fic: across this new divide (chapter one)
Title: across this new divide
Fandom: Ace Attorney/Kingdom Hearts crossover
Length: 3481 words.
Pairing(s): (in this chapter) Roxas/Axel and Roxas/Xion (both platonic), implied Sora/Kairi
Contains/Rating: Pretty much PG. A few naughty words here and there.
Notes: This is for my lovely friend Aimee. Thanks for being awesome.
Summary: In which Destiny Islands and The World that Never Was end up collapsing, and the inhabitants find themselves ending up in downtown Los Angeles - meeting everybody's favourite lawyers.
Larxene entered the Grey Area, her face like thunder; hands powered with lightning. And damn, was she angry; or as close to anger as a Nobody could get.
She could see familiar faces turning away from her icy gaze; even their 'chief', blue haired Saix, was keeping his nose clean. And for good reason - nobody got on the bad side of Larxene, unless they were feeling particularly suicidal that day. A majority of the Organization had learnt that the hard way, and mostly, they left her alone, which was her demand most of the time. However, on mornings like this, she needed somebody to channel her anger onto, and as her ears caught the whiff of a half-hearted melody, her pale pink lips curled into a smirk as she headed towards Demyx, Organization XIII's resident couch potato. The blonde sneered as per normal at the imbecile strumming his sitar on the couch. Did the slack ever leave the Grey Area? Like, at all? Larxene snarled, hitting him squarely over the head with a firm hand. 'Get up, you lazy slack!' she snapped, her elegant tone too light to bear its vehemence. Demyx whined in protest, and Larxene's vivid blue eyes narrowed dangerously. 'Your face pisses me off. Haven't you got some recon to do?' The inferior male sighed, rising slowly from the cushy sofa, propping himself up on his blue instrument as he did so. Harassing Demyx was part of Larxene's daily routine, and she was damned if she was going to let that slide. She had a reputation to uphold as the only female member of the Organization, after all; and squirts like him deserved to be victimized for their underachieving natures.
A collective sigh of relief reverberated around the glassy room as the furious blonde disappeared through a portal to her designated mission. A familiar brunette head popped round the door, stricken with fear. 'Has she gone?' Demyx's voice asked, shaking a little. His eyes scoured the room, and as no blonde head was to be found, he smiled, straightening himself up, sitar in tow. Strumming a couple of chords as he wandered around the room aimlessly, he bent down to a short blonde-haired boy, laughing slightly. 'Well, the Wicked Witch of the West is out for the day! We're free!' Demyx said cheerfully, singing 'We're free!' a couple times over with a few randomly picked chords as he resumed his crashed out stance on the sofa. The blonde haired boy smiled politely. What was a Wicked Witch? He wasn't sure. All he knew was that Demyx was a nice guy, even if he was a little... eccentric.
'Zombie? Hey, zombie!' chortled a recognisable jaded drawl from the door, as a toweringly tall slender male with a head of fiery hair entered the room. The blonde haired boy scowled in protest slightly - he was not a zombie! Crossing his arms slightly, he pouted stubbornly, waiting to be addressed properly. The tall male was his friend, so it was okay to leave him hanging like this, right? It was only a bit of fun. 'Roxas? Anyone home in that empty head of yours?' Roxas smiled slightly. Axel would be Axel.
'I'm here,' Roxas said softly. 'Are we working together today?'
Axel grinned, his bright green eyes sparkling slightly. 'Sure, if you want.' He laughed at Roxas' stricken face. 'What's up? You afraid Saix might get mad?' Axel taunted, laughing again. 'Whatever. Let's get this over with.'
Ruffling the shorter boy's hair patronizingly, the two walked through a newly conjured portal to their mission.
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'NIIIIIIIIIIIICK!'
