WAH! Gomen Nasai, Gomen Nasai! I'm so sorry it took me forever to update, it's just that I started to work on other fanfics...my first mpreg for that. So it took me forever to start balancing a quota for that and at least write five paragraphs for this. Well, anyway. this chapter is probably mostly called a filler chapter with a little side-action from Fletcher and Russel...But that's about it, but I'll enjoy typing up Mustang. Oh yeah, Mustang refers to Edward as "Hagane no" because in Japanese that is basically means FullMetal, so there you go. I believe that's about all that I need to say. Also Roy Mustang's Japanese voice, is the sex. Yes, yes it is.
I do not own Kingdom Hearts and FullMetal Alchemist.
The warnings that were in the first chapter are also in this chapter, whoo! Also I guess I should also put in if you haven't played KH2, then you're screwed for spoilers.
Also uhh...unproven theories?
Treaded Steps
III.
Riku had taken his time in adjusting to the bed on the ground that the doctor had so kindly supplied him. Right now, his mind was racked in thought, trying to perfectly understand the whole situation...but failing completely. It was in the middle of the night, and Riku knew that he should be tired, but he really was nowhere near the point of exhaustion he was just a few hours ago. Riku grunted as he lifted himself up and moved his gaze over towards Sora. The boy was facing a wall, his spiky brown hair limping slightly as the boy was holding himself tightly and just facing the wall. Riku sighed and got up, trailing to sit himself next to Sora.
"Hey, what's up?" Riku questioned, a slight smile on his face as Sora faced him in surprise. Sora stared at him blankly then held up both of his hands, one of pure steel and the other of a living flesh.
"Riku...H...How?" Sora tried to continue with his sentence but he really struggled with it, but from what Riku could tell, it wasn't because he didn't know how to say the sentence...but because he was afraid of asking the question. Riku sighed, he knew Sora well enough though, the boy wanted to know how he was able to even summon the keyblade...and how he was able to perform alchemy with a simple clap of the hands and even summon more keyblades. Riku didn't think it should be possible, there is only one keyblade...right?
"I don't know Sora." Riku replied back softly and Sora gave him a very sad look. Riku looked over at Sora and gave a small smile, "Hey, don't worry, we'll get answers." Sora nodded slowly then moved so he was holding his hands, flinching slightly. It must be very strange, Riku thought, the boy could hardly remember sensations through all the parts of his body, and now he was getting new experiences with metal limbs. Riku sighed and patted Sora's head, finding it a comfortable motion for the both of them, "Don't worry about it, okay?" Sora nodded again at these words, just appearing a little more forlorn. Riku sighed again, "Hey, shouldn't you be sleeping?" Sora twitched slightly and looked at Riku with a semi-innocent look. Riku gave him a glare in reply, "Alright, in to bed with you." Riku commented, though the realization of sounding very much like a mother appeared within his mind, he ignored the voice and pushed Sora down onto the blanket on the ground. Sora struggled, just like he would back when the two were five-years-old, but Riku easily bypassed Sora's moving arms and wrapping the boy forcibly in the blanket. Sora pouted up at him,
"No fair!" He claimed and Riku just gave Sora a smirk, getting up and walking outside the door, closing said door very softly, all to get some fresh air. Sora looked at the door with intent eyes then got up and started to search his body.
"Ooh...thank you Sora." A small voice said softly, especially as Sora put his finger over his lips, telling the small thing in his hands to be quiet. An insect that was similar to a man with its strange figure stood from Sora's coupled hands, the insect had a black over-coat with dark red pants and a dark hat on top of his head. The insect stared at Sora with what looked like a look of awe. "So much really has happened, I can hardly believe it." Sora nodded slightly, then frowned at Jiminy, looking as though he was expecting an answer. "Sora, I can only tell you what's in the book." Sora frowned again, he still couldn't read any words but Jiminy was trying to teach him.
"Book?" The cricket nodded and jumped from Sora's hands and started to shuffle his glove hands around in his pockets, looking for the book that he had been talking about earlier.
"It's just so unbelievable, I can hardly believe that I survived with you, and then a big chunk of my memory is gone too!" The insect looked around his coat some more, frowning as he had yet to manage to find the object. "Ah-ha!" The cricket cried out successfully and Sora looked over his shoulder to keep look out as Jiminy made the book bigger in size with a small blinding light. Sora then frowned as he actually thought of something he hadn't before,
"Why..." Sora tried to think up a word to use, but he couldn't so he conveyed the rest of his sentence with a clapping of his hands, the symbol for the use of alchemy (or so he believed). Jiminy frowned, thinking then nodded slightly,
"Perhaps it's because it's the King's magic, Mickey was usually always impervious to the effects of another world, even the world's choice of magic." Sora stared blankly at the cricket and Jiminy just shook his head. Sora then shrugged carelessly and opened the book, skimming through the pictures but then stopped as he reached a picture of Riku. Jiminy saw him stay on that page and coughed, "It's probably best not to be on this page, keep turning the pages Sora." Sora looked at him in a confused motion but then turned more pages, and once again stopped at another page, this time with Kairi upon the frames of the pages. Sora took a glance over to the sleeping girl, who was on a bed unlike the rest of the boys, she looked so...Sora didn't know what, but he didn't like it.
"Kairi..." Sora breathed slightly and the corpse took a short breath, before falling back down. Jiminy jumped,
"You remembered her name!" Sora turned and nodded, a genuine smile on his face as he turned the page. This book was pretty cool, it had pictures. Sora stopped again at a page of someone he recognized,
"...Aerith?" Sora asked, his eyes squinting slightly as he felt a major pain in his head starting to build up. Jiminy blinked and looked up at Sora, and after a few moments of thinking he nodded,
"That's enough for tonight Sora." The boy blinked at the cricket as said insect gathered the book back into a small carrible substance and jumped back into Sora's rough brown hair, "Good night." Sora frowned, though the idea of going to sleep was very appealing, especially with this racking pain in his head and down below, just near his left...Sora rested down and closed his eyes gently.
Riku stood outside, unaware of Sora's experience with the book and he looked up to the moon and the many other worlds that hung in the skies. A loud sigh overcame him as he looked around once again to survey the area, no...no heartless. It was so strange, ever since Sora had performed his new trick in alchemy, the heartless just stopped...showing up. Even the heartless that stirred very slowly in his own heart was gone from his mind, but he still had control over the dark powers that was given to him not just a week ago. Riku frowned again, clenching his feet and focused his hands around the darkness surrounding him and tried to force little shadows to appear from the darkness. Riku saw himself glowing, green light surrounding him as he grunted in effort but there was no reward as Riku collapsed to the ground, breathing deeply from exhaustion. How...how as this possible? It shouldn't be! Why was this so hard? Riku growled then clapped his hands together and placed them within the shadows, and nothing happened. Why...Why was it that SORA had another power that he didn't have? How was this possible?
