Drink Up, Me Hearties } Chapter 6 - The Devil
Word Count: 3318
Genre: Action, Dark
Ships?: Hinted Eiko/Vivi
Characters: Roxas, Naminé, Luxord, Tifa, Xigbar, Freya, Eiko, Axel, Larxene, Demyx
→Cameos: Vivi
→Mentions: Barret, Xaldin
Rating: PG for violence/blood?, slight language
Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or any related characters. This was written out of enjoyment of the series, and no profit is being made.
Music: "Thebes" ♪ "The Carrion's Theme" ♫ "Heartless" ♪ "Decision at Dawn"
Notes: WHOOOOOO PLOT. IT'S FINALLY HERE. \o/ Nuuuuh what else is there to say about this chapter?
The old woman is not meant to be any specific character. Pretty much the entire scene of the Wheel of Fortune versus the Carrion crew was roleplayed (in a way) between spots_of_ink and I last night. We took turns writing the exchanges back and forth, so no one had one definite side. xD
Uhhh other'n that... OH! CONSIDERABLY LESS IMPORTANT RET-CON NOTICE! XD When I was saying 'Crete' last chapter, I meant Thebes. Thebes is the New York-esque location from Hercules, and the location of this chapter.
In which a villain's influence begins to surface.
Drink Up, Me Hearties
Chapter 6: The Devil
“I… don’t understand.”
Thebes just… wasn’t. What once was an island that looked to be stack after stack of white alabaster columns and red roofs was now… rubble rising from the waves.
They had planned to lay siege to the island in the dead of night as opposed to the dusk attacks on Traverse Island. But there was nothing left to lay siege to. The remnants of white statues and buildings looked like dry bones in the scant moonlight, picked clean by the fiery teeth of some undersea creature.
It was as it had been fifteen years previous, only Freya had insisted that she drop anchor near the crumbled remains of the harbour instead of staying at the helm. Unlike the ruins of Radiant Isle, there were no echoing gaps in the landmass that could be steered through.
Eiko had come up from the galley. Upon seeing what once was Thebes, she had covered her hand with her mouth and leaned heavily against Vivi’s shoulder for support.
Roxas’s heart seemed to have stopped in his chest, as the crew lined up on the starboard bow to look up at the destruction.
Naminé stood beside him, weaving her fingers together and staring at them. “This is what happened to Radiant Garden,” she said, voice hardly above a whisper.
“I… I’d heard stories. But I didn’t think…” Roxas ran a hand through his hair and let it rest on his temple. “How did this even…?”
The silence that his words drifted into answered his question. Nobody knew. And the weight of it meant that nobody had known for a long while.
“I guess you wouldn’t have heard about it on your island. This has happened a couple of times.” Naminé’s eyes swept the ruins. “When I was twelve, Sherwood Forest got torn to shreds. And then just last year, Enchanted Dominion was destroyed.”
“Not sure why, but the islands are being torn out of the map, one by one,” Xigbar said. His eye was narrowed suspiciously as he looked at the island city. “And that means disaster can’t be far behind.”
“Captain,” Tifa said, turning to the man beside her. “Should we… head back home?”
Luxord nodded, still transfixed by the ruins before his eyes. “I suppose. There’s nothing we can do here.”
Seven of the eight pirates moved away from the bulwarks, ready to weigh anchor and sail back towards open ocean. Roxas couldn’t tear his eyes away from what remained of Thebes. Some part of him wondered if he’d feel a little more comfortable leaving it if there were screams of agony and unbearable sorrow floating across the waves to him. Maybe he’d feel a little better if something, anything, moved.
He found out that he didn’t feel any better. His heart thumped painfully in his chest as he spotted something off-white and familiar on the waves not far from them. He hesitated, but remembering he was technically part of the crew allowed him to shout, “Captain, sir! Ship off starboard, sir!”
“What precisely are you blathering about, bilge rat?” Captain Luxord turned, halfway up the staircase to the quarterdeck. (There was a quiet but firm ‘Papa’ from somewhere else on the deck.)
“A ship, sir!” Roxas pointed to the vessel that was now sailing amongst the ruined white stone.
Luckily, Xigbar had rushed over and both he and Roxas witness it disappear. “He’s right, cap’n. Someone just sailed in there.”
“Was it a Thebes ship? Survivors?” Luxord asked, returning to the bulwark.
“Uh, no, Captain sir,” Roxas answered, much to the surprise of everyone else.
“You could tell?” Xigbar asked.
“Well… I recognized the ship. It was the Carrion. I sailed on it to Destiny Island,” Roxas mumbled, talking mostly to the ocean to spare himself the Captain’s blue gaze.
“The Carrion?” Captain Luxord put his hands on his hips. Eventually a look of recognition came over his face. “The Carrion,” he repeated, rubbing his closed eyelids as if he suddenly had a migraine. “Of course the bilge rat came with the vulture pirates.” He lifted his head. “Hands, who would like to stay and guard the ship while we go in and stop them?”