Phoenix Wright's eyes snapped open at the sound of a high-pitched yell; his brow furrowed at the scream. It had undoubtedly come from Maya, and he rolled off the sofa, landing on his knees like a ninja. He sprang up, and ran into the makeshift kitchen of the Wright & Co. Law Offices, and sighed as he saw a flurry of black hair bouncing up and down, evidently trying to get into the cupboard. Phoenix sighed, rubbing his eyes. Maya was handy to have around during cases, and sure, the two of them were friends... but did she always have to be so... so... high maintenance? Phoenix grumbled angrily. He was only twenty-four, and already he was ageing like a middle-aged man, permanent rings under his eyes from the assorted hours that he slept, his teeth stained slightly from the amount of coffee he drank to keep himself relatively chipper. It was beyond him as to how somebody like Maya could stay so hyper twenty-four-seven. Perhaps ESP wasn't the only genetic trait in the Fey blood after all. Maya whirled around, her Magatama almost whipping her in the face with excitement. 'Oh good, you're here! Could you grab that pack of noodles for me? I'm staaaaaaarving!' she whined, her stomach growling. Phoenix snarled, reaching up on tip-toes to grab the last pack of noodles that was in the cupboard, his feet clad in grey slippers. Throwing the pack to Maya, too tired to protest against being woken up for such a trifling matter, he turned towards to door to his bedroom, his eyelids fluttering.
'Nick, wait! WAIT!' Maya called from behind him. Phoenix's cheek twitched irrationally; one more outburst, and he was fit to blow a gasket.
'Where's the fire?' Phoenix snapped, irritated, stifling a yawn. Maya grinned radiantly, swinging her legs from the counter, pointing at the rusty taps that were generally impossible to turn on unless you possessed superhuman strength (or a need for the only water supply in the whole building.)
'Could you turn the tap on for me?'
Phoenix Wright snarled, hitting his head into his hands angrily.
'No. Go use your... mediumly powers or something.' Phoenix smiled half-heartedly. 'Night, Maya!'
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Sora's large blue eyes snapped open, wide with shock. A crack of lightning dissimilar to a gunshot had pelted his windows. Was this... a storm? It couldn't be, not now! Lifting his body up from his bedsheets, he glanced out the window to see a sky of dark indigo. This didn't look like a storm... so what was it? Whatever it was, it was going to jeopardize his raft, and he was damned if the raft was going to break. Sora and his friends, Riku and Kairi, had spent days collecting wood for that thing. Get the raft first, think about the rain later! Sora told himself as he hit his window sharply, the frame moving enough for him to get a grip on the window. Pushing it open impulsively, Sora sighed slightly. Wasn't this sort of thing Riku's job?
Soft sand hit Sora in the face as he landed unceremoniously on the surface of the beach, his hair matted and his clothes dirty. Raising himself up, he sighed, shaking the sand out of his bedraggled spiky brown hair, before looking up at the sky, his jaw dropping. Up above in the sky, was the strangest thing he'd ever witnessed.
The sky was a dark purple, jet black clouds tainting its brilliant colour, dotted frequently throughout the sky. An orb replaced the moon, large and glimmering, glowing with an iridescent orange exterior as the black inside of it pushed against the surface, trying to push itself out. Inside, there seemed to be almost a village - from his stance on the beach, Sora could make out houses on fire, and spires - dark, mysterious... and threatening. This wasn't a storm, and neither was it like any weather condition the fourteen-year old had ever witnessed; it was something much worse. Short breaths rising to his throat, Sora pelted down the beach, his yellow trainers carrying him as fast as he could go. He needed to find his friends - if they were still alive.
'Riku? Kairi?'
A familiar head of silver hair waited on the bridge; facing the black water below them. Riku turned around to face his friend, smirking as he out-stretched a hand. Sora gasped, jumping back slightly. His friend's eyes were empty, black, and looked like bottomless chasms - this wasn't the Riku he knew. Edging slowly closer, Sora craned his head to see if a familiar red-head was with him. However, there was nobody - just an imposter. This wasn't his friend.
'Where's Kairi?' Sora snapped angrily. 'I thought she was with you!'
The empty Riku smiled coldly; his grin eerie, radiating evil. 'I'm not afraid of the darkness, Sora.' he said, his voice a low monotone. Was he... possessed? It reminded Sora of those horror films that used to creep him out when he was little.
'Riku, this isn't funny anymore! Cut it out!' Angered, Sora walked up to Riku, his face furious as Sora whacked him on the shoulder. Riku's smile dropped, his angry eyes turning up to face Sora's. Raising a silver eyebrow, Riku smirked as black tendrils crept around the boys' feet, chortling coldly as Sora cried out, unable to move his legs. Flailing his arms, Sora snarled as he tried to kick his body about, the never-ending black rising to his waist. Breathing shallowly as his chest was consumed by the darkness, Riku outstretched a gloved hand again to Sora, his face stricken with evil. It was cold, undeniable evil, and Sora didn't recognise it. Snarling, Sora slapped his hand away, the darkness lowering slightly, enabling him to breathe.
