyrann's study to find-
…nothing. Nobody. Not a goddamn thing other than more darkness. Which they already had plenty of, thank you very much.
"Huh?" Sora stumbled to a stop, scratching the back of his head as he looked around what little he could make out of the room thanks to the glow of Axel's tiny blaze now hovering in the middle of it. "...where'd they go?"
"Probably wrapped up their lil man-to-man already and split, which is exactly what we should be doing ourselves." Axel jerked a thumb over his shoulder back towards the doorway, "C'mon, let's go hunt down Snowflake and Punzie."
He frowned, shaking his head, "But then shouldn't we have bumped into Flynn on our way here? I'm telling you, something feels off here…"
"Look, Half-Pint," he grumbled up at the ceiling before fixing Sora with a dull stare, "a huge chunk of the case you made was that we knew where Captain Skillet was. Now we equally have zero clue where he or the ladies are. So whaddya say we stop wasting time doing squat here and just get a move on already?"
"But-"
Axel gestured to the empty room with his arms spread out wide, "What more do you want? We tried, we came here looking for the guy and guess what? Nobody's-"
Suddenly the black all around them was dotted with dozens of pairs of glowing yellow eyes.
"...home?" Axel finished his sentence a bit weakly.
Sora barely had time to summon his Keyblade before they struck. An onslaught of Heartless and Dusks leaping at the two of them from the shadows, spindly dark claws outstretched and zipper mouths baring razor-sharp teeth. His Keyblade slicing golden gleaming arcs through the air, Sora took out the first pair of little monsters to reach them in the space of a heartbeat. Then he began twirling his weapon around before him, slowly at first but getting faster and faster as it radiated brighter and brighter. It left his hand to hover before his palm, spinning so quick now it'd blurred into a disc of pure light that was acting both as a shield and a shredder that tore asunder any of the little creeps that got too close.
"Sorry, but we don't got time to play right now, ya lil anklebiters from hell," Axel flashed a toothy smirk, his gaze shifting to lock onto that little flame of his that was still floating in the middle of the room. With a whistle and a gesture of his chin, he sent it zipping towards where a large pack of their foes were standing between them and the door. Small though the mote of fire may have been, it erupted into a massive burning explosion that disintegrated most of the Heartless and Nobodies into smoldering heaps. Any that had somehow survived the scorching assault were sent flying every which way, clearing a path to the exit.
"Let's go!" Axel called over his shoulder, charging straight for it as his chakrams materialized in his hands in a fiery flash. Sora was right behind him, Keyblade still whirling and making mincemeat of any of the beasts who tried to ambush them from behind.
Back out in the hall, they were greeted by more waves of those monsters rushing towards them from all sides. Axel wasted no time, didn't hesitate, just swiftly picked a direction and tossed his blazing chakrams out ahead of him, burning out an opening into the ever growing horde for them to go through. "This way!"
"Hold up! We still gotta find Flynn!" Sora shouted, snatching his Keyblade out of the air once more and slicing several Dusks in half that'd pounced towards them.
Axel groaned, his shoulders slumping as he pinched the bridge of his nose, holding up his other hand to blast off a gout of flame that roasted the nearest handful of Heartless. Then, "Okay, since he wasn't in the study, we have no idea where he is, right? Right. So we hafta to begin looking for him somewhere, right? Right." Sweeping a hand towards the hole he'd punched in the enemy's lines, he went on, "That's the direction the girls went when they left for their walk. How much you wanna bet that when everything went dark, the first thing Captain Skillet did was dash off half-cocked to be by the Punster's side and make sure she was safe? So by looking for them, we are looking for him too. I mean, it's a good a place as any to start searching, don'tcha think?"
As the Shadow he'd just stabbed dissolved into wisps of darkness, Sora parried another one and glanced over to Axel, narrowing his eyes for a silent second. Then he gave in with a sigh, "Fine, let's just go."
The boys took off running once more, fighting their ways through the blackened corridors of the mansion.