Riku stood back up, glaring at the shadows slightly, then looked back to the little house that held all of them. Riku breathed in and out, wondering slightly what had come over him then went back in the little hovel, seeing everyone was perfectly safe. This didn't make sense though, how was he able to make a weapon from the ground, yet not produce more shadows? This was just so...Riku shook his head and went back to his little corner, falling asleep to a position where he could watch over Sora, as the boy breathed in and out uneasily.
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Mere shadows of cloaks, for the very first time in a very long time, actually since they came to each other, stepped into a light. A light where they could sit, discuss the issues that waged behind the scenes. All of them had their head cloaked, except one who had his head visibly showing as he was broadcasted as the leader of the entire group. Unknown to the group though, another was watching through technology he was surprised was working. This man, the only thing you could see from that man, asides from his attire, was a piercing golden eye. Overall there were thirteen members, including this man from a far away spectacle as to not get involved and betray his presence. DiZ peered around the 'meeting' room and stared rather blankly at the beings called Nobodies. The leader then gave a heavy sigh, drawing all of their attention and a heavy voice erupted from his mouth,
"There is trouble upon the surface."
"Yes...and it is...rather troubling." DiZ looked over to the one who had said that, and just stared blankly as he placed his helm away from his head. Of course, Axel. Redheaded, crazy spiky hair, and well, a bit of a pyromaniac. He was just one of those smooth talkers that had to always have the last word.
"Hm? What could ever be the trouble?" Vexan, a pale looking member with dirty blonde hair that split from his head in two forms. DiZ gave a frown from beneath his bandages and looked over back to Axel to see him chatting to the member who he sat by. Ah, Roxas...Normally they were all supposed to sit in order, but DiZ felt he didn't mind the little chaos between the seating arrangement, and the leader didn't seem to mind as well as he made no comment about the one-sided conversation between the two.
"Even if there is trouble, there's not much we can do against it." This time it was a silver-haired young looking adult, his hair cascading in front of his face and his tone was a not so amused one. This one was Zexion.
"Not necessarily." The only female in the entire group spoke up, her hair was a bright blonde that spiked up slightly like antennae. Her name was Larxene.
"Oh, what do you propose?" Saix, more of a blue-haired being with an obsession with the moon spoke, looking over at the female.
"Why not have some of us go down and check things out?"
"W-Wait!" Demyx, a spiky-haired dirty blonde spoke, "What would the problem be for us to have to go down there?"
"Maybe we should send you down, just to irritate you." Larxene gave an evil grin and punched the sitar player on the shoulder. Demyx visibly cringed, but made no comment or movement otherwise as Xemnas, a silver haired being that looked similar to Saix, but was darker in skin tone, the leader, spoke,
"The problem is that Sora has not been purging the heartless as he usually does. At that, every time a heartless goes, it seems that a different method takes them back down, preventing them to build up to Kingdom Hearts." Oh? So that's the reason for this meeting, DiZ mused to himself, and slightly inwardly glad that something was wrong with that, but extremely became curious because of the fact that there were minimal forces that could stop a heart from going where it belongs after it's been purged.
"Oh...that is a problem." Demyx admitted and even the silent members 'hmmmed'.
"Well with that said, I wager we should have the minimum of four of us going down there." Luxord, a bright haired man who loved to gamble spoke, a grin upon his non-clean face.
"I volunteer!" Axel commented, "But of course, Roxas will come with me!" Roxas was the only member who had yet to uncloak part of his helm.
"If Axel's going, I'm going too!" Larxene forcefully said, and nobody found the guts to actually remark back to her. "And just to help him build up some guts, Demyx shall be coming with us!" The other seemed to want to protest but with a haughty glare over to him, he quickly shut his mouth and looked rather downcast.
"Great, it's all settled. Get going...ah yes...we don't want to rise who we are just yet, so as soon as possible, get some different clothes." Xenmas spoke and was silenced as he saw a bright hopeful look on Larxene's eyes.
"Yes sir! Let's get going boys!" Larxene yelled, said two boys yelped as she kicked their caboose and ran as she chased after them with a maleficent glee. Roxas however was not kicked and he just followed after the cackling blonde, with a dull look through the stance of his outfit.
"...Is that called 'unleashing the hurricane'?" Lexaeus, a bright brown-haired big man commented and Zexion chuckled lightly,
"Indeed, I believe that is what it is called." Now where were they going? DiZ asked himself, not completely sure of a world out there that had the power to stop traveling hearts.
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"So what are we going to do about the imposters?" Riku asked from over a few pieces of toast, chewing lightly at the edges. Edward shrugged, biting also into a few pieces of toast as it seemed to be the only thing edible in front of him...well accept for a basket of lemons, but even Edward wasn't THAT desperate. Edward shrugged, not knowing the answer to that question. The doctor soon came in with his niece tagging along with a bright smile. Edward grinned back at her,
"You know, if you'd stop being phonies, the town would welcome you." Edward twitched and strained to keep his grin on his face and Riku couldn't help but smirk. Alphonse came into the room with Sora on top of his battle plate yelling cheerfully about a ride and Alphonse just sighed over it.
"Yeah, yeah, anyway, I'm going to go investigate something, because something smells cheesy in this whole place."
"Going to try and go to the library Ed?" Riku asked then the little girl who was at the edge of the table blinked at that idea.
"Yeah."
"All the books are in Mr. Magwar's office," she then pouted slightly, "hey, hey, were you the four who went sneaking into his place? The town's angry about that..." it was then when she set off on a viscous cycle of coughs.
"Elisa!"
"I-" coughcouchHACKcough, "I'm fine uncle..." Vercio frowned and dragged the girl to his bed (though the man was surprised to see that the girl who had been laying there before was gone) and gently forced her to rest in the bed. When the adult came back out, he saw himself under the speculative gaze of Edward Elric.
"That kind of sounds bad for a regular cold," Alphonse started, staring over at the entrance to the bedroom with a tone that told the group that he may as well been frowning. Vercio frowned and looked over at the entrance as well,
"Yeah, she's had it for awhile, and it isn't just Elisa, there are many more young and old ones that have been having it and it's been wiping them out...our medicine can't do anything to stop it." Vercio frowned in a bit of a distressed way and Riku found himself silent. That was a shame, and seemed extremely sad but there wasn't anything that they could do about it, it was all about the human's natural body system.
"...Why does the town want the Philosopher's Stone so badly?" Alphonse asked, "I mean, you could be concentrating on getting everyone healed financially, couldn't you?" Vercio slightly shook his head and then stared out of a window that blazed a beautiful light.
"This town used to be a miner's town, as you could probably tell from all the old equipment out near the edges of the town," The group nodded except Sora who seemed to have a little difficulty understanding but seemed to be tagging along to the story, "the town grew up on the beauty of gold and thrived on the people who would come to visit to look and buy all of this gold. However, it was soon that the town's mines died because there was no more gold."
"When did the colds start?" Edward abruptly interrupted and the man seemed confused about the question. So did Alphonse and Riku, what could Edward get from possibly knowing that knowledge?
