AN: Another chapter already? Yeah well, I did a lot of writing this weekend and have a special treat. Each story I've been working on will be getting a chapter today. This, The Cracked Heart, as well as TDA: Back to Action. Anyways, enjoy this chapter. (Yes I know the chapter name is not part two of the first chapter, that's because part 2 is later in the story).
Chapter Two: Invisible Thorns
Ventus felt awkward as he walked silently through the empty corridors, only Lost Memory in hand for defense in case Vanitas was still around and wanted to bombard him with Unversed.
"Idiot. Our hearts joined back together, back to normal." Ventus heard Vanitas's voice and his eyes widened.
"Are you in my heart?" Ventus asked as he kept walking, now a bit more unsure of himself.
"Our heart. Do you never listen?" Vanitas spat out and Ventus groaned.
"Great. I get to listen to a gremlin on my shoulder the rest of my life." Ventus seemed annoyed and Vanitas cackled.
"Not a gremlin. Also, how do you know Xehanort won't just find us again?" Vanitas pointed out and Ventus gulped. That was something to consider. Xehanort could still be trying to find him, wherever he was.
"Just stop talking so I don't get a headache." Ventus rubbed his head in annoyance as he finished his way down a corridor and stepped through a large door. On the other side, Ventus watched as a silver haired boy struck down a giant of a man with as giant of an axe. The boy's weapon looked like a keyblade, but without a keychain or charm. Ventus noticed the boy's outfit changed from some strange dark outfit, back into an outfit that was reminiscent of an islander's. The boy seemed familiar to Ventus, but he couldn't place it.
"Hey there." Ventus decided to greet and the boy rapidly turned to him, weapon in hand, before looking at him and lowering it.
"You don't smell of as much darkness as the cloaked crazies of this castle." The boy dismissed his weapon and Ventus shrugged.
"Don't know anyone else who is here. I think I just woke up from a ten year nap." Ventus leaned into his hands behind his neck, similar to the silver haired boy's friend.
"A ten year nap? Here I thought Sora slept too long." The boy chuckled slightly but held out a hand for Ventus to take.
"I'm Riku." Riku greeted and Ventus took the handshake.
"I'm Ventus, but call me Ven. Where even is here?" Ventus asked and Riku shrugged.
"It's called Castle Oblivion, but I don't know where it is. All I know, is it was my escape from the Realm of Darkness." Riku explained and Ventus raised an eyebrow.
"This kid's been to the Realm of Darkness?! No one comes out of that alive." Vanitas exclaimed to Ventus as Riku continued.
"My friend, King Mickey, also escaped with me." Riku finished and Ventus's eyes widened.
"You know King Mickey!? He's my friend. Where is he?" Ventus asked excitedly and Riku blinked a couple times before shrugging.
"I haven't seen him yet, but he's been talking to me through illusions." Riku explained and Ventus's shoulders sagged, but shot back up.
"Okay, then let's go find him." Ventus exclaimed before running ahead of Riku up ahead to the next floor, with Vanitas rolling his eyes in Ventus's heart.
Meanwhile, on the 13th floor of Castle Oblivion
Ephemer and Strelitzia panted as they made it to the top of a staircase and helped each other keep walking.
"Why's this castle so big?!" Ephemer yelled out in annoyance as they opened the door to the next room and found themselves interrupting a confrontation between Axel and a pink haired man holding a blonde haired girl in front of him in defense.
"Let her go!" Ephemer shouted and the pink haired man looked at them and then silently backed away, hand off of the blonde girl.
"It can't be." The man muttered to himself as Axel tried to throw a chakram at him, but the pink haired man summoned his scythe to deflect it.
"Are you okay?" Strelitzia asked the girl, who silently nodded as Ephemer summoned his keyblade to fight both Axel and the pink haired man.
"Well, I do urge the both of you to follow me. Assuming Sora there doesn't kill you for trying to harm Namine." The pink haired man grinned slightly, addressing Ephemer and Strelitzia instead of Axel, as a brown, spiky haired boy walked through the door with a bipedal dog and a humanoid duck.
Sora summoned his keyblade and Strelitzia rolled her eyes as she noticed Marluxia leave the room and quickly ran after him, with Namine by her side to keep her out of the way of the fight.
"What the?" Ephemer raised his keyblade in defense as Sora rushed at him, having his friends transform into cards as he did so, and deflected Sora's attack and glared at Axel.
"You have fun with this. I'm going after my friend." Ephemer scowled at Axel, who shrugged but turned to Sora.
"I don't really want to fight, but my pride's on the line here. Can't let you really interfere with our business any longer." Axel's words were heard by Ephemer just as he slammed the door behind himself, proceeding to run down the hallway after Strelitzia and Namine.
As Strelitzia and Namine made their way through the halls, suddenly Namine was forced to stop walking when her arm was grabbed and picked up. Strelitzia looked behind her and saw a blonde man with short hair and a goatee with Namine in his grasp.