Vulture pirates? I don’t like the sound of that.
…Then again, they sailed on a boat called the Carrion. Can’t exactly expect them to be honest, Roxas, the sensible part of his mind whispered.
“I’ll stay behind, cap’n,” Vivi said, raising a hand politely.
“You too, Eiko?” Luxord grinned at the ship’s cook, who was helping her creatures drag a rope ladder up the stairs from the lower decks.
“Sure, cap’n,” she said. Freya helped her attach the ladder to the bulwarks and the crew started climbing down to the docks below. “I- wait. I didn’t volunteer, did I?”
“No, but I have the oddest feeling you would, provided Master Vivi did,” Luxord said as he swung one leg over the railing and hooked it in the first rung. “If we don’t return in half an hour, send one of the moogles to Beaumont. Someone will be sure to come to our aid.”
“Uh, aye, cap’n.” Eiko saluted.
The six pirates were halfway across the damaged stone dock when they heard her shout from the deck: “WHAT DOES VIVI HAVE TO DO WITH THIS?!”
The six of them could practically hear Vivi’s nervous chuckle in their heads as they entered the dead city. It helped for a while, but then the silence of the night overpowered their hearts and laughter seemed to be a foreign concept.
Thebes was worse than dead. It was as though it had never lived in the first place.
The six pirates climbed over piles of broken stone, avoided the decapitated busts of heroes and governors and gods of the people.
Roxas peered into a home when they got deeper into the city. A wooden table had been set for dinner. There was no food. When he had looked up, he caught Naminé’s eye, and saw in her eyes that she was feeling that same dead weight in the center of her chest that he was.
They were walking down a street lined with stone columns when they stopped to rest a bit. Everyone looked as uneasy as Roxas felt, and just when they all thought the tension couldn’t get thicker, it did.
There was a flash, a sound of metal. Everyone turned as Freya threw a long dagger into the roof of a nearby temple, lightning-quick. The Burmecian’s tail swung very slowly to and fro, and her eyes were green slits glaring at the dagger she had thrown.
“Miss Crescent, what did you see?” Captain Luxord asked.
“Something moving, sir. It was blue,” Freya replied, turning to look at him. “It’s gone now. I’m sure.”
“Your eyes have never let me down before, Freya,” Luxord told her, nodding. “All the same, it appears we are not alone. We should find our most… ‘highly decorated’ fellows and depart as soon as possible.”
They continued on and found their ‘highly-decorated-fellows’ in an open square the size of Roxas’s neighbourhood. A temple the height of the Naval Academy back home had toppled into the square, scattering debris everywhere. He couldn’t help the deep frown as he caught sight of the back of a red coat he’d recognize anywhere. “Yeah, that’s… that’s them,” he said.
The Carrion crew seemed to be looting what used to be a jewellery stand. Captain Axel was perched atop a nearby wall that had crumbled, humming contentedly and unaware of the other group’s approach. Larxene had their back to them as well, apparently inspecting the damage done to an old brooch.
Roxas’s uneasy feeling about Luxord’s use of the term ‘vulture pirates’ had been confirmed. The Carrion crew stole off dead worlds.
Demyx, his arms full of necklaces turned around to face the six approaching pirates and dropped his arms by his sides. His loot followed downward and crashed on the cracked tiles of the square. His two crewmates turned at the sound, but Demyx only said “I didn’t do it!”
Larxene and Axel took in the sight of the other pirates, but didn’t seem at all concerned. They had guts; one had to give them that. “Demyx… you are by far the worst pirate ever,” Larxene told him.
“I’m sorry! It was my first reaction!” the pirate guitarist told her, practically quaking in his boots. “What would you have said?”
Larxene quirked an eyebrow. “…‘Finders keepers, assholes’?”
“But isn’t that kind of… impolite?”
Larxene sighed, placing her head in her hand.
“So we finally meet the illustrious vulture pirates,” Luxord said, folding his arms over his chest. Axel climbed down from his throne of broken slates and marble so the two crews could face one another.
Roxas stood beside Naminé, slightly behind the protective stance of Freya. The captain’s daughter folded her arms in a way that mirrored her father’s, even though she couldn’t be seen by the other crew. It occurred to Roxas that Naminé copying her father was probably an unconscious habit.
Larxene laughed, apparently delighted. “Why, Captain Luxord! You’ve heard of us?”
Luxord narrowed his eyes. “Only that you are the most cowardly cretins to slither your way up from the muck found in the deepest crevices at the bottom of the ocean.”
“Aww…” Demyx scratched at the back of his neck. “When you say it, it almost seems like a compliment.”
Larxene smirked, looking the Dread Pirate over. “He could say anything in that voice and make it sound like a compliment,” she said, lowering her eyelids flirtatiously.
Freya rolled her eyes. Naminé let out a nearly inaudible ‘ugh’.