"Right then Magwar came into the town, started researching the Philosopher's Stone. The weird thing is though, after he managed to make gold start producing in the mine's again, it got worse. The only thing that saved the babies born at that time was a kind man who manage to heal them." Edward seemed to jump at this a little, somewhat eager to know more,
"Really? What did this man do?" Vercio blinked then shrugged,
"I'm not quite sure. All he did was bring out something and a light shined...but it cured whatever was wrong with the children at the time." Edward looked over at Alphonse, an eager light shining in his eyes.
"What was this man's name?"
"Dr. Marcoh, I think. I can't remember clearly, it's been a long time."
"You said that the mine's gold was restored, what happened to that?" Riku asked, hearing part of the story not come together completely and disliked it that it was lost on him on what could have happened.
"It quickly disappeared as there was only a few more materials for the town's purposes." The older man sighed darkly, "I keep saying that we should just start over as a farming land, but the thought of disappearing from their leisureable lives frighten them far too much."
"You also said that this Marcoh cured the one's who were sick, why are they still sick?" Vercio just shook his head,
"It's only been recent that they've been getting worse. I have no idea why though." Edward 'hmmmed', his mind going over the grueling information while Riku also tried to think about it. Was there something in alchemy that could cause many people to grow sick? Riku wasn't sure and he wasn't reassured by the idea and looked over at Sora who still seemed to be as healthy as ever. It was then Elisa's coughing was heard from the doorway and Vercio sighed heavily.
"I'll go get medicine for her." Alphonse volunteered, not liking to hear the poor little girl sick in that room. Vercio looked up at the full plate that Sora had finally climbed down from,
"That's very kind of you, if you could, that would be good." Alphonse nodded his helmet and walked outside the quaint little home with Sora following him with a puppy-eyed look of finally understanding the tragedy that was going through the town. So it was only the three of them left and Edward stared down the dark-haired man.
"So it all started when Magwar came to town?" The man nodded and Edward narrowed his eyes. "One more question," Edward started, "who was helping Magwar before the fake Elrics?" The older man seemed to pause at this, becoming a little hesitant to part with that information but gave in as Edward's eyes demanded the truth.
"Nash Tringham, but it was weird back then, because I knew Nash, and he studied mostly something he called red water." Vercio then looked down, "as soon as the mine's were full again though, he disappeared." Edward's eyes narrowed as well as Riku's, both knowing what that somewhat implied.
"Red water, huh?" Edward then stood up and left the little house and Riku followed, being curious on if Edward knew what this whole situation was about. Riku could piece in little bits of information, but not everything as he did not know everything about the world.
"What's red water, Ed?" Edward shook his head and frowned,
"It's a substance that is usually a catalyst for alchemy. There isn't much else to know about it, so I find it kind of fishy to hear that someone had been researching it just disappeared as soon as the mine's came back in order." Riku agreed inwardly, narrowing his eyes in suspicion. This town had a lot more to it then what was broadcasted.
"So what are we going to do?" Edward looked over to Riku and nodded for him to follow and simply spoke,
"Reserch."
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Alphonse was a little surprised when Sora kept silent most of the time on their way to the grocer who sold medicine for colds. Alphonse had to peer back every once in awhile to make sure that Sora was still following after him and Alphonse felt his heart tug every time he looked at Sora because the boy would have a sad look upon his face.
"Al...cold?" Sora finally spoke as they had made it closer to a bunched up buildings that would be called a market in the usual modern day world. Alphonse tried to connect what Sora meant and hoped he assumed correct,
"Remember when we were Aquaroya? You had a cold then." Sora seemed to understand that and his forehead bunched together.
"Why Elisa cold?" Sora asked, confused on the effects of the cold. He sneezed and felt terrible, but Elisa looked worse then he did when he had his cold. Sora wanted to know why she looked worse and why she had a cold in the first place. Sora remembered Riku telling him that Sora had a cold because he had been in that water far too long and it was also cold out.
"I don't know Sora." Alphonse answered honestly and was slightly saddened that he didn't know. "But it'll be okay Sora, I'm sure Elisa will get better like you did." Sora seemed to cheer up from this and grinned brightly. So it wasn't long before they manage to come across a place that directly had a board that said PHARMACY on it and Alphonse and Sora entered in slowly. Alphonse felt himself twitching slightly as he saw people glaring at him and Sora because of the (true) rumors of the group sneaking into their 'saviors' home and causing a mess up there. Alphonse went up to the counter and breathed somewhat heavily as he started to speak, "I'm here to get some cold medicine."
"We don't have any stock." The woman at the counter coldly replied, a glare read all over her face and alarms went blazing in the back of Alphonse's head. Alphonse then heaved another sigh from his armor and replied,
"Are you sure?"
"Positive." The woman grunted and Sora could sense something was wrong. He looked around to look at everyone else and found that they were all staring at him with a look of hatred, Sora found that he really didn't like that. Sora then looked over at the woman and peered inward to beyond the woman's stature and frowned as he saw many foreign words but he could make out the gist of one section that was specifically labeled cold.
"For Elisa!" Sora yelled, jumping on the counter and everyone jumped as Sora tried to make it further in to get the medicine and saw that these people did not want him to get it. Sora wondered why in the back of his mind, but would not let that question impugn on his quest. However he was quickly pulled back by Alphonse's strength and the lady behind the big counter pushing him and he fell to the ground.
"Humph, as if any of you would go on a quest to saving people," Alphonse found himself growing slightly sad, "now get out of here! Your kind of lies won't work here!" Sora struggled from Alphonse's arms, pouting extremely.
"No lie! Elisa cold!" Sora found himself straining to actually wanting a better vocabulary, one like Riku, just so he could use his charisma to persuade the evil old lady to give him the medicine they needed for that poor little girl lying in the bed. Alphonse's armor creaked in a tired way and bowed his helmet once before taking out a yelling and screaming tantrum Sora who was yelling the curses he had learned from Edward at the town's people. Oh yeah, that was going to get them on their good side, then again, Alphonse timidly wanted to do the same. So the two wandered and found themselves sitting on a brick wall, not knowing what else to do and both did not want to go back empty handed.
"H-Here." They both looked up and blinked as they saw the young boy from last night, the younger brother that had taken the name of Alphonse. Alphonse felt no malice as he saw a brown bag in the young boy's hands. Alphonse gracefully took the brown back and peered in to see cold medicine that the two had been trying to get.
"Thank you." Alphonse said, the whole issue of this boy having stolen his name escaping his mind. The boy nodded and Sora also said thank you and he sat by the huge armor piece.
"So...you're the real Alphonse Elric." The boy noted, looking over the huge piece and wondered inwardly how big the boy was on the inside, not knowing there was a lack of a body in there. Alphonse nodded and they sat there in silence for a bit. "I...I'm sorry." The boy said, hoping that it would help make up for the fact that they had started this whole mischief.
"I'm sure you had a good reason. I'm not like Ed, I don't really care about the whole thing." Alphonse answered truthfully but then looked over to give the boy the piercing stare that only the battle armor could give, "I have a question though. What's your real name?"