'No! I'm not going with you! You're not Riku!'
Suddenly, Sora felt his feet disappearing from beneath him, his legs following in tow. W-what's happening? Sora thought, his hands flailing in the air, grasping at oxygen as his body descended into the darkness, tendrils of misty black swallowing his limbs whole, his large blue eyes widening with fear as he shrieked. Even Riku's form was disappearing under the black, his feet vanishing from beneath him. The mist tangled around his scrawny neck, covering his eyes - the last thing Sora saw before being consumed was a familiar swish of auburn hair.
'N...No! NO! KAIRI!'
The boy's vivid blue eyes closed as his hand vanished, hitting the surface of the sea of black.
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An identical, fear-ridden pair of azure eyes snapped open, the blonde-haired boy from before clinging to a dark-haired girl, around the same height as the boy. Holding her gloved hand, Roxas pulled his jet-black haired companion through the wreckage of the Castle That Never Was, the celing collapsing above their heads. A pile of glass detritus issued from the window as it was blown through, and the female hit it away from their path with her Keyblade, the glass changing course to the floor. She sighed a quick sigh of relief, before being dragged away from the windows by Roxas as the floor shook violently beneath them. W-what's happening? the little blonde wondered as he ran with his friend in tow towards a familiar tall figure at the other side of the room, the floor collapsing a split-second behind them as they ran. A painful fall was waiting for them if the floor caught them out; and nine times out of ten, it was a fall that wasn't always survivable.
'Axel!' Roxas called frantically, as he pulled the black-haired girl to safety, making sure not to step on the crumbling floor. 'What's happening?'
Axel's green eyes observed through the only intact window of the building - his face cold and hardened. 'Saix says that our world's colliding with another.' he said, his deep knowledgeable voice almost a monotone. 'And by the looks of things, ours isn't the only one. Take a look.' Axel gestured to the window, stepping aside to let the two shorter children witness. There were stars exploding in the sky here and there, and after each explosion, there was darkness, and nothing more. The navy sky was full of fireworks as world after world combusted into flames - the world Roxas and Axel had attended to for their mission earlier was wiped off the page, almost as if there'd never been anything there. The small girl's eyes widened in shock, and Roxas gave her hand an encouraging squeeze - he wasn't going to let go of her that easily.
'What.... what are we going to do?' Roxas asked timidly, his eyes confused, looking up at his taller companion for guidance. Axel shrugged, and turned away, facing the wreckage of the room being consumed by a sea of black. 'Axel?'
Axel smiled at them, his usual casual mannerisms back in place. 'We wait. What's going to happen is going to happen, right?'
Roxas' eyes widened. 'But.... but what if we never come back here?'
Axel shrugged again. 'Then we never come back. What's so great about this place, anyway? Who's to say that we're not going somewhere better?' More of the flooring was swallowed by the dark, only a few centimetres in front of the man's feet. Looking down at the black misty vines intertwining his legs with the floor, Axel smirked.
'Last one there is a rotten egg!'
And with that, he dropped, the spikes of his hair vanishing through the endless chasm of the floor.
'Axel! No.... Axel!'
Suddenly, the floor cracked, undercutting the feet of the two hooded figures, the girl's hood cascading over her head, revealing her frightened face as her and the blonde descended. Roxas snarled, seizing what was left of the floor with his left hand - grabbing his friend's hand as it almost slid from his fingers in his right. There was beams of light rotating in what struck Roxas to be a black hole, and an overpowering breeze as the final intact window was blown apart shook his grip, beads of glass raining down on the two figures.
'Roxas...' came a wavering voice from below the boy.
'Xion!' Roxas cried to the little black-haired girl holding his hand for dear life. 'Don't let go!'
'Roxas... what if Axel's right?' Roxas tilted his head to face Xion, her hair matted and her face deathly pale. Obviously, Roxas wasn't the only one scared for his life.
'What do you mean?'
'Maybe... maybe this is a good thing for us! We won't have to work under the Organization any more, Roxas.' Xion smiled weakly, her cheeks blushing slightly. 'We'll be free!'