“What are you doing here, anyway?” Axel asked. “Don’t you have old ladies to walk across the street or orphans to take in or something? Or are you actually doing something ballsy for once and trying to muscle in on our stash?”
“Are you looking for another trouncing, sir? Keep talking, if that’s the case,” Luxord said disdainfully.
“Another?” Axel repeated, taken aback. “What are you-?”
“I believe my recently collected bilge rat bested you?” Luxord tossed his head towards Roxas. Freya moved out of the way so he and Naminé could be clearly seen.
“Hi,” he said, raising a hand.
The vulture pirates were utterly shocked. “You- How- You’re alive?” Demyx asked.
“…Shit,” Axel said.
Larxene shook off the shock of seeing him again far more easily than the other two and took over talking for her captain. “What are you doing here, anyway? I thought you were too holier-than-thou for scavenger hunts.”
Tifa stepped forward. “You think stealing off dead worlds is a scavenger hunt?”
Axel shrugged. “Yeah. Not much use to the inhabitants anymore. They’re dead. We’re not. Pretty clear-cut, if you ask me.”
Tifa lunged, eyes ablaze, but Xigbar grabbed her arm. “Not worth it, babe. Not worth it,” he told her.
“W-We only do it because everyone else we steal from chases us down and beats us up,” Demyx said, trying to be placating.
Everyone stared at him.
“Demyx!” Larxene jabbed a finger off across the square. “Go back to the ship!”
The guitarist looked from her to Axel, who only glared at him. Eventually, he turned and slunk away from the other pirates. Everyone watched as he departed quickly, looking the near picture of cowardice, then turned back to the conversation.
“Consider this more like… repossession,” Axel explained. “After all, it’s not like anyone here is going to object, right?”
“I can think of one,” Tifa said coolly, despite Xigbar’s earlier words.
“Axellll! Come quick!” Demyx’s voice drifted across the square from the temple rubble.
Tifa, never one to leave a call for help unanswered, was already sprinting towards his voice. Luxord gave chase immediately and the rest of the Wheel of Fortune crew tailed him.
Axel sighed. “H’oh boy,” he said, turning to Larxene. “Wonder what goody-goody’s up to now.”
Across the square, amidst the ruins of the fallen temple, Demyx had found the sole survivor of Thebes. Her grey hair was piled on top of her head. Her clothes were torn in several places to show bruises underneath that turned her skin black and gruesome purplish colours. She was breathing very slowly, and Demyx was wisely hesitating about moving her.
Axel pushed past Luxord’s crew, to see what they were staring at. “Demyx! Stop helping! You’re a pirate!” He looked thoughtful for a second and tapped his chin. “Does she have any jewellery?”
Demyx was horrified. “Axel! She’s hurt!”
“Hey, there’s nothin’ in it for us! Why should we help her?” Axel spat.
“Oh, please, allow me to relieve you of this terrible moral dilemma,” Luxord deadpanned, raising both his hands in the air.
He crouched down on the other side of the woman. “Madam? Can you hear me?”
The woman nodded weakly. She had a lovely wrinkled face, Roxas noted. Naminé leaned against his shoulder just slightly.
“What happened here? Who did this?”
“The storm…” the woman wheezed. “It was everywhere… and then it was… inside…”
“Inside…?” Luxord asked, and then the woman twitched horribly.
The bruises on her skin spread like a disease and soon became her skin. Naminé let out a short squeak as everyone - even the Dread Pirate - backed up in a panic, but soon had her rapier in her hand. The old woman was no longer a woman, but a twitching black hulk of muscle with long ears and glowing eyes and oh God what had just happened-
There was a click and then thunder cracked on Earth. The black beast swayed.
Xigbar shot the thing in the head again, and it dissolved into a cloud of black dust.
For a second, it was deathly quiet. The lookout’s face was stony as wind blew through the ruins of Thebes, taking whatever was left of its last survivor with it. He raised his head and looked around, carefully avoiding his crewmates’ eyes. “We’re surrounded,” he said.
“All hands,” Luxord addressed his crew as they looked up at the rubble. Black shadows with glaring yellow eyes were creeping towards them from all angles. “Head back to the ship.”
“Run,” Xigbar added.
No one needed to be told twice. The sun started to rise as Roxas ran back the way they came alongside Naminé, who still had her rapier held by her side. The city was a blur of destruction, dawn and darkness glimpsed from the corner of his vision.
One shadow leapt at him. Roxas unsheathed Two Across and slashed through something in one swoop. Naminé grabbed him by the sleeve of his shirt and tugged. He caught a swift glance of Xigbar taking up the rear of their group and then he was running again. The Carrion crew was nowhere to be seen.
As the sun climbed higher into the sky, the six pirates emerged from the ruins of Thebes and sprinted down the marble docks. Up on the deck, a yellow light flashed in Vivi’s hands and thunder crashed in the early-morning sky. Roxas didn’t dare turn to see what happened, but felt his skin prickle and all the hairs on the back of his neck stand up as though electrified.