"Fletcher." The boy obliged kindly and Sora found himself smiling. It sounded like a nice name, and this Fletcher was actually a nice boy. Sora was glad that he was around to buy the medicine, it made Sora feel better. There were a few more moments of silence as Sora swung his legs not knowing what else they were still around each other though. "...You're not going to ask why?"
"Like I said, I'm sure you had a good reason...though now that you bring it up." Sora blinked as he heard Alphonse's curiosity seeping through his tone and Sora heard himself say that Riku would call this diplomacy in the back of his eager mind. Fletcher seemed a little stunned for a moment then started to look at the ground with a somewhat miserable face.
"We came here looking for our dad, because we had heard that he had been researching something over here. But we found out that he moved on..." Fletcher paused at that sentence, not knowing what else to say to it because even Fletcher knew that something was wrong with that, "and instead of moving on, my brother saw that Mr. Magwar was researching the same thing that our father was researching."
"The Philosopher's Stone?" Fletcher looked over at Alphonse, wondering if he should say anything more then what could be speculated but decided not to as it seemed that he was already telling more then he should. Fletcher shook his head though, leaving Alphonse confused on the subject but he made no comment as he knew from his many years of having to listen to his older brother, he knew was the time to keep quiet. Sora blinked though, not quite getting it. Researching something that wasn't the Philosopher's Stone? But weren't the townspeople saying that they were trying to produce one? Sora knew very little details about the Philosopher's Stone because Riku read it to him in one of the books and it was discarded as myth in the book but Sora knew that it couldn't be one simply for the fact that Edward was looking so fevertly for it. However Sora let the information lay as Fletcher continued, it was making Sora confused anyway.
"I think my brother was thinking that if we could research what our father was, we'd get closer to him." Fletcher seemed to become a little sadder and Sora stood up, patting the boy on the back, which Fletcher seemed to appreciate but made no movement, otherwise. Alphonse couldn't quite figure it out but he made the comment,
"And that's why you needed our names."
"Mr. Magwar wouldn't even bother with us if he knew who we were. So we needed someone famous, and there was only you two that fit the description of us." Alphonse nodded at that, because it made sense. Fletcher heaved a sigh when there was a figure running down from the brick wall.
"What are you doing?" The fake Edward yelled then looked off into the path he had just ran down from and shook his head quickly. "Come on!" The fake Ed ran towards the three, yanked his brother, and started hauling ass in the opposite direction as Fletcher waved his hand a little in a comical way. Alphonse and Sora stared after, both very confused on what had just happened, then very slowly, Alphonse moved his head towards the way the older brother of Fletcher had came from and tilted Sora's head the same way he was looking because Sora was still staring after the fleeing brothers. Alphonse felt himself groan as his older brother came from the path and continued running and Riku was with him. Edward was cursing a beautiful profanity of curses, so beautiful that Alphonse had to cover Sora's ears just so they wouldn't have to be heard and stained later. Riku stopped when he saw Sora and Alphonse but Edward continued to chase after his imposter, continuing to scream the curses, hoping it would hinder the other in some way.
"So this is where you two were." Riku commented and saw the brown bag in Alphonse's hand, "You managed to get the medicine?" Riku asked, a slight smile on his face and Sora couldn't help but think that Riku was smiling because Edward was making a fool of himself. Riku was still...still what? Sora felt himself frowning as his mind stopped supplying him with the information needed to complete that sentence, but whatever it was, Sora thought, Riku was still it.
"Yeah, we were about to start heading back." Alphonse replied, standing up from the brick wall and Riku just shook his head. All three of them gazed off into the distance as they saw claps of alchemy fling into the air and Riku felt a great mood of exasperation from the younger Elric. "Niisan, why do you have to destroy at least one thing every where we go?" Alphonse then chased after the lights of alchemy, giving Riku the brown bag, and off to fix the streets that Edward had likely transmutated. The two stood there for a few moments, silence crafted itself in the wind and Riku just shook his head, almost laughing.
"Riku..." Riku shook his head again, this time letting a little giggle sneak its way out and he patted Sora on the head, noticing that he had been doing that a lot more lately.
"I'm fine, I'm fine." Riku reassured the brunet then grabbed the boy's human hand and started to lead him back to the quaint home that they had taken residence at the moment. Not one thought of malice or getting away from this place seemed to enter in Riku's mind.
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The dark-haired woman blinked at the news that she had received from the pathetic man just a few steps ahead of her. So since she was a little surprised, she asked out loud, "Someone already came and told you that we need the stone?" Her tone as seductive and low as ever but under the waves there was a hint of slight anger if the man decided to lie to her. Magwar flinched, remembering the night before.
"Yes, the one you call Envy, I believe." Lust rose a clear brow and frowned to herself. What was Envy thinking? Oh well, no matter. Lust then folded her arms underneath her cleavage and stared at the man,
"Now you were saying something about strange little black beings?" The doctor nodded, quite eagerly, thinking probably that Lust would provide protection.
"Yes, I thought you would know about them, they're strange little beings that come from the shadows, and if you try to hit them, it won't do anything. They've disappeared and reappeared all over the mansion." Lust furrowed her brows, trying to think of anything that could possibly match that description. The closest thing would have to be golems(1) but she was sure that they had taken care of that little pest.
"Hm, well, we'll make sure to watch out for that." Lust commented, just to reassure the man of his nightmares and to get more of a start on his pathetic version of alchemy to make the Philosopher's Stone. It was then Lust felt a disturbance in the air, a shaky feeling she hadn't ever felt (or remembered feeling). Something was other there, and it was much more powerful then her. Lust however regained her composure and kept silent as the pathetic human being seemed to nod and started listing off the mechanics of the stone and that it would be finished soon. Lust did not frown, but she felt that she should have, because that power was taunting and calling her all at the same time.
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Riku and Sora had made it back to the little house and both were a little confused as the man who owned the house was gone. But not letting that stop them, they entered in the house and woke the young girl up to take her medicine. Elisa stook her tongue out at Riku who glared right back at her and Sora laughed, joining the girl in childish merriment. Riku hit Sora on the head (inwardly hoping he didn't damage any more brain cells as Sora had started with a limited amount) and force-feed the girl her cold medicine. Riku then told the girl to go to sleep or he'd knock her out and Elisa giggled at the rough nature of the silver-haired boy as did Sora. Riku threatened her with a 'I'm serious' and Elisa just tugged the sheets and giggled beneath them, soon falling asleep. Sora grinned brightly and Riku just shook his head. Riku then stood up and Sora followed him cheerfully outside.
"We're going to practice alchemy Sora." Sora blinked at this and Riku frowned slightly. "The only reason we're practicing because it seems we're merging with the world's physics." Which made sense in Riku's mind because of the fact they had been there for awhile, usually Riku never went into a world for more then a day. So Riku supposed it was because of the world's way of magic that he couldn't perform it easily. At least, that's what he thought. Riku did not want to be wrong as it would have irritated him to a very bad point.
"R-Really?" Sora asked, the grin on his face blazing brightly and Riku nodded.