"Really, I hate to do this, but I got to keep myself seen as at least some use around here. After all, I am just the bottom of the deck." The man summoned at least ten cards into his hands and scattered them around the hall, but they all homed in towards Strelitzia, who summoned her keyblade and sliced through each card.
"Bottom of the deck? Should be easy then." Strelitzia taunted as she stabbed her keyblade into the ground, causing vines to erupt and lash towards the man, who jumped backwards, dropping his grip on Namine.
"I'm surprised, Strelitzia. You didn't even recognize your brother when he ran off." The man taunted and Strelitzia took a step back in recoil.
"No. Lauriam would never use a human shield or be that cruel." Strelitzia gasped in shock as suddenly Ephemer let out a shout and a twisting spiral of light shot from his keyblade at the cloaked blonde, who just sidestepped out of the way.
"Ephemer as well? Kingdom Hearts really does love to taunt me. Never read about this though." Luxord mumbled under his breath and looked at the two keyblade wielders.
"Can't really let you escape, but also I want to take a gamble in letting you escape. Who knows, maybe we'll meet each other again soon, Eph and Lia." The man smirked as he let a dark portal take him away from the castle. Ephemer tried to recall anyone who once called them those names, but couldn't place it. Strelitzia however could.
"Hey there." A boy with black hair with a fedora with a red feather greeted Strelitzia as she lay down on top of a hill at Daybreak Town to relax. Strelitzia looked over and saw the boy was lounging atop a tree.
"In a tree again Brain?" Strelitzia asked, recalling when she and him first met, he was just lounging in a tree in Wonderland.
"It's good for peace and people watching. You wouldn't imagine how many people come up this hill to confess their love for each other. Bleh." Brain fake gagged and Strelitzia giggled.
"Hey, I think it's nice that people love to go here for that." Strelitzia pouted slightly and Brain laughed as he twirled with a feather in his hand.
"Here Lia." Brain let the feather float into her hands and Strelitzia tilted her head.
"A feather? Wait, why'd you call me Lia?" Strelitzia asked as Brain got down from the tree.
"It's easier than saying your name and I know your friend Ephemer already calls you Litz, so I decide on Lia." Brain explained and Strelitzia tilted her head.
"Wait, I never told you about Ephemer." Strelitzia stated and Brain's eyes widened at his slip up and ran off.
"Stop spying on people!" Strelitzia ran off after him, laughing happily with the feather in hand.
"Was that Brain? But Brain has black hair and wouldn't be caught dead without his hat." Strelitzia wondered to herself as she shook her head and looked at Namine.
"We should keep going after that man." Ephemer stated and Strelitzia looked at Namine.
"No. I'll go after him. You keep an eye on this girl. We don't want her back in danger." Strelitzia didn't give Ephemer the chance to respond before running off, causing Ephemer's shoulders to sag.
"Be safe Litz." Ephemer silently said as he looked at Namine.
"Hey there. Why was that man using you as a human shield?" Ephemer asked and Namine shuddered.
"He… Marluxia saw me as a tool. When he thought I didn't have a use, he just decided that I would just be a pawn to dispose of." Namine teared up but Ephemer wiped them away with his scarf.
"Get away from Namine!" Sora yelled at Ephemer as he ran at him, keyblade in hand. Ephemer went to summon his, but Namine stood in Sora's way, forcing Sora to stop.
"Sora! He's not an enemy." Namine defended the white haired boy and Sora gulped.
"Sorry about that. I've been a bit… out of it in this castle." Sora rubbed the back of his neck and Ephemer tilted his head as he looked at him.
"Your voice… why do you sound familiar when I've never met you?" Ephemer asked and Sora tilted his head.
"I dunno. Nice to meet ya. Name's Sora." Sora offered his hand and Ephemer shook it.
"Ephemer. Sora, will you be fine keeping an eye on Namine? My friend went after that Marluxia guy so I need to go help her." Ephemer asked and Sora looked at Namine.
"Sure thing. I've been climbing this castle to get back to her, so I'll keep her safe. That's a promise." Sora smiled and Ephemer nodded before running off.
Meanwhile, Strelitzia burst into a room and saw Marluxia standing there, scythe in one hand, flower in the other.
"Why must this castle mock me so?! To send an illusion of my sister after me!" Marluxia yelled in rage, letting rose petals erupt from around him. Succumbing to his own rage, Marluxia threw his scythe at Strelitzia, who barely ducked under it, just for Marluxia to get right up to her and throw her at the spinning scythe. Strelitzia quickly raised her keyblade to cast Aeroga as a shield, causing her to bounce off the scythe harmlessly.