He didn’t remember the climb up the ladder, just flopping over the bulwark and letting the metal deck cool his back. Xigbar carefully stepped over him. Minutes passed and Roxas heard people mill about. Eventually, he heard Naminé gasp next to him.
“Roxas! Your arm!”
“Wha…?” he said. Naminé’s hand clasped him around his right elbow, helping him to his feet. He caught a brief whiff of a warm metallic sort of smell before glancing at his other arm and flinching.
It was odd, how the body worked sometimes. You didn’t realize you were in pain until you looked down at the tears in your sleeve and the blood streaming down your skin.
Roxas hissed at the sight and the pain that dulled his thoughts. The first thing he knew to do was to get the fabric away from his arm. He picked carefully at the white of his sleeve, trying to tear it with his one hand, before Naminé ripped it off his shirt for him.
“Well, at least it’s not a hot poker,” Roxas commented as Naminé pulled him over to sit on top of a barrel. He realized dimly that the Wheel of Fortune was sailing again, away from Thebes.
“Mog, flute,” Eiko said to the moogle with the thickest, whitest collar of fur as she approached. Mog fluttering away over their heads as Eiko kneeled next to him. “You’re right. These aren’t too deep. You won’t even need a cura.”
Roxas was about to ask what a cura was when Naminé asked, “Hot poker?”
“Sure. I’m a blacksmith, remember? I grew up surrounded by jab-by, burn-y things,” he said. The pain was already lessening to a pronounced throbbing in his arm; nothing major. Naminé laughed, relived.
He looked around and saw that Freya had taken the helm again and Vivi was up among the riggings and sails. Luxord, Tifa and Xigbar stood nearby and Naminé turned to watch them too.
Xigbar was staring back at the ruins of Thebes. He looked… troubled for once, and it was one of the strangest things Eiko or Naminé had ever seen. The first mate sighed, and holstered his pistol on one hip.
“Xigbar? Had you seen those things before?” Tifa asked tentatively.
He shook his head. “No. But I’d recognize what they were made of no matter how it showed its ugly mug.” Then he sighed, frustration heating his breath. “Now that I’ve seen that, there’s no doubt in my mind that Xaldin’s behind this.”
Tension crashed like a wave over the deck at the sound of the name, affecting everyone but Roxas, who blinked around. “Who?” he asked.
They were interrupted when Mog flew back up from below deck and handed Eiko a wooden flute. The summoner played a short tune and Roxas felt a burning, tingling sensation on his arm. He looked down just in time to see a new layer of skin heal over his wounds. He touched the new skin, slightly paler than the rest of his sun-darkened arm.
“It’ll be back to normal in a couple of minutes, but be careful about it anyway. Your skin’s probably never healed by magic, huh?” Eiko asked.
“Uh, no. Cura,” he repeated to himself. Then, eager to get back to something that could make the crew of the Dread Pirate Luxord tense, Roxas asked, “Who’s ‘Xaldin’?”
“Captain Xaldin,” Naminé corrected, whispering. She was watching her father and his two officers carefully. “He’s a pirate legend among pirate legends. They call him the Terror of the Northern Winds.”
“But Xigbar didn’t call him ‘captain’,” Roxas whispered back.
Eiko shrugged, still beside them. “Maybe they knew each other?”
Meanwhile, Luxord was mulling Xigbar’s comment over, his eyes closed and his chin in his hand. “If Xaldin is indeed behind this, we must do something about it.” He opened his eyes and lifted his head. “Fifteen years is long enough.
“Miss Carol, do you mind sending one of the moogles back to Arcana Minor? Tell Barret we’ll be gone for a little longer than we thought.”
“Aye, cap’n,” said Eiko. “Moco!” she called.
One of the moogles fluttered forward, saluted, and said “Kupo!”
Eiko relayed a message to her furry friend in moogle tongue. Then she pulled Moco into a brief goodbye hug and the moogle flew out over the sea. They watched as the creature eventually faded from sight.
“Alright, Xigbar,” Luxord said, turning to face his first mate. “If we’re going to investigate the islands disappearing, where do you suggest we begin?”
Xigbar looked back to the spot on the horizon where the ruins of Thebes were disappearing. “We’ll have to head to Beaumont. I need to look up an old friend of mine.”
Foot Notes/Glossery
• Sherwood Forest is the location of Disney's Robin Hood. Enchanted Dominion is a world that will be featured in the upcoming Birth by Sleep game. It is the world that Princess Aurora and other Sleeping Beauty characters originate from.
• Xigbar's line about the islands disappearing one by one is pretty much a direct quote from Mickey's letter to Donald in the first game.
• Hands: someone who helps with the work on a boat.
• Beaumont is the name of the Beauty and the Beast 'world'/island in this universe. What does it have to do with pirates? We'll see...
• The Heartless that the old lady turned into was a Neoshadow. The whole sequence is a bit of a reference to the first game, when we see a nameless extra turn into a Shadow in Traverse Town.