Another sinister giggle echoed from the darkness. "Why the long faces, gal pals? The three of us are about to have so much fun!"
"Stop calling us that, that was a private conversation that did not include you!" Rapunzel snapped out into the void.
"Rapunzel! Shh! On the list of evil things Larxene's done, I think eavesdropping is the least of our worries!" Elsa muttered out of the corner of her mouth.
The shadows around them pierced with more bone-chilling laughter and the girls huddled closer together. They stood in a narrow swath of silver moonlight cast by a floor-to-ceiling window next to them. Outside of their dimly glowing sanctuary however, the rest of the corridor was pitch black, impossible to make anything out beyond the occasional vague, indistinct shapes darting about that may or may not have been nothing more than their overactive imaginations. Hard to be sure, especially with Larxene's nonstop mischievous cackling keeping them on edge as it seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at the same time. One second it was to their left. The next to their right, then left again, then above them.
"Enough is enough!" Rapunzel scowled, suddenly standing up straighter and defiantly lifting her chin as she shouted, "You want a piece of this?! Let's go, Sparky, c'mon!" Her hand beckoned with a bring-it gesture.
"Rapunzel!" Elsa hissed, snatching the other girl's wrist and forcing her hand down as the air around them erupted with more of Larxene's laughter. "Don't antagonize her! Do you really want to start this fight? I mean, just think about it for a second, really think! I'm still learning to control my ice magic and you've been in, what now? …a grand total of two, maybe three fights? Whereas we've seen with our own eyes how good Larxene is with her powers, she is crazy good, scary good! She could be blindfolded and still probably wipe the floor with us using nothing more than her pinky!"
With a huff, Rapunzel shot back, "I'm not starting anything, this fight has already begun! And I refuse to just stand here while she toys with us, playing her demented little cat and mouse game. We have to do something!"
Elsa grimaced. Her friend had a point. Shaking her head with a sigh, she whispered, "Alright, fine, but what? What are we supposed to do here? How are we supposed to fight her when we can't even see her?" She tossed an exasperated hand out to indicate the all consuming blanket of darkness surrounding the dimly lit little patch of pale moonlight in which they stood.
Pressing her lips together into a thin line, Rapunzel looked away in thought, eyes first drifting to the window. Then down to the carpet beneath their feet. Then to her hair, trailing behind her in a serpentine line and disappearing into the shadows at the edge of the light. She gasped, her face brightening as she met Elsa's gaze once more. "I have an idea!"
Before Elsa could even ask, Rapunzel wasted no time launching straight into her plan.
That plan being?
She started to hum.
"Uh…" Elsa stared at her blankly.
She just stared back, grin stretching wider and she hummed more loudly and enthusiastically.
Yup. No doubt about it. Elsa was pretty sure Rapunzel had gone completely and utterly off the deep end.
But then suddenly it all made sense.
Because that's when Rapunzel's hair flared up like a golden beacon, chasing away every last bit of gloom to light up the corridor as brilliantly as if it were the middle of a bright summer day.
It also lit up Larxene, not standing a few yards away from them just down the hall.
It also lit up the small army of Nobodies she had crowding around her feet.
Larxene glanced up from apparently cleaning her nails with one of her daggers, face pinching into a tiny pout. "Oh phooey! You two? Worst. Gal pals. Ever. Nice going, way to suck the fun outta everything!" With that, she gave a couple bored flicks of her wrist, almost like a shooing gesture. That was all the signal the lesser Nobodies needed to start charging in a blur straight for the girls.
With a sharp intake of breath, Elsa wasted no time. Her hands were already moving on their own, thrusting out in front of her to point at the ground. With a blast of frost exploding forth from her fingertips, she'd conjured a huge patch of ice, coating the carpets of the hallway the entire length between her and their enemies. With zero time to react or adjust course, the first wave of Dusks hit the newly formed slippery terrain and immediately had their feet shooting out from underneath them as they crashed and faceplanted hard.