'B-But Xion! What if... what if we never see each-other again?' Roxas felt the breeze bring water to his eyes; was this sadness? How ridiculous. Nobodies couldn't feel sadness.
Xion shook her head fervently, water springing from her eyes too as hair slapped her in the face. 'We will, Roxas! I know we will!' The girl sniffed. Emotions like this shouldn't have been occurring in a Nobody. Maybe Saix was right, after all. Maybe she was a calamity, just a mistake, and that this was her fate. 'Besides, we have to find Axel!' Xion's eyes leaked again, as her gloved hand tried to wriggle out of Roxas'.
Roxas gripped her hand tighter. 'I... I don't want you to die.' he said, plainly, and Xion bowed her head, a fresh wave of this awkward sensation knocking her for six.
'Nobodies are only half a person.' Xion said, smiling through her tears. 'We don't disappear.'
Placing her free hand up to Roxas', Xion placed her Keyblade in his hand, before wiping away the wetness on her cheeks.
'We'll see each-other again soon.' she said, matter of factly, her voice confident, the wavering tone disappearing. 'I promise. And when we do, you can give this back.'
'Xion...' Roxas said weakly, as the Keyblade knocked Xion's grasp from his. 'Xion!'
Promises. What was a promise? If a promise was telling someone that you weren't going to let them go, then Xion had broken hers already. Maybe that wasn't what a promise was after all. Roxas sighed. At the end of the day, promises were just empty words, along with everything else in life; easily said, but impossible to follow through - and being a Nobody, Roxas was used to expecting disappointment. What if his friends were wrong? What if falling into this darkness would have consequences? As a member of the Organization, Roxas generally knew no fear, and ran into near-death assignments obliviously. However, the flippant nature that his friends faced this unknown threat unsettled Roxas - did they want to die? Either way, if they lived or died - Roxas would soon be joining them - this piece of lino he was clinging to for dear life wasn't going to hold for much longer as the pressure built up upon his quaking shoulders.
The shaking blonde swallowed; placing his trust blindly in his friends hands as usual. I need to give Xion her Keyblade, he thought as her familiar shaped Keyblade vanished into his skin, the warmth of having such power inside him strengthening his resolve. Smiling weakly, Roxas closed his eyes, the water drying from his eyes - and dropped.
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There was a split second as the male dropped where his eyes fluttered in and out of consciousness as his limp body was blown around like debris in a hurricane. His bright blue eyes opened slightly as black surrounded him - endless black, apart from a pair of eyes identical to his, blue lights that narrowed with confusion as they swept across his gaze. A streak of light narrowly missed Roxas' ear, and the eyes disappeared - replaced with a face sporting the same confused expression as Roxas'. The blue eyes were the same, and the nose and mouth were distinctly his - the only thing that differed between the two was the doppelgänger's hair; it was brown instead of Roxas' blonde palette.
'What the hell?' the boy asked quietly, his face taken aback, before the two were blown apart again.
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Sora gasped as he was blown away from the blonde - what was that? How had they looked the same? Were they related somehow? Or was it his imagination; maybe the air was too thick to breathe in this dank hole as he floated on the air, occasionally being pushed under by currents of mist. Besides, his hallucinations didn't matter - he needed to find a way to get back to Kairi, and breathed in deeply, before coughing up dark air. Ugh.... Sora protested, his lungs aching in struggle as his eyes closed, a slim stream of black issuing from his mouth as he fell faster, his body dropping like a stone.
'Sora!'
A streak of blue flashed past the boy's eyes as a figure fell past him, a Keyblade in its hands similar to his. He mustered the strength to open his eyes, to see a recognisable pair of eyes staring back at him.
'Kairi!' he said happily, his voice cracking under the weight of the air as he fell.
'Kairi?' the eyes responded, narrowing. 'Where is sh-'
A torrent of air blew the female voice away from him. Who was that? And why did they look vaguely like Kairi? Why did they know him? Had they met before? Did she knew where Kairi -
'Sora!' the choking voice called out again as Sora's eyes closed again, his Keyblade falling from his hands.
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'Sora!'
'Axel... Xion?'
'Sora, wake up!'
'K... Kairi...'
'No... Xion!'
'R.. R... Ri..ku...'
'Axel!'
'Roxas? Roxas!'
'Sora!'
Thump.
'…... Ouch.'
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Maya Fey's eyes snapped open.