Chapter 5 ← Chapter 6 → Chapter 7
Chapter Listing
Genre: Action, Dark
Ships?: Hinted Eiko/Vivi
Characters: Roxas, Naminé, Luxord, Tifa, Xigbar, Freya, Eiko, Axel, Larxene, Demyx
→Cameos: Vivi
→Mentions: Barret, Xaldin
Rating: PG for violence/blood?, slight language
Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or any related characters. This was written out of enjoyment of the series, and no profit is being made.
Music: "Thebes" ♪ "The Carrion's Theme" ♫ "Heartless" ♪ "Decision at Dawn"
Notes: WHOOOOOO PLOT. IT'S FINALLY HERE. \o/ Nuuuuh what else is there to say about this chapter?
The old woman is not meant to be any specific character. Pretty much the entire scene of the Wheel of Fortune versus the Carrion crew was roleplayed (in a way) between spots_of_ink and I last night. We took turns writing the exchanges back and forth, so no one had one definite side. xD
Uhhh other'n that... OH! CONSIDERABLY LESS IMPORTANT RET-CON NOTICE! XD When I was saying 'Crete' last chapter, I meant Thebes. Thebes is the New York-esque location from Hercules, and the location of this chapter.
In which a villain's influence begins to surface.
Drink Up, Me Hearties
Chapter 6: The Devil
“I… don’t understand.”
Thebes just… wasn’t. What once was an island that looked to be stack after stack of white alabaster columns and red roofs was now… rubble rising from the waves.
They had planned to lay siege to the island in the dead of night as opposed to the dusk attacks on Traverse Island. But there was nothing left to lay siege to. The remnants of white statues and buildings looked like dry bones in the scant moonlight, picked clean by the fiery teeth of some undersea creature.
It was as it had been fifteen years previous, only Freya had insisted that she drop anchor near the crumbled remains of the harbour instead of staying at the helm. Unlike the ruins of Radiant Isle, there were no echoing gaps in the landmass that could be steered through.
Eiko had come up from the galley. Upon seeing what once was Thebes, she had covered her hand with her mouth and leaned heavily against Vivi’s shoulder for support.
Roxas’s heart seemed to have stopped in his chest, as the crew lined up on the starboard bow to look up at the destruction.
Naminé stood beside him, weaving her fingers together and staring at them. “This is what happened to Radiant Garden,” she said, voice hardly above a whisper.
“I… I’d heard stories. But I didn’t think…” Roxas ran a hand through his hair and let it rest on his temple. “How did this even…?”
The silence that his words drifted into answered his question. Nobody knew. And the weight of it meant that nobody had known for a long while.
“I guess you wouldn’t have heard about it on your island. This has happened a couple of times.” Naminé’s eyes swept the ruins. “When I was twelve, Sherwood Forest got torn to shreds. And then just last year, Enchanted Dominion was destroyed.”
“Not sure why, but the islands are being torn out of the map, one by one,” Xigbar said. His eye was narrowed suspiciously as he looked at the island city. “And that means disaster can’t be far behind.”
“Captain,” Tifa said, turning to the man beside her. “Should we… head back home?”
Luxord nodded, still transfixed by the ruins before his eyes. “I suppose. There’s nothing we can do here.”
Seven of the eight pirates moved away from the bulwarks, ready to weigh anchor and sail back towards open ocean. Roxas couldn’t tear his eyes away from what remained of Thebes. Some part of him wondered if he’d feel a little more comfortable leaving it if there were screams of agony and unbearable sorrow floating across the waves to him. Maybe he’d feel a little better if something, anything, moved.
He found out that he didn’t feel any better. His heart thumped painfully in his chest as he spotted something off-white and familiar on the waves not far from them. He hesitated, but remembering he was technically part of the crew allowed him to shout, “Captain, sir! Ship off starboard, sir!”
“What precisely are you blathering about, bilge rat?” Captain Luxord turned, halfway up the staircase to the quarterdeck. (There was a quiet but firm ‘Papa’ from somewhere else on the deck.)
“A ship, sir!” Roxas pointed to the vessel that was now sailing amongst the ruined white stone.
Luckily, Xigbar had rushed over and both he and Roxas witness it disappear. “He’s right, cap’n. Someone just sailed in there.”
“Was it a Thebes ship? Survivors?” Luxord asked, returning to the bulwark.
“Uh, no, Captain sir,” Roxas answered, much to the surprise of everyone else.
“You could tell?” Xigbar asked.
“Well… I recognized the ship. It was the Carrion. I sailed on it to Destiny Island,” Roxas mumbled, talking mostly to the ocean to spare himself the Captain’s blue gaze.
“The Carrion?” Captain Luxord put his hands on his hips. Eventually a look of recognition came over his face. “The Carrion,” he repeated, rubbing his closed eyelids as if he suddenly had a migraine. “Of course the bilge rat came with the vulture pirates.” He lifted his head. “Hands, who would like to stay and guard the ship while we go in and stop them?”