"First, we're going to practice drawing arrays, because we may never know when our powers will stop working." Like last night, Riku growled to himself but kept it to himself as to not alarm the other boy. Sora nodded and grabbed a stick to draw into the ground and Riku muttered to himself that they needed to get something that would write on all surfaces. Riku watched as Sora tried to draw an array and as for a first timer, it didn't look bad, but it definitely wouldn't suffice. Riku went next though, looking a little better then Sora's compound and tried to perform alchemy but the thing that popped out was definitely not magnificent and it was very small. Sora stared at the arrays and frowned deeply, holding up his hands as a desire to just clap everything instead of practice. Riku sighed and hit the boy's shoulder kindly to tell him to keep practicing with him. So the two sat on the dirt and practiced until their fingertips were sore and until the Elric brothers came back.
"Having fun?" Alphonse asked, watching as his older brother closed the door to the house loudly. Riku glared up at the armor, rubbing his coarse fingertips together to prove that he was not in the mood. Alphonse just shook his head and started to comment on how to make easier looking arrays, while having the same effect it should. It was weird, in a very nice way. Riku thought, they were just calmly discussing the physics of this world and it seemed to be a flighty mood, despite the fact that there were things going on that seemed to be beyond their grasp. It was extremely nice, Riku thought again to himself. But he definitely was getting too attached, they would leave soon anyway, as soon as possible...
"Plenty," Riku responded sarcastically, then looked at his new array and smiled slightly, clapping as he formed a new item made from the components in the fertile dirt to make a solid doll. Riku smirked victoriously as Sora did not do as good as a job as Riku did. Riku then narrowed his eyes as he felt something disturbing in the air as he could hear the heartless around his heart starting to come out and respond again. Only this time, in the few weeks that Riku had the heartless powers, the heartless had a feeling that Riku could never thought he would connect them with. Fear. Heartless with the emotion of fear? There was something incredibly disturbing here, but Riku didn't know what to think or do, so he didn't show any physical movement to show any distress but as long as he felt it, Riku knew something was amiss. Whatever it was though, it was a bit away, so there really was nothing to worry about.
"You're pretty good at alchemy Riku," Alphonse commented and looked over at Sora who had pouted quite angrily and Riku just nodded with a confident smirk. "Why are you practicing your arrays, though? I thought you can do transmutations without an array."
"Just in case," Riku replied back honestly, not knowing what else he should say to the other and the three looked up as Edward came back out, only this time he looked quite evil with a confident evil grin.
"…Ni-niisan?" Alphonse asked with a quiet hesitance. Edward looked over to his younger brother with the same confident evil grin,
"I've figured nearly everything out. Now all that needs to be done is easily done in one simple action." Edward continued to grin and the three stared quite blankly as Edward continued, "we sneak into the mansion again, only this time, we sneak in and scope out the mansion instead of charging in to those stupid imposters." Alphonse and Riku had to admit to themselves, they were shocked. Edward had managed to come up with a bonafide plan that did not involve blowing something up or maiming someone. It was very shocking, after knowing Edward for awhile, the kind of guy to rush in and charge in, the kind of guy who'd you expect to be the battle tank, had come up with the plan to sneak into the mansion. Riku then frowned for a moment,
"What do you mean you nearly have everything figured out?"
"Oh you'll see…you'll see." How is it that Edward had such a creepy tone and such a creepy grin? Riku actually found himself having an extreme hesitance toward the other teenager boy, and the heartless gratefully took that feeling over the feeling of fear that they had earlier. So soon night came and Riku blinked more then once as they sneaked into the mansion once again, only this time in a more incognito style and burrowed down into the earth. However before they realized it, all four of them fell further into the ground to reveal an underground hide-out that had red liquid pacing down further into said hide-out.
"What is this place?" Alphonse spoke out first, curious on why there would be an underground facility at all in the first place. Edward looked down at the red liquid and frowned,
"This is what's making everyone sick."
"What it?" Sora asked, blinking and carefully avoided being close to it, after hearing that it was what was making everybody sick up on the surface. Edward looked over at Sora as though expecting the boy to know then shook his head,
"It's red water." Riku's eyes widened and he couldn't help but ask the question,
"How is it making everyone sick?"
"The chemicals in it are potentially dangerous," Edward then covered his mouth with his sleeve a frown appearing upon his hiding face and he looked over to the other two breathing beings, "it'll be dangerous if we stay here too long. We've found what we need to know." Edward commented, as Riku and Alphonse helped Sora understand that the boy needed to cover his mouth.
"You shouldn't be down here." The group turned to face an angry faced blonde imposter, who continued to glare at the group and Edward glared back, showing that he would not back down in the power of ferocity.
"It's about time you give your identity, you bastard! You're one of the sons of Nash Tringham, aren't you? What you're doing here is meaningless and it's just poisoning the town!" Edward yelled at the other and the other seemed only momentarily shocked before running off in his own lecture.
"That's right, I am one of the Tringham's, my name is Russel, and you have no idea what you're talking about!"
"LIKE HELL I DON'T! This damned red water is just killing the village one by one! It's not worth this to make a Philosopher's Stone from the lives of all these people!" Edward yelled back, determined to not be swayed by the other's words. Russel growled and then took out a little stone. Riku and Sora did not recognize the stone but Edward seemed to recognize it for a second and frowned. "A red stone?"
"It's the closest thing to the Philosopher's Stone that we've made so far. We have to continue otherwise we'll never get close." Russel commented and Riku felt his heart quake as the heartless cried out in a passion. There were heartless building around, and they were forming themselves around the blonde boy with brown eyes. Riku found himself frowning and watched Sora grow determined in a way that told Riku that Sora was getting ready to fight. This was bad, if they got into a fight here, it was likely that there would be some explosions and Riku could only imagine what the red water would do if it got explosions with it. Riku frowned though as Edward clapped and formed his automail blade, however instead of charging in as Riku expected him too, Edward turned and ran the other way. It had only taken a few moments before everyone else was following after the bright-haired blonde. Riku thought inwardly that Edward was thinking the same things that Riku had been and was worried about getting anyone directly accidentally involved with the conflict.
Amazingly enough, they had made it back to the surface and they made it into a room full of plants and a wood-board. Edward turned and the boys ran behind him, getting into their own special combat mode. The strange thing was though, the heartless stopped forming from behind the imposter. Riku found himself growing confused but he knew there was no time to be questioning about the heartless when Russel took out his incomplete Philosopher's Stone and started firing off miscellaneous objects that Riku knew for sure that if it hit, it would hurt, it would hurt a lot. The group found themselves ducking and dodging the harder objects but they all paused as Russel clapped unto a pipe that had been connected on the outside of the wooden walls. As the pipe pulled out Russel gave a distinct frown. "Leave this town now."
"Feh, yeah right." Edward grinned but then noticed that the pipe that Russel transmutated had a strange design and had an open and close valve on top of it.