'...Nick? What... what was that noise?'
Fandom: Ace Attorney/Kingdom Hearts crossover
Length: 3481 words.
Pairing(s): (in this chapter) Roxas/Axel and Roxas/Xion (both platonic), implied Sora/Kairi
Contains/Rating: Pretty much PG. A few naughty words here and there.
Notes: This is for my lovely friend Aimee. Thanks for being awesome.
Summary: In which Destiny Islands and The World that Never Was end up collapsing, and the inhabitants find themselves ending up in downtown Los Angeles - meeting everybody's favourite lawyers.
Larxene entered the Grey Area, her face like thunder; hands powered with lightning. And damn, was she angry; or as close to anger as a Nobody could get.
She could see familiar faces turning away from her icy gaze; even their 'chief', blue haired Saix, was keeping his nose clean. And for good reason - nobody got on the bad side of Larxene, unless they were feeling particularly suicidal that day. A majority of the Organization had learnt that the hard way, and mostly, they left her alone, which was her demand most of the time. However, on mornings like this, she needed somebody to channel her anger onto, and as her ears caught the whiff of a half-hearted melody, her pale pink lips curled into a smirk as she headed towards Demyx, Organization XIII's resident couch potato. The blonde sneered as per normal at the imbecile strumming his sitar on the couch. Did the slack ever leave the Grey Area? Like, at all? Larxene snarled, hitting him squarely over the head with a firm hand. 'Get up, you lazy slack!' she snapped, her elegant tone too light to bear its vehemence. Demyx whined in protest, and Larxene's vivid blue eyes narrowed dangerously. 'Your face pisses me off. Haven't you got some recon to do?' The inferior male sighed, rising slowly from the cushy sofa, propping himself up on his blue instrument as he did so. Harassing Demyx was part of Larxene's daily routine, and she was damned if she was going to let that slide. She had a reputation to uphold as the only female member of the Organization, after all; and squirts like him deserved to be victimized for their underachieving natures.
A collective sigh of relief reverberated around the glassy room as the furious blonde disappeared through a portal to her designated mission. A familiar brunette head popped round the door, stricken with fear. 'Has she gone?' Demyx's voice asked, shaking a little. His eyes scoured the room, and as no blonde head was to be found, he smiled, straightening himself up, sitar in tow. Strumming a couple of chords as he wandered around the room aimlessly, he bent down to a short blonde-haired boy, laughing slightly. 'Well, the Wicked Witch of the West is out for the day! We're free!' Demyx said cheerfully, singing 'We're free!' a couple times over with a few randomly picked chords as he resumed his crashed out stance on the sofa. The blonde haired boy smiled politely. What was a Wicked Witch? He wasn't sure. All he knew was that Demyx was a nice guy, even if he was a little... eccentric.
'Zombie? Hey, zombie!' chortled a recognisable jaded drawl from the door, as a toweringly tall slender male with a head of fiery hair entered the room. The blonde haired boy scowled in protest slightly - he was not a zombie! Crossing his arms slightly, he pouted stubbornly, waiting to be addressed properly. The tall male was his friend, so it was okay to leave him hanging like this, right? It was only a bit of fun. 'Roxas? Anyone home in that empty head of yours?' Roxas smiled slightly. Axel would be Axel.
'I'm here,' Roxas said softly. 'Are we working together today?'
Axel grinned, his bright green eyes sparkling slightly. 'Sure, if you want.' He laughed at Roxas' stricken face. 'What's up? You afraid Saix might get mad?' Axel taunted, laughing again. 'Whatever. Let's get this over with.'
Ruffling the shorter boy's hair patronizingly, the two walked through a newly conjured portal to their mission.
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'NIIIIIIIIIIIICK!'