Vulture pirates? I don’t like the sound of that.
…Then again, they sailed on a boat called the Carrion. Can’t exactly expect them to be honest, Roxas, the sensible part of his mind whispered.
“I’ll stay behind, cap’n,” Vivi said, raising a hand politely.
“You too, Eiko?” Luxord grinned at the ship’s cook, who was helping her creatures drag a rope ladder up the stairs from the lower decks.
“Sure, cap’n,” she said. Freya helped her attach the ladder to the bulwarks and the crew started climbing down to the docks below. “I- wait. I didn’t volunteer, did I?”
“No, but I have the oddest feeling you would, provided Master Vivi did,” Luxord said as he swung one leg over the railing and hooked it in the first rung. “If we don’t return in half an hour, send one of the moogles to Beaumont. Someone will be sure to come to our aid.”
“Uh, aye, cap’n.” Eiko saluted.
The six pirates were halfway across the damaged stone dock when they heard her shout from the deck: “WHAT DOES VIVI HAVE TO DO WITH THIS?!”
The six of them could practically hear Vivi’s nervous chuckle in their heads as they entered the dead city. It helped for a while, but then the silence of the night overpowered their hearts and laughter seemed to be a foreign concept.
Thebes was worse than dead. It was as though it had never lived in the first place.
The six pirates climbed over piles of broken stone, avoided the decapitated busts of heroes and governors and gods of the people.
Roxas peered into a home when they got deeper into the city. A wooden table had been set for dinner. There was no food. When he had looked up, he caught Naminé’s eye, and saw in her eyes that she was feeling that same dead weight in the center of her chest that he was.
They were walking down a street lined with stone columns when they stopped to rest a bit. Everyone looked as uneasy as Roxas felt, and just when they all thought the tension couldn’t get thicker, it did.
There was a flash, a sound of metal. Everyone turned as Freya threw a long dagger into the roof of a nearby temple, lightning-quick. The Burmecian’s tail swung very slowly to and fro, and her eyes were green slits glaring at the dagger she had thrown.
“Miss Crescent, what did you see?” Captain Luxord asked.
“Something moving, sir. It was blue,” Freya replied, turning to look at him. “It’s gone now. I’m sure.”
“Your eyes have never let me down before, Freya,” Luxord told her, nodding. “All the same, it appears we are not alone. We should find our most… ‘highly decorated’ fellows and depart as soon as possible.”
They continued on and found their ‘highly-decorated-fellows’ in an open square the size of Roxas’s neighbourhood. A temple the height of the Naval Academy back home had toppled into the square, scattering debris everywhere. He couldn’t help the deep frown as he caught sight of the back of a red coat he’d recognize anywhere. “Yeah, that’s… that’s them,” he said.
The Carrion crew seemed to be looting what used to be a jewellery stand. Captain Axel was perched atop a nearby wall that had crumbled, humming contentedly and unaware of the other group’s approach. Larxene had their back to them as well, apparently inspecting the damage done to an old brooch.
Roxas’s uneasy feeling about Luxord’s use of the term ‘vulture pirates’ had been confirmed. The Carrion crew stole off dead worlds.
Demyx, his arms full of necklaces turned around to face the six approaching pirates and dropped his arms by his sides. His loot followed downward and crashed on the cracked tiles of the square. His two crewmates turned at the sound, but Demyx only said “I didn’t do it!”
Larxene and Axel took in the sight of the other pirates, but didn’t seem at all concerned. They had guts; one had to give them that. “Demyx… you are by far the worst pirate ever,” Larxene told him.
“I’m sorry! It was my first reaction!” the pirate guitarist told her, practically quaking in his boots. “What would you have said?”
Larxene quirked an eyebrow. “…‘Finders keepers, assholes’?”
“But isn’t that kind of… impolite?”
Larxene sighed, placing her head in her hand.
“So we finally meet the illustrious vulture pirates,” Luxord said, folding his arms over his chest. Axel climbed down from his throne of broken slates and marble so the two crews could face one another.
Roxas stood beside Naminé, slightly behind the protective stance of Freya. The captain’s daughter folded her arms in a way that mirrored her father’s, even though she couldn’t be seen by the other crew. It occurred to Roxas that Naminé copying her father was probably an unconscious habit.
Larxene laughed, apparently delighted. “Why, Captain Luxord! You’ve heard of us?”
Luxord narrowed his eyes. “Only that you are the most cowardly cretins to slither your way up from the muck found in the deepest crevices at the bottom of the ocean.”
“Aww…” Demyx scratched at the back of his neck. “When you say it, it almost seems like a compliment.”
Larxene smirked, looking the Dread Pirate over. “He could say anything in that voice and make it sound like a compliment,” she said, lowering her eyelids flirtatiously.
Freya rolled her eyes. Naminé let out a nearly inaudible ‘ugh’.
“What are you doing here, anyway?” Axel asked. “Don’t you have old ladies to walk across the street or orphans to take in or something? Or are you actually doing something ballsy for once and trying to muscle in on our stash?”