"This is connected to the red water below, if you get soaked in this, there's no doubt you'll die." Riku peered down to see that the pipe was indeed going below the wooden floors and Riku spared a glance over to Sora who seemed ready to jump at any moment. Though, knowing Sora, Riku thought, the boy would take a hit for anyone else before he'd just let them die on his time. Sora, you stupid idiot. There was a standoff and Riku could feel himself breathing uneasily. However he caught Edward's gaze and the two communicated with their eyes and started to formulate a plan, but then they all heard a door opening. Russel turned his head over and Riku took advantage of that, running up to the blonde and kicked the other right in the gut. Russel coughed at the pain as Edward clapped and ran to the wall to create another door for them to escape. So they had and once again found themselves into the little home that Vercio had owned. Riku found himself slightly reeling over the new information and Sora had to lay down to calm himself down as they had finally managed to be in a safe place. Riku wondered how they hadn't been mauled yet just because of this little housing.
"Ed, what are we going to do now?" Alphonse asked, not quite sure of what to do now. After all, they had discovered the basic information that was needed, but what were they all going to do? Was there going to be a point? Alphonse looked at his older brother as the other did not respond. Alphonse just saw his brother staring outside of the window and into the darkness. "Niisan?" Edward furrowed his gaze and looked over at Riku.
"Those things are out there again. They're mostly around the mansion though..." Those things? Those things? OH! Those things, the heartless. Riku peered over to the window and glared to barely see the shadows known as the heartless creeping and crawling around the town. Odd thing was they didn't enter in the havens known as people's homes. Riku found himself frowning, a lot of them were by the mansion indeed...in fact, there were far too much of them.
"Riku..." Sora anxiously seemed to twitch, a frown appearing on the boy's face. Riku sensed that as a way of telling him that there was a bigger heartless out there. A heartless that was controlling all the other small ones and that was because of a selfish greedy human out there somewhere. If Riku had to guess, it would be Magwar. Riku grimaced, there was no way they should go into battle with the hindrance known as Edward and Alphonse. The best Edward could do is get rid of the little heartless and he was lucky in that aspect because of the light that shined from alchemy made them god-fearing, but if there was going to be a large heartless...There was no way this battle could be easily won without any casualties. Riku then groaned and sighed heavily,
"Those things are heartless." Edward seemed to peek up at this, looking over at Riku with a speculative stare. Riku found himself frowning, he was just involving these two. This would be so troublesome, but Riku knew from spending a few weeks with Edward that the boy would charge in, even if he couldn't hit the damn things and truthfully, Riku did not want Edward to get hurt or die. Riku wasn't as worried about Alphonse though because the heart of Alphonse was probably harder to get to then it would be in their flesh beings.
"Go on..." Edward encouraged the silver-haired teenager, seeing that Riku wanted to say more. Riku continued to have a distinct frown and looked around, just to make sure there was no one else listening in.
"The heartless are beings made from people's hearts, most of them were corrupt and violent in their human life-times. However the heartless have only one instinct, and that's prey on other hearts and make more heartless." Riku could tell that Sora seemed to tense up on the subject but Riku knew that he couldn't stop, because Edward was absorbing this information like juice. Even if Edward looked a little skeptical about it. "These beings were created from darkness basically, and because they were made from human hearts, it's impossible to attack them unless you fight back with your own power of your own heart," in Riku's mind that sounded terribly chessily but he really had no other word for it. There was a pause of silence as Edward stared carefully and calculating at the other.
"How do you know this?" Edward asked cautiously, and Riku could feel that Edward didn't completely believe it but there were little things about the story that probably made sense in Edward's clock of a mind. Riku hesitated towards extracting that sort of information. He really did not want to tell someone he did not know extremely well that he was from another world, that and it would probably interfere with the world's order. Though, the fact was that Edward would not believe him, Riku still did not want to tell the truth. Especially since he was now, even if he didn't have complete loyalty to it, was part of the pact of the heartless.
"No offense, but I don't trust you well enough to tell you that information." Riku admitted and Edward seemed to coil a bit at those words, but he said nothing else. Edward then looked over to Sora, who was still extremely uncomfortable with the whole conversation.
"So that keyblade of his...it fights with the power of his heart?" Edward asked, of course raising an eyebrow in disbelief. Edward didn't believe it was 'heart' but simply that it was a different power. Edward didn't know what, but he was sure it was something else, however since he didn't know what it was, the only thing he could do was go with what Riku had said.
"..." Riku looked over at Sora who looked down slightly, as the boy refused to say anything that he didn't understand completely. "Sora's weapon is special." Riku admitted and Edward rose his other eyebrow in curiosity. "Before you ask, I don't truly know the full mechanics of the keyblade." Edward seemed to nod at this then looked back out and frowned. Riku followed his gaze and slightly faltered as he saw a giant heartless from the horizon stretching itself out from the mansion, breaking the roof and declared a red mist flowing above. Riku felt himself growing slightly terrified of the red mist. Somewhat, a knowledge popped in his mind That was why I couldn't perform alchemy last night. Riku growled and formed his blade out of mid-air, knowing that he wasn't going to be able to do much else when they got into battle. Alphonse jumped at that and Riku looked over at Alphonse, "You stay here, take care of Kairi..."
"What are you going to do?" Riku shrugged and saw Sora summon his Three Wishes keyblade out of mid-air, somewhat convincing Edward that the weapons were indeed something special. Something fought with 'heart'.
"What do I have to do to get my own weapon?" Riku looked over then looked over at Sora and blinked as Sora declared and Riku found it even more cheesy,
"Believe." Sora then ran out, slashing through many shadow heartless and jumping around to attack the flying heartless in a beautiful form of grace that should not have belonged to someone who had forgotten his entire life. Riku followed after, also cutting through the air as they all charged to prevent the red mist from spreading further. Edward growled and looked over Alphonse. Alphonse just nodded and Edward clapped his hands and placing them on the ground of the outside, grunting as he brought out his own version of a keyblade, hoping that it would work. Believe? What kind of crap was that? But Edward wasn't going to stand by and let two people he knew fight by themselves. Belief? Yeah, he'd believe, believe he could kick some heartless ass! Edward rushed forward with a keyblade that seemed like a spear edge at the end while it's handle was garnished in symbols that was broadcasted many arrays that represented fire, earth, energy, and wind and hanging from said keyblade was a little keychain that held the symbol that was on Edward's back.
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"Whoo!" Axel called out, staring over as they started to fall into the world. "That's one huge heartless!"
"Where the hell is...Ah! There!" Larxene pointed as they continued to fall in a normal calm pace. Demyx did not share this calmness and sighed anxiously.
"That's Sora?" Roxas asked, quite calmly, his head full of blonde spokes and his eyes a piercing calm blue. Axel looked over to Roxas, a little amused as Roxas seemed to be surveying the brunet boy that was running directly to the huge heartless.
"Why are we just letting ourselves fall? We know where we need to go, let's go!" Demyx whined to the other three and Larxene just scoffed.