Phoenix Wright's eyes snapped open at the sound of a high-pitched yell; his brow furrowed at the scream. It had undoubtedly come from Maya, and he rolled off the sofa, landing on his knees like a ninja. He sprang up, and ran into the makeshift kitchen of the Wright & Co. Law Offices, and sighed as he saw a flurry of black hair bouncing up and down, evidently trying to get into the cupboard. Phoenix sighed, rubbing his eyes. Maya was handy to have around during cases, and sure, the two of them were friends... but did she always have to be so... so... high maintenance? Phoenix grumbled angrily. He was only twenty-four, and already he was ageing like a middle-aged man, permanent rings under his eyes from the assorted hours that he slept, his teeth stained slightly from the amount of coffee he drank to keep himself relatively chipper. It was beyond him as to how somebody like Maya could stay so hyper twenty-four-seven. Perhaps ESP wasn't the only genetic trait in the Fey blood after all. Maya whirled around, her Magatama almost whipping her in the face with excitement. 'Oh good, you're here! Could you grab that pack of noodles for me? I'm staaaaaaarving!' she whined, her stomach growling. Phoenix snarled, reaching up on tip-toes to grab the last pack of noodles that was in the cupboard, his feet clad in grey slippers. Throwing the pack to Maya, too tired to protest against being woken up for such a trifling matter, he turned towards to door to his bedroom, his eyelids fluttering.
'Nick, wait! WAIT!' Maya called from behind him. Phoenix's cheek twitched irrationally; one more outburst, and he was fit to blow a gasket.
'Where's the fire?' Phoenix snapped, irritated, stifling a yawn. Maya grinned radiantly, swinging her legs from the counter, pointing at the rusty taps that were generally impossible to turn on unless you possessed superhuman strength (or a need for the only water supply in the whole building.)
'Could you turn the tap on for me?'
Phoenix Wright snarled, hitting his head into his hands angrily.
'No. Go use your... mediumly powers or something.' Phoenix smiled half-heartedly. 'Night, Maya!'
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Sora's large blue eyes snapped open, wide with shock. A crack of lightning dissimilar to a gunshot had pelted his windows. Was this... a storm? It couldn't be, not now! Lifting his body up from his bedsheets, he glanced out the window to see a sky of dark indigo. This didn't look like a storm... so what was it? Whatever it was, it was going to jeopardize his raft, and he was damned if the raft was going to break. Sora and his friends, Riku and Kairi, had spent days collecting wood for that thing. Get the raft first, think about the rain later! Sora told himself as he hit his window sharply, the frame moving enough for him to get a grip on the window. Pushing it open impulsively, Sora sighed slightly. Wasn't this sort of thing Riku's job?
Soft sand hit Sora in the face as he landed unceremoniously on the surface of the beach, his hair matted and his clothes dirty. Raising himself up, he sighed, shaking the sand out of his bedraggled spiky brown hair, before looking up at the sky, his jaw dropping. Up above in the sky, was the strangest thing he'd ever witnessed.
The sky was a dark purple, jet black clouds tainting its brilliant colour, dotted frequently throughout the sky. An orb replaced the moon, large and glimmering, glowing with an iridescent orange exterior as the black inside of it pushed against the surface, trying to push itself out. Inside, there seemed to be almost a village - from his stance on the beach, Sora could make out houses on fire, and spires - dark, mysterious... and threatening. This wasn't a storm, and neither was it like any weather condition the fourteen-year old had ever witnessed; it was something much worse. Short breaths rising to his throat, Sora pelted down the beach, his yellow trainers carrying him as fast as he could go. He needed to find his friends - if they were still alive.
'Riku? Kairi?'
A familiar head of silver hair waited on the bridge; facing the black water below them. Riku turned around to face his friend, smirking as he out-stretched a hand. Sora gasped, jumping back slightly. His friend's eyes were empty, black, and looked like bottomless chasms - this wasn't the Riku he knew. Edging slowly closer, Sora craned his head to see if a familiar red-head was with him. However, there was nobody - just an imposter. This wasn't his friend.
'Where's Kairi?' Sora snapped angrily. 'I thought she was with you!'
The empty Riku smiled coldly; his grin eerie, radiating evil. 'I'm not afraid of the darkness, Sora.' he said, his voice a low monotone. Was he... possessed? It reminded Sora of those horror films that used to creep him out when he was little.
'Riku, this isn't funny anymore! Cut it out!' Angered, Sora walked up to Riku, his face furious as Sora whacked him on the shoulder. Riku's smile dropped, his angry eyes turning up to face Sora's. Raising a silver eyebrow, Riku smirked as black tendrils crept around the boys' feet, chortling coldly as Sora cried out, unable to move his legs. Flailing his arms, Sora snarled as he tried to kick his body about, the never-ending black rising to his waist. Breathing shallowly as his chest was consumed by the darkness, Riku outstretched a gloved hand again to Sora, his face stricken with evil. It was cold, undeniable evil, and Sora didn't recognise it. Snarling, Sora slapped his hand away, the darkness lowering slightly, enabling him to breathe.