“Are you looking for another trouncing, sir? Keep talking, if that’s the case,” Luxord said disdainfully.
“Another?” Axel repeated, taken aback. “What are you-?”
“I believe my recently collected bilge rat bested you?” Luxord tossed his head towards Roxas. Freya moved out of the way so he and Naminé could be clearly seen.
“Hi,” he said, raising a hand.
The vulture pirates were utterly shocked. “You- How- You’re alive?” Demyx asked.
“…Shit,” Axel said.
Larxene shook off the shock of seeing him again far more easily than the other two and took over talking for her captain. “What are you doing here, anyway? I thought you were too holier-than-thou for scavenger hunts.”
Tifa stepped forward. “You think stealing off dead worlds is a scavenger hunt?”
Axel shrugged. “Yeah. Not much use to the inhabitants anymore. They’re dead. We’re not. Pretty clear-cut, if you ask me.”
Tifa lunged, eyes ablaze, but Xigbar grabbed her arm. “Not worth it, babe. Not worth it,” he told her.
“W-We only do it because everyone else we steal from chases us down and beats us up,” Demyx said, trying to be placating.
Everyone stared at him.
“Demyx!” Larxene jabbed a finger off across the square. “Go back to the ship!”
The guitarist looked from her to Axel, who only glared at him. Eventually, he turned and slunk away from the other pirates. Everyone watched as he departed quickly, looking the near picture of cowardice, then turned back to the conversation.
“Consider this more like… repossession,” Axel explained. “After all, it’s not like anyone here is going to object, right?”
“I can think of one,” Tifa said coolly, despite Xigbar’s earlier words.
“Axellll! Come quick!” Demyx’s voice drifted across the square from the temple rubble.
Tifa, never one to leave a call for help unanswered, was already sprinting towards his voice. Luxord gave chase immediately and the rest of the Wheel of Fortune crew tailed him.
Axel sighed. “H’oh boy,” he said, turning to Larxene. “Wonder what goody-goody’s up to now.”
Across the square, amidst the ruins of the fallen temple, Demyx had found the sole survivor of Thebes. Her grey hair was piled on top of her head. Her clothes were torn in several places to show bruises underneath that turned her skin black and gruesome purplish colours. She was breathing very slowly, and Demyx was wisely hesitating about moving her.
Axel pushed past Luxord’s crew, to see what they were staring at. “Demyx! Stop helping! You’re a pirate!” He looked thoughtful for a second and tapped his chin. “Does she have any jewellery?”
Demyx was horrified. “Axel! She’s hurt!”
“Hey, there’s nothin’ in it for us! Why should we help her?” Axel spat.
“Oh, please, allow me to relieve you of this terrible moral dilemma,” Luxord deadpanned, raising both his hands in the air.
He crouched down on the other side of the woman. “Madam? Can you hear me?”
The woman nodded weakly. She had a lovely wrinkled face, Roxas noted. Naminé leaned against his shoulder just slightly.
“What happened here? Who did this?”
“The storm…” the woman wheezed. “It was everywhere… and then it was… inside…”
“Inside…?” Luxord asked, and then the woman twitched horribly.
The bruises on her skin spread like a disease and soon became her skin. Naminé let out a short squeak as everyone - even the Dread Pirate - backed up in a panic, but soon had her rapier in her hand. The old woman was no longer a woman, but a twitching black hulk of muscle with long ears and glowing eyes and oh God what had just happened-
There was a click and then thunder cracked on Earth. The black beast swayed.
Xigbar shot the thing in the head again, and it dissolved into a cloud of black dust.
For a second, it was deathly quiet. The lookout’s face was stony as wind blew through the ruins of Thebes, taking whatever was left of its last survivor with it. He raised his head and looked around, carefully avoiding his crewmates’ eyes. “We’re surrounded,” he said.
“All hands,” Luxord addressed his crew as they looked up at the rubble. Black shadows with glaring yellow eyes were creeping towards them from all angles. “Head back to the ship.”
“Run,” Xigbar added.
No one needed to be told twice. The sun started to rise as Roxas ran back the way they came alongside Naminé, who still had her rapier held by her side. The city was a blur of destruction, dawn and darkness glimpsed from the corner of his vision.
One shadow leapt at him. Roxas unsheathed Two Across and slashed through something in one swoop. Naminé grabbed him by the sleeve of his shirt and tugged. He caught a swift glance of Xigbar taking up the rear of their group and then he was running again. The Carrion crew was nowhere to be seen.
As the sun climbed higher into the sky, the six pirates emerged from the ruins of Thebes and sprinted down the marble docks. Up on the deck, a yellow light flashed in Vivi’s hands and thunder crashed in the early-morning sky. Roxas didn’t dare turn to see what happened, but felt his skin prickle and all the hairs on the back of his neck stand up as though electrified.