That's when Rapunzel took a step forward, already twirling her hair at her side, still loudly humming away as she licked one corner of her mouth and took careful aim. Then she whipped her locks out, lassoing the whole lot of Nobodies still scrambling to regain their footing on the ice. With one swift tug, she'd pulled her hair taut around them, ensnaring them all into a tight, neatly wrapped bundle. Then with one mighty heave, she sent them all flying back to crash into the second wave of Dusks that had been rushing in right behind them, making them all collapse like a bunch of bowling pins into an undignified heap.
Not wanting to waste the opportunity now that their enemies were all grouped up with their defenses down, Elsa threw her hands out before her once more. This time, a barrage of jagged frozen crystals was unleashed from her palms, glinting dangerously by the light of Rapunzel's tresses as they streaked through the air and tore through the Nobodies like swiss cheese. Soon there was nothing left of that small horde of minions other than a few hazy wisps and sparks of white that promptly flickered out.
"Ha!" Rapunzel crowed triumphantly, bouncing on the balls of her feet. "Couldn't have done that any better if we'd planned it! We were mad in-sync there! Basically drift compatible! Must be our bestie telepathy kicking in! What'd I tell ya? We got this! Bump it!" She held her fist out to Elsa who stared at it blankly, blinked once, then with a bemused awkward little smile lightly rapped her knuckles against it. As Rapunzel's hair started to dim slightly just then, she realized she'd forgotten to keep humming. She immediately started up again and her golden strands flowed with light once more.
All the better to make out Larxene's cruel little smirk with. Twirling one of her knives back and forth along her knuckles, she let out an over dramatic sigh, "Guess it's true what they say. If you want something done right…"
She caught the knife, summoning several more just like it cradled between her fingers that she menacingly brandished.
"...you just have to do it yourself," she sneered, a maniacal gleam in her eyes as she raced towards the girls now.
"C'mon!" Rapunzel grabbed Elsa's arm, forcing her into a stumbling run beside her as they were now (apparently) rushing to meet the enemy head-on — complete with their own dramatic face-off music, courtesy of Rapunzel's humming.
Elsa hastily waved one hand, dispelling the ice patch before their own shoes could come into contact with it. She wasn't exactly sure what the plan was here, but she was almost certain it didn't include slipping and breaking their necks.
As she'd finished banishing the last of the frost in their way, she glanced up just in time to see Larxene fling an angrily sparking, lightning-charged dagger straight towards them. Gritting her teeth, up her hand went again, shooting off a burst of densely-packed snow that struck the weapon out of the air, making it clatter harmlessly to the ground off to one side.
Not breaking stride, Larxene hissed out an irked little, "Tch!" before launching several more knives dancing with electricity and aimed directly for them. It was all Elsa could do to keep shooting off her chilly magic to deflect each one. Defending against those tiny but deadly blades was solely up to her after all - it's not like Rapunzel could repel them with her hair and risk the main source of her powers getting sliced clean off. So Elsa just did her best to keep her wintry defense up as they ran, hoping she didn't miss one.
Unfortunately, she did.
"Ah!" she sucked in a soft breath, staggering to a stop and clasping a hand over her upper arm where a dagger had not only managed to slash but zap her as well. The spot stung from electrical burn and she could see a bit of blood seeping out from between her fingers to stain her sleeve.
Rapunzel glanced over, gasping at the sight of it before turning a dark look on Larxene, half shouting, half singing, "How dare you hurt my bestie, you mean old witch! No one hurts my bestie and gets away with it!"
The Nobody scoffed back. "Oh come off it already, quit with all the pathetic 'bestie' talk! You two haven't even known each other for longer than a-"
SNAP!
That, my friends, had been the sound of Rapunzel whipping out her golden mane and lashing it across Larxene's face.
A stunned hush fell over the corridor. Larxene just stood eerily still, blinking once, then twice. Then, "Did… did you… seriously just hair slap me?"
"You bet I did! And there's plenty more where that came from!" Rapunzel harrumphed (somehow still with a musical lilt to it) as she whirled her locks at her hip once more.