"Oh fine, you big baby." She held up her hand and disappeared in a mist of dark colors and the other three males followed after and the group of four blended into the crowd of darkness with their dark cloaks. Larxene peeked around though, coughing slightly as she stared at the red mist. "What the hell is that?" Demyx wondered if she only got a foul mouth because she was away from the piercing stare of their superior (who had very oddly did not like curses).
"No idea, but they're running towards it." Axel clearly pointed and watched as Roxas stared up at the heartless that started to stretch out its odd wings placed on the side of its ears. It did look like a very weird heartless, Axel mused in his mind, not thinking much else.
"When Sora defeats that thing, it'll be a big help, right?" Demyx asked, remembering that little detail about Sora's keyblade.
"Well normally...but remember, Xenmas said that the hearts haven't been traveling to Kingdom Hearts." Larxene commented back, giving a slight stern glare to the not so happy to be here Demyx. "We're here to find out why."
"Thanks for stating the obvious."
"I can't help that some blondes are more stupid then others."
"Are you saying something about Roxas?"
"If I was?"
"Larxene..." Axel warned the blonde who just laughed cheerfully, ignoring the threatening tones of the redhead. It was really hard to be scared by the redhead when he was in this protective mood anyway.
"Quiet." Roxas commented and everyone silenced immediately to listen to the air. Larxene frowned, not hearing anything and so did Axel but he wasn't as mad at Roxas as Larxene was. Demyx on the other hand seemed to hear whatever Roxas heard,
"What is that?" Demyx asked, just in case Roxas knew. Roxas simply shook his head and glared to the beyond surroundings of where Sora had finally managed to get to where he needed to be. Hm, this should probably be interesting.
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They had reached all the way up to the mansion, and now that they were closer, Riku kind of admitted that he regretted getting so close. It was a giant and was a dark red with strange looking wings flying from its ears and it's eyes were that of a normal heartless but he was caked in a red cloak and seemed to be spitting out red rocks.
"Sora! Try and find the weak point, if you find it, holler? Ready?" Riku yelled at the brunet who nodded in slight confusion as he slowly processed what a weak point was. Riku then jumped away as the heartless spotted the two and spat out two huge red rocks that penetrated the ground and started to melt immediately, killing the earth around it. This was bad, Riku admitted to himself, he may had not liked the villagers that much but if they ever hoped to make a living, they would have to have at least some fertile ground. A loud clap of light interrupted his thoughts as he saw Edward making the shadow heartless disappear with the frightening light of alchemy but when Riku saw Edward with a keyblade, Riku grew immediately confused. Edward bypassed Riku of course, dodging any random red stones that started to fall from the spitting heartless boss and started to slash at the bare feet of said heartless. The mansion was gone basically, so it wasn't hard to find cover between the miscellaneous piles that used to be the mansion.
"RIKU!" Sora shouted and Riku peered around to try and find the boy but failed and Riku growled. Sora kept calling out for him, so where was his voice coming from? Riku then looked up and gaped as Sora had managed to make his way up somehow and was slashing at the heartless's winged head. It would flinch and yell and scream more red rocks whenever Sora hit it, so all they had to do is get up like Sora had. Soon the heartless though (who Riku had privately named Crimson Red)(Riku did not realize that his naming sense was lame at the time) whipped out one of his huge hands and grabbed Sora. Riku growled as Sora was captured by said hand and started to get squeezed. Sora squeaked and Edward clapped, making the light of alchemy appear underneath the heartless in a huge array that nearly blinded Riku from looking directly at it. Crimson Red yelled and Riku quickly scanned the boss, seeing that it was still far from being taken down. Riku looked around and tried to think but it was not being pieced together as Sora bit Crimson Red on his thumb.
The heartless apparently did not like this and yowled more catastrophic shaped red stones. Riku frowned and had to jump as one of those stones reached his hiding spot. Edward had said that this was a catalyst, right? Riku made an array in the less then fertile sand and placed one had on the huge catalyst. Riku pointed up at Crimson Red with his blade and forced the array on the ground to activate. The effect was devastating. A fireball the size of a planet fired out from the tip of his sword and flew straight to where Riku had directed his aim, barely missing Sora. Yowls pierced the sky and shook the heavens as the giant threw both his hands to his scarring burning face and Sora dropped from the air at an alarming rate. However before he could completely fall, a hand of a tree caught him and Sora grunted as he softly fell to the ground. Riku allowed himself to gaze who had managed to make that tree extends its limbs to help Sora and saw the youngest of the Tringham brother's. Riku nodded simply and Fletcher helped out Sora by helping the boy up.
Edward continued trying his alchemic light and it did do damage but it wasn't doing all that Riku hoped it would. They needed to find the source, because there was something that was supplying an endless supply of healing towards the heartless. Riku had no idea what to do, he had never fought against a heartless that kept healing. So he did the best thing he could think up, he gathered himself to be with Sora and Fletcher.
"Where did this thing come from?" The boy shook his head anxiously, a deep sad frown forming on his mouth.
"I don't know, brother and I were in a prison cell when it came out." A prison cell? Why would they be? Ah well, it didn't matter right now, Riku had to find a way to get this battle over with. Edward didn't seem to notice that he was gone for the moment and Riku frowned. Could have this heartless came from the oh so infamous Dr. Magwar? Probably, and the thing that was probably supplying Crimson Rose with so much health was probably the red river underneath the ground. Riku then looked beyond the giant and saw a huge hole that he didn't care to notice before.
"Help Ed, I'll go take care of the source." Riku communicated to both of the boys, who both nodded willfully and Fletcher started to draw an array that Riku didn't know on the tree that had caught Sora earlier while Riku charged to jump down the huge hole that would led underground. Riku took a deep breath and took out a piece of chalk that Alphonse had given to him earlier when they had been practicing. Riku then drew an array he hoped was correct and shouted, "AERO!" A force of wind shocked Riku as it flew all around him as he quickly landed into the red water. Knowing that this type of Aero wouldn't work long, Riku took a flip and landed on the solid ground that had rocks trying to stumble his landing. Riku then covered his mouth, going downwards and once again hoping he assumed right. Riku had never placed much faith in hope as he did before, but this was common sense in Riku's mind and the heartless seemed to be cooing in the back of his mind that he was getting close to a source of great power. Was this the power of the greed of people in this world? Riku shuddered to think who could bring out an even more powerful heartless.
Eventually Riku managed to get to where he needed to be and he shuddered as he looked at a slightly overly big man seemed to be pulsating with heartless power, being consumed by it. Riku growled and looked around to see the Russel had fainted upon the ground and looked almost dangerously soaked with the red water. Riku then took his chalk once again and drew another fire array, this time it was not as dangerous as the fireball he had casted earlier but it did what Riku needed it to do. It caught Magwar's attention.
"Who the hell are you?"