He didn’t remember the climb up the ladder, just flopping over the bulwark and letting the metal deck cool his back. Xigbar carefully stepped over him. Minutes passed and Roxas heard people mill about. Eventually, he heard Naminé gasp next to him.
“Roxas! Your arm!”
“Wha…?” he said. Naminé’s hand clasped him around his right elbow, helping him to his feet. He caught a brief whiff of a warm metallic sort of smell before glancing at his other arm and flinching.
It was odd, how the body worked sometimes. You didn’t realize you were in pain until you looked down at the tears in your sleeve and the blood streaming down your skin.
Roxas hissed at the sight and the pain that dulled his thoughts. The first thing he knew to do was to get the fabric away from his arm. He picked carefully at the white of his sleeve, trying to tear it with his one hand, before Naminé ripped it off his shirt for him.
“Well, at least it’s not a hot poker,” Roxas commented as Naminé pulled him over to sit on top of a barrel. He realized dimly that the Wheel of Fortune was sailing again, away from Thebes.
“Mog, flute,” Eiko said to the moogle with the thickest, whitest collar of fur as she approached. Mog fluttering away over their heads as Eiko kneeled next to him. “You’re right. These aren’t too deep. You won’t even need a cura.”
Roxas was about to ask what a cura was when Naminé asked, “Hot poker?”
“Sure. I’m a blacksmith, remember? I grew up surrounded by jab-by, burn-y things,” he said. The pain was already lessening to a pronounced throbbing in his arm; nothing major. Naminé laughed, relived.
He looked around and saw that Freya had taken the helm again and Vivi was up among the riggings and sails. Luxord, Tifa and Xigbar stood nearby and Naminé turned to watch them too.
Xigbar was staring back at the ruins of Thebes. He looked… troubled for once, and it was one of the strangest things Eiko or Naminé had ever seen. The first mate sighed, and holstered his pistol on one hip.
“Xigbar? Had you seen those things before?” Tifa asked tentatively.
He shook his head. “No. But I’d recognize what they were made of no matter how it showed its ugly mug.” Then he sighed, frustration heating his breath. “Now that I’ve seen that, there’s no doubt in my mind that Xaldin’s behind this.”
Tension crashed like a wave over the deck at the sound of the name, affecting everyone but Roxas, who blinked around. “Who?” he asked.
They were interrupted when Mog flew back up from below deck and handed Eiko a wooden flute. The summoner played a short tune and Roxas felt a burning, tingling sensation on his arm. He looked down just in time to see a new layer of skin heal over his wounds. He touched the new skin, slightly paler than the rest of his sun-darkened arm.
“It’ll be back to normal in a couple of minutes, but be careful about it anyway. Your skin’s probably never healed by magic, huh?” Eiko asked.
“Uh, no. Cura,” he repeated to himself. Then, eager to get back to something that could make the crew of the Dread Pirate Luxord tense, Roxas asked, “Who’s ‘Xaldin’?”
“Captain Xaldin,” Naminé corrected, whispering. She was watching her father and his two officers carefully. “He’s a pirate legend among pirate legends. They call him the Terror of the Northern Winds.”
“But Xigbar didn’t call him ‘captain’,” Roxas whispered back.
Eiko shrugged, still beside them. “Maybe they knew each other?”
Meanwhile, Luxord was mulling Xigbar’s comment over, his eyes closed and his chin in his hand. “If Xaldin is indeed behind this, we must do something about it.” He opened his eyes and lifted his head. “Fifteen years is long enough.
“Miss Carol, do you mind sending one of the moogles back to Arcana Minor? Tell Barret we’ll be gone for a little longer than we thought.”
“Aye, cap’n,” said Eiko. “Moco!” she called.
One of the moogles fluttered forward, saluted, and said “Kupo!”
Eiko relayed a message to her furry friend in moogle tongue. Then she pulled Moco into a brief goodbye hug and the moogle flew out over the sea. They watched as the creature eventually faded from sight.
“Alright, Xigbar,” Luxord said, turning to face his first mate. “If we’re going to investigate the islands disappearing, where do you suggest we begin?”
Xigbar looked back to the spot on the horizon where the ruins of Thebes were disappearing. “We’ll have to head to Beaumont. I need to look up an old friend of mine.”
Foot Notes/Glossery
• Sherwood Forest is the location of Disney's Robin Hood. Enchanted Dominion is a world that will be featured in the upcoming Birth by Sleep game. It is the world that Princess Aurora and other Sleeping Beauty characters originate from.
• Xigbar's line about the islands disappearing one by one is pretty much a direct quote from Mickey's letter to Donald in the first game.
• Hands: someone who helps with the work on a boat.
• Beaumont is the name of the Beauty and the Beast 'world'/island in this universe. What does it have to do with pirates? We'll see...
• The Heartless that the old lady turned into was a Neoshadow. The whole sequence is a bit of a reference to the first game, when we see a nameless extra turn into a Shadow in Traverse Town.
Chapter 5 ← Chapter 6 → Chapter 7
Chapter Listing