"Oh-ho, Lite-Bright," she sneered, summoning all her knives back to her hands in a flourish of lightning flashes, "I'm so gonna enjoy lighting you up like a goddamn easy-bake oven."
She surged forward at blinding speeds, leaving the girls very little time to react before she was leaping and flipping over them, raining down rapid-fire daggers sparking with crackling energy. One hand still gripping her injury, Elsa struck up the other, calling forth a large jagged outcropping of ice to spring up from the ground and arch over their heads, shielding them from the attack. Each blade sunk into the frozen barrier, making it crack and splinter as lightning rippled out and dispersed against the cold surface.
Rapunzel kept slinging her hair over and over again at Larxene, trying to land a hit, but the Nobody was too agile. Her lithe body twisted and bended mid-air, avoiding the assault with relative ease. However, just as she landed in a crouch on the other side of the girls, that's when Rapunzel managed to latch a lock of it around the enemy's ankle. Larxene glanced down at it, quirking a quizzical eyebrow. Rapunzel also seemed a bit surprised to have succeeded herself, so much so that she momentarily stuttered in her humming.
She recovered quickly however, bellowing out an almost operatic crescendo in her excitement, her hair flaring up even more brightly now as she yanked Larxene's feet out from under her. Caught off guard, the Nobody seemed to have little choice but to let herself get dragged about and sent hurtling with a loud CRASH through the nearest door into a darkened spare room.
"Ha ha!" Rapunzel gave a smug little laugh as she lunged for the door, slamming it closed before turning towards Elsa. "Okay, now seal it shut!"
"Uh…" her brow furrowed, glancing back over her shoulder down the hallway. "But shouldn't we just-"
"Seal it, seal it, seal it!" she insisted. All still while singing, mind you. Didn't want her hair to go out, after all.
"Okay, okay, okay!" Elsa sighed, quickly stepping forward, nose scrunching as she hesitated for a moment. Then she put her hand to the doorknob, encasing it in a thick layer of spiky ice that swiftly grew and spread to coat the rest of the door as well. "...you know, unless we got really lucky and you managed to knock her out cold, this will probably only hold her for a few seconds and is probably more of a waste of time than anything else."
Merely shrugging, she said, "Know what's also a waste of time? Arguing with me." Fair point. "A few seconds is all I'll need anyhow. Let's see that arm, Missy." Not waiting for a reply, she was already gently tugging Elsa's injured arm closer with one hand and wrapping it in her glowing strands with the other, her humming never ceasing.
The sensation was not unpleasant. It actually just felt kind of warm for the most part, a bit tingly too. The pain receded into nothingness and before long, Rapunzel was unraveling her hair once more to reveal the now fully healed skin beneath, smooth and unblemished. You'd almost never even know a wound had been there at all, were it not for the hole ripped into the sleeve spattered with dried blood.
Elsa cautiously tested out her arm a bit before smiling, taking in a breath to speak. Instead, a loud BOOM made them both jolt as the door beside them gave a violent quake, the ice covering it fracturing but seeming to hold.
"Thank me later!" Rapunzel said hastily, grabbing Elsa by the elbow and pulling them both into a run. "Let's just hurry up and-"
Another blast louder than the first made the ice shatter and explode. The door went flying off its hinges as what appeared to be a literal thunderstorm burst free of the room, its shockwave throwing the girls to the floor. They looked back just in time to watch Larxene slowly stalk out into the hallway, surging with power as fierce lightning clawed its way up and down her body, a tempest brewingin her cyan eyes as she coldly stared down at them.
"That. Is. It!" she snarled out through grit teeth. One hand slashed through the air, "No more Missus Nice Bad-Guy! I'm through with going easy on you miserable twerps, enjoy getting atomized into freaking dust!"
…all of that had been her going easy on them?
Well fudge, color them screwed.
Larxene shoved both hands forward, a massive bolt of intertwined lightning erupting from her fingertips and cracking through the air, filling the full height of the corridor and streaking straight towards the girls. They barely had time to roll and scramble out the way before it struck the ground where they'd just been, obliterating the carpet and leaving nothing more than smoking blackened scorch marks on the floor, walls, and even the ceiling above.