"Millenia I've been taunted over how I couldn't save her. Of course the final taunt is her trying to kill me." Marluxia cackled crazily as he disappeared into the air, allowing dark pillars of roses and darkness to shoot out of the ground. Strelitzia ran away from the pillars until they trapped her into a corner, then the attack ended and Marluxia stormed up to her and grabbed her by the neck.
"Die fake!" Marluxia went to bring down his scythe when suddenly he was hit in the back by an attack, being forced to drop Strelitzia.
"Lauriam stop! If she was an illusion, then how could you have just held her?" Ephemer yelled and Marluxia's eyes widened as he looked at his sister, backed into a corner, afraid of him.
"You… this is some sort of twisted joke right? Right?!" Marluxia yelled out, dropping to his knees, clutching his chest in pain.
"Lauriam." Ephemer whispered, sad to see what Lauriam had become.
"Lauriam, I'm here. We're still together, like we promised." Strelitzia walked up to Marluxia and pulled him into a hug, shocking him as he remembered back to Daybreak Town. How the two of them only joined a union that would take them both. Always stick together. That's what Lauriam promised his sister.
"Sis…" Marluxia sighed out, letting tears freely fall from his eyes.
"Wow. Bravo on the reunion. I'm so happy for you. Tch, as if." Xigbar walked through a dark portal and aimed his two guns at Marluxia and shot, only to be deflected by Marluxia holding up his scythe to hit the bullets away.
"Xigbar… so Xemnas sent you to kill me when Axel couldn't. You three have already arranged the deaths of Vexen, Larxene, Lexaeus, and probably soon to be Zexion. Hard to be Organization XIII when you keep killing us off." Marluxia taunted as he threw the scythe at Xigbar with one hand as with the other he summoned his old keyblade, a Starlight keyblade that had never evolved and stayed the same.
"So your heart has returned. Makes this a bit more interesting." Xigbar smirked as he teleported above the three and started shooting wildly at them with white colored bullets as power emanated from Xigbar. Marluxia held his hand out for his scythe, but a barrage of five bullets pierced through his hand, cutting his hand off.
"Ouch. Sucks having a heart back. Means you actually get injured by my attacks. Welp, time to die traitor." Xigbar laughed as he kept shooting at Marluxia, but this time, Ephemer summoned his keyblade and spun it in front of him to deflect to bullets.
"Tch." Xigbar grit his teeth and put his two guns together and made a bow with a large bullet acting as the arrow.
"Let it rain!" Xigbar jumped in the air shooting the bow up, causing a barrage of bullets to surround Xigbar before going outwards. Strelitzia stabbed her keyblade into the ground and two vines shot up over Marluxia, Ephemer and Strelitzia to block the bullets.
"Reload." Xigbar told himself, but Ephemer realized what he was doing and jumped up at Xigbar, slashing in front of him, hitting Xigbar before using the keyblade like a bat, sending Xigbar into the wall.
"Tch. One shot." Xigbar muttered as a striking red and black bullet glowed on the end of Xigbar's gun. Xigbar aimed it at Marluxia, who looked ready to dodge, but then Xigbar smirked and aimed it at Strelitzia and shot, forcing Marluxia to jump in front of his sister to block the attack. The bullet pierced right through Marluxia's scythe and through his right shoulder.
"As if that would finish him off. Too bad he's still needed." Xigbar told himself before disappearing into a dark portal, right as Ephemer tried to throw his keyblade at him in a Strike Raid attack, but the attack missed, causing his keyblade to clash against the wall.
"Lauriam! Are you okay?" Strelitzia asked as Marluxia held his shoulder with uninjured arm tightly.
"Just… dandy." Marluxia answered sarcastically as Strelitzia tapped her keyblade on his shoulder.
"Heal." Strelitzia said plainly and the hole in Marluxia's shoulder slightly patched up, but it still look like… well a hole through a shoulder.
"I…" Marluxia looked like he wanted to speak, but instead grabbed Strelitzia into a tight hug,
"I'm sorry. I failed you." Marluxia apologized with tears streaming from his eyes and Strelitzia shook her head.
"No you didn't, moron." Strelitzia started crying as well as Ephemer watched the tearful reunion with a nagging thought at the back of his mind.
"Where are Brain and Ventus?" Ephemer wondered to himself, unable to figure out where their other friends were, unknowing Ventus was in the castle as well on a different floor and unknowing Brain's whereabouts entirely.
AN: Marluxia, Strelitzia and Ephemer reunite as Ventus gets annoyed by the darkness in his heart and meets Riku. I hope you enjoyed. Anyways, I just want to bring up KHUX. Right now, I'm very antsy for a story update as we almost are at Re:Mind. It's coming soon as story updates have been once a month the last couple of months. All I know is I just want more of the story to find out who the traitor is (My bet is on Skuld, her name is one of the fates who is in charge of the future, as well as I just feel Ventus is a false flag at this point) and what is in the box. But whatever. We'll find out soon enough. Have a good day.