'No! I'm not going with you! You're not Riku!'
Suddenly, Sora felt his feet disappearing from beneath him, his legs following in tow. W-what's happening? Sora thought, his hands flailing in the air, grasping at oxygen as his body descended into the darkness, tendrils of misty black swallowing his limbs whole, his large blue eyes widening with fear as he shrieked. Even Riku's form was disappearing under the black, his feet vanishing from beneath him. The mist tangled around his scrawny neck, covering his eyes - the last thing Sora saw before being consumed was a familiar swish of auburn hair.
'N...No! NO! KAIRI!'
The boy's vivid blue eyes closed as his hand vanished, hitting the surface of the sea of black.
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An identical, fear-ridden pair of azure eyes snapped open, the blonde-haired boy from before clinging to a dark-haired girl, around the same height as the boy. Holding her gloved hand, Roxas pulled his jet-black haired companion through the wreckage of the Castle That Never Was, the celing collapsing above their heads. A pile of glass detritus issued from the window as it was blown through, and the female hit it away from their path with her Keyblade, the glass changing course to the floor. She sighed a quick sigh of relief, before being dragged away from the windows by Roxas as the floor shook violently beneath them. W-what's happening? the little blonde wondered as he ran with his friend in tow towards a familiar tall figure at the other side of the room, the floor collapsing a split-second behind them as they ran. A painful fall was waiting for them if the floor caught them out; and nine times out of ten, it was a fall that wasn't always survivable.
'Axel!' Roxas called frantically, as he pulled the black-haired girl to safety, making sure not to step on the crumbling floor. 'What's happening?'
Axel's green eyes observed through the only intact window of the building - his face cold and hardened. 'Saix says that our world's colliding with another.' he said, his deep knowledgeable voice almost a monotone. 'And by the looks of things, ours isn't the only one. Take a look.' Axel gestured to the window, stepping aside to let the two shorter children witness. There were stars exploding in the sky here and there, and after each explosion, there was darkness, and nothing more. The navy sky was full of fireworks as world after world combusted into flames - the world Roxas and Axel had attended to for their mission earlier was wiped off the page, almost as if there'd never been anything there. The small girl's eyes widened in shock, and Roxas gave her hand an encouraging squeeze - he wasn't going to let go of her that easily.
'What.... what are we going to do?' Roxas asked timidly, his eyes confused, looking up at his taller companion for guidance. Axel shrugged, and turned away, facing the wreckage of the room being consumed by a sea of black. 'Axel?'
Axel smiled at them, his usual casual mannerisms back in place. 'We wait. What's going to happen is going to happen, right?'
Roxas' eyes widened. 'But.... but what if we never come back here?'
Axel shrugged again. 'Then we never come back. What's so great about this place, anyway? Who's to say that we're not going somewhere better?' More of the flooring was swallowed by the dark, only a few centimetres in front of the man's feet. Looking down at the black misty vines intertwining his legs with the floor, Axel smirked.
'Last one there is a rotten egg!'
And with that, he dropped, the spikes of his hair vanishing through the endless chasm of the floor.
'Axel! No.... Axel!'
Suddenly, the floor cracked, undercutting the feet of the two hooded figures, the girl's hood cascading over her head, revealing her frightened face as her and the blonde descended. Roxas snarled, seizing what was left of the floor with his left hand - grabbing his friend's hand as it almost slid from his fingers in his right. There was beams of light rotating in what struck Roxas to be a black hole, and an overpowering breeze as the final intact window was blown apart shook his grip, beads of glass raining down on the two figures.
'Roxas...' came a wavering voice from below the boy.
'Xion!' Roxas cried to the little black-haired girl holding his hand for dear life. 'Don't let go!'
'Roxas... what if Axel's right?' Roxas tilted his head to face Xion, her hair matted and her face deathly pale. Obviously, Roxas wasn't the only one scared for his life.
'What do you mean?'
'Maybe... maybe this is a good thing for us! We won't have to work under the Organization any more, Roxas.' Xion smiled weakly, her cheeks blushing slightly. 'We'll be free!'
'B-But Xion! What if... what if we never see each-other again?' Roxas felt the breeze bring water to his eyes; was this sadness? How ridiculous. Nobodies couldn't feel sadness.