Rapunzel clambered to open the door of another nearby room to use as cover, yanking Elsa behind it with her. Elsa poked her head back out, frantically trying to counterattack with her own burst of frozen magic, sending a wave of long, piercing icicles rocketing through the air. Not moving a muscle or even so much as batting an eyelash, Larxene just continued to stand there brimming with sizzling electricity as she called down lightning seemingly from the very heavens to punch a hole straight through the ceiling, striking the ice attack midair and vaporizing it into nothing more than a harmless mist.
Elsa gulped.
A second bolt ruptured the ceiling, this one directly above the door the girls were using as a makeshift shield. It exploded into hundreds of steaming, broken wooden fragments that went flying every which way as the girls fell backwards, hitting the ground yet again.
Now a tiny smirk graced Larxene's lip once more, this one verging on psychotic. She put one foot forward, taking her time sauntering towards them, apparently enjoying every little flinch Rapunzel and Elsa made at each snap and pop of the lightning still dancing around her.
Elsa did not know what would happen when Larxene reached them. But she did know one thing for sure.
She did not want to find out.
Heart pounding in her ears, she stabbed her hand up into the air and in one final desperate attempt to fend off the inevitable, she summoned a giant glacial wall, blocking off the hallway completely between them and Larxene.
As Elsa puffed out a shaky breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding, Rapunzel wasted no time in jumping up to her feet beside her. Helping Elsa up as well, she said, "C'mon, we better book it before she-"
Snatching her arm free of Rapunzel's grasp, Elsa shook her head, "You go. Hurry, find the others and bring them back to help."
Rapunzel gaped at her. "You want to fight her alone?! Are you insane?!"
"This," she pointed at the ice blockade, "is not going to hold her. I only bought us some time, a minute maybe, probably much much less. If we both try to run, she'll catch up to us in a heartbeat. Someone has to stay back and keep her busy until the other has had enough time to return with help."
"But-"
"Know what's another waste of time?" Elsa cut her off, narrowing her eyes. "Arguing with me."
Rapunzel silently stewed for a moment, then huffed. "Remind me to smack you when this is all over. Stay alive, bestie, I'll be right back. You hear me? Right back!" With that, she began to hum once more, scooping up several armfuls of her glowing hair and sprinting off down the hall as if her life depended on it.
Elsa took a few seconds to watch her go, the corridor getting darker and darker the further away she went until weak moonlight was the only source of illumination she had left. She then took a deep breath and released it as she faced the frozen wall once more. A pause, then her eyebrows knit together.
It was quiet.
Too quiet.
Shouldn't she be hearing something? Where was the crackling boom of lightning battering against the frigid barrier? Where were the blinding flashes and sparks on the other side as Larxene tried to bust her way through? Why was there nothing but darkness and dead silence?
A cold chill suddenly ran up Elsa's spine as she now took a nervous step back. Something was wrong. Very, very wr-
"Did you forget something, sweetie?" A low, dangerously sweet voice whispered in her ear from behind. She gasped - the only thing she had time to do before fingers were pressed delicately to the base of her neck, sending volts cascading through her body. She crumpled to the floor, unconscious at Larxene's feet.
The Nobody gave a smug little grin as she blew on her fingertips like a smoking gun and sneered, "...I can teleport."
Author's Note: The moral of the story: when your enemy can teleport, NEVER forget that they can do that x'D Then maybe you won't waste time trying to put up a blockade that they can just poof past lol! But backing up a bit, oh noes, the girl in Riku's hoodie seemed to be ready to fight back but the Voice had other plans, what are they about to make her do next? And it was fun writing a fight only between the ladies this time :3 Larxene is always a treat to write in general, she's just so feisty and fully of sass xD
If you've read all of my Heart of All Worlds series up to this point and have been enjoying it so far, it would mean the absolute world to me if you left a review and let me know!
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