Xion shook her head fervently, water springing from her eyes too as hair slapped her in the face. 'We will, Roxas! I know we will!' The girl sniffed. Emotions like this shouldn't have been occurring in a Nobody. Maybe Saix was right, after all. Maybe she was a calamity, just a mistake, and that this was her fate. 'Besides, we have to find Axel!' Xion's eyes leaked again, as her gloved hand tried to wriggle out of Roxas'.
Roxas gripped her hand tighter. 'I... I don't want you to die.' he said, plainly, and Xion bowed her head, a fresh wave of this awkward sensation knocking her for six.
'Nobodies are only half a person.' Xion said, smiling through her tears. 'We don't disappear.'
Placing her free hand up to Roxas', Xion placed her Keyblade in his hand, before wiping away the wetness on her cheeks.
'We'll see each-other again soon.' she said, matter of factly, her voice confident, the wavering tone disappearing. 'I promise. And when we do, you can give this back.'
'Xion...' Roxas said weakly, as the Keyblade knocked Xion's grasp from his. 'Xion!'
Promises. What was a promise? If a promise was telling someone that you weren't going to let them go, then Xion had broken hers already. Maybe that wasn't what a promise was after all. Roxas sighed. At the end of the day, promises were just empty words, along with everything else in life; easily said, but impossible to follow through - and being a Nobody, Roxas was used to expecting disappointment. What if his friends were wrong? What if falling into this darkness would have consequences? As a member of the Organization, Roxas generally knew no fear, and ran into near-death assignments obliviously. However, the flippant nature that his friends faced this unknown threat unsettled Roxas - did they want to die? Either way, if they lived or died - Roxas would soon be joining them - this piece of lino he was clinging to for dear life wasn't going to hold for much longer as the pressure built up upon his quaking shoulders.
The shaking blonde swallowed; placing his trust blindly in his friends hands as usual. I need to give Xion her Keyblade, he thought as her familiar shaped Keyblade vanished into his skin, the warmth of having such power inside him strengthening his resolve. Smiling weakly, Roxas closed his eyes, the water drying from his eyes - and dropped.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
There was a split second as the male dropped where his eyes fluttered in and out of consciousness as his limp body was blown around like debris in a hurricane. His bright blue eyes opened slightly as black surrounded him - endless black, apart from a pair of eyes identical to his, blue lights that narrowed with confusion as they swept across his gaze. A streak of light narrowly missed Roxas' ear, and the eyes disappeared - replaced with a face sporting the same confused expression as Roxas'. The blue eyes were the same, and the nose and mouth were distinctly his - the only thing that differed between the two was the doppelgänger's hair; it was brown instead of Roxas' blonde palette.
'What the hell?' the boy asked quietly, his face taken aback, before the two were blown apart again.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Sora gasped as he was blown away from the blonde - what was that? How had they looked the same? Were they related somehow? Or was it his imagination; maybe the air was too thick to breathe in this dank hole as he floated on the air, occasionally being pushed under by currents of mist. Besides, his hallucinations didn't matter - he needed to find a way to get back to Kairi, and breathed in deeply, before coughing up dark air. Ugh.... Sora protested, his lungs aching in struggle as his eyes closed, a slim stream of black issuing from his mouth as he fell faster, his body dropping like a stone.
'Sora!'
A streak of blue flashed past the boy's eyes as a figure fell past him, a Keyblade in its hands similar to his. He mustered the strength to open his eyes, to see a recognisable pair of eyes staring back at him.
'Kairi!' he said happily, his voice cracking under the weight of the air as he fell.
'Kairi?' the eyes responded, narrowing. 'Where is sh-'
A torrent of air blew the female voice away from him. Who was that? And why did they look vaguely like Kairi? Why did they know him? Had they met before? Did she knew where Kairi -
'Sora!' the choking voice called out again as Sora's eyes closed again, his Keyblade falling from his hands.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
'Sora!'
'Axel... Xion?'
'Sora, wake up!'
'K... Kairi...'
'No... Xion!'
'R.. R... Ri..ku...'
'Axel!'
'Roxas? Roxas!'
'Sora!'
Thump.
'…... Ouch.'
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Maya Fey's eyes snapped open.
'...Nick? What... what was that noise?'