"Who are you to ask?" Riku haughtily replied back, finding himself on the edge of his toes to prepare for any sudden movements that would need to be done. Magwar seemed to Riku for a moment but then started laughing. Riku simply stared blankly, his gaze lingering to see that the red water was starting to rise...that definitely couldn't be good. Riku then drew out his blade and taunted the man. Magwar simply summoned simple shadow and air soldiers, which Riku took care of easily enough with a few hits to his body but not enough to fatigue the boy as he managed to charge closer to the controller. All Magwar saw before Riku slashed at him was an almost evil eye and blood encompassed his vision after Riku got a direct attack to his face. Riku felt no feelings of remorse but only of that of an assassin to stop the enemy attack. Magwar gargled up blood and found that his body failing and he fell to the ground encompassed by the pain that had overwhelmed him. Riku then looked over at Russel and frowned as he felt that he couldn't leave him just lying there, even if the guy had threatened them earlier.
Riku grunted as he lifted the somewhat stable boy and Riku felt his very blood freeze as he watched the red water slowly rising. Riku felt himself struggling and running to where the huge hole that he had jumped down earlier. "HEY! CAN ANYONE HEAR ME UP THERE!?"
"Little busy here Riku!" Edward called back and Riku growled.
"Well the water down here is rising! But don't worry about me, I'll be fine!" Riku's voice laced with sarcasm and Edward growled back. Riku then jumped back as Crimson Red's large foot crashed through the hole. Riku wondered for a moment if Edward had purposely managed to irritate the heartless just so that Riku could struggle upon it. Crimson Red reacted quickly as Riku stepped unto the large foot and Riku looked up to see that the heartless was much more hurt. Riku started to feel more confident and jumped off the foot, running to hide behind a large wall that remained of the entire mansion. Riku took that time to speculate his surroundings and watched as trees rose to cover the entire area and start soaking the bad effects of the red water.
"Riku!" Sora cheered happily and Riku couldn't help but found himself smiling. Sora waved then became more serious and started to slash and jump. Crimson Red started to fall and Russel started to stir. As the heartless got delivered a final blow by the combined efforts of Sora's keyblade and Edward's alchemic light and it started to fall but before the complete fall it turned into a heart. They all stared then Riku remembered about the red water,
"We have to get out of here! The red water's rising higher!"
"What? What happened to Magwar?" Edward asked, heaving a loud sigh as he had performed the array and tried to perform slashes to that creature for more then he thought he would have to.
"He's gone." Riku replied simply and looked at the wall that surrounded them. "We should get going."
"Right." Fletcher nodded and they went forward to the wall, running and Fletcher placed one wall down as the red river slowly started crawling up. As they exited, Fletcher put the tree back up and they escaped. But before they completely ran back into town, Fletcher and Russel stood over all the trees and they seemed to share a brother moment and all the red water was gone as well as the trees in what seemed to be in an instant.
"Pretty." Sora noted and the group looked up to see what seemed to be slight red snow but it was something to help the land. At least, that's what Riku felt, and he felt himself growing extremely stronger because they had defeated Crimson Red and the heartless in his mind loved that strength and Riku felt extremely better for it. It wasn't much longer when the whole town calmed down and rebuilding started, and they were back on the train, this time to travel to the eastern headquarters.
"It was nice meeting you all." Fletcher said from below the windows the four sat at.
"Feh, I guess it wasn't bad to meet you." Edward scoffed then blinked as Elisa offered a basket of lemons with a happy grin and she was looking much better.
"Thank you Mr. Elric! Sorry about being mean to you." Edward just gave a slight sigh and shrugged. Alphonse laughed slightly and took the basket while Riku glared over at Russel.
"...Thanks." The boy admitted rather unpridely and Edward grinned rather viscously as Russel had given into his lack of pride and Edward felt extremely accomplished for it.
"No problem." Edward gave the evil grin that Riku found himself slightly afraid of and Riku turned his face to ignore it completely.
"You'll come back to visit, right?" Elisa asked, a grin upon her pretty little face and Sora waved to that little face.
"We'll try." Alphonse answered honestly but Edward scoffed slightly as did Riku but it didn't bother the younger one's one bit. The train started to move and the group found themselves waving at the village when Edward blinked as he found a letter in the basket of lemons. After a few moments of reading, Edward paled deeply and Riku found himself laughing incredibly hard. "Niisan, what was on the letter?"
"Nothing!" Edward squeaked as Riku continued to laugh harder. This only encouraged Alphonse to chase after it and watching an armor set chase after a considerable shorter figure in the booth seat was quite funny. Riku kept laughing until Alphonse read off the line that had been in the letter,
"I guess you being a year older then me would help you with that kind of wisdom." Alphonse and Sora joined in Riku's laughter as Edward groaned loudly,
"A year younger and he's still so much taller then me!"
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Boredom flashed through the poles of shadow that would occur through the windows every time they passed a pole on the train. Riku and Sora were amused in their own booth as they studied over the alchemy book, understanding more and Riku helped Sora with the boy's speaking disability. Edward and Alphonse on the other hand were bored as they had been playing the same card game for the last few hours, and worse, Edward kept winning. Riku had tried to think of what had happened in Xenotime but did not exactly get what the red water had done to his nature abilities to hinder them, but he didn't really want to think of the troublesome thing. Riku then glanced over at Kairi who had her own little booth to sleep in and he sighed simply, not knowing what else to do. Sora seemed to sense the distress and Riku just patted the boy on the head.
"How are we doing on time?" Riku asked out loud to get an answer from the blonde boy ahead of him and Sora flipped the page of the alchemic book to stare at the arrays.
"One or two more stops and we'll be there," Edward responded with slight irritability and Riku really didn't blame the other. Trains lost their merit when you rode them quite often and the time to travel to one place to the other got quite irritating. So when they had stopped and watched people come and go into the other cart, it wasn't very interesting. At least until a group of four that made Riku's heart clench because the heartless held unto it as though it was the life support.
"Hey there, are you using this seat?" A pretty blonde with strange antennae hair asked, she was wearing a pretty dress that tugged all around her tall yet curvy body. The girl smiled rather charmingly and Riku couldn't quite understand it, but he knew there was something different about the girl. Then there was the other three with her. They were dressed rather normally for a group of boys, but Riku could feel himself staring at the red-head with a strange look of comprehension that shouldn't have been there, and there was one who seemed nervous to even be in the cart but made no movement besides a slight twitch to his fingers. But the one that stood out in Riku's mind was the spiky haired blonde that had a look of quiet solumnitude upon his face. Riku didn't know why, but he stood out from the others.
"Huh? No, not really." Edward responded, throwing a card down and picking up another. Larxene grinned and sat next to the blonde boy, who ignored the woman as Demyx sat next to Alphonse staring at the card game. That left the redhead and blonde boy to sit next to the other two. They sat across from the other two and Riku felt himself tense even more. These strangers were bad news, at least that's what Riku thought but when Sora gave a bright grin to the two strangers, Riku couldn't help but somewhat think that he might have been wrong. One look at the red-head who gave a confident smirk to the other and Riku thought, no, no there was no way he was wrong. However Sora stared to speak to the boy that was across from him and even though his sentences were choppy and kind of hard to understand, the boy seemed to listen with a soft intent.
"Oh! Sora!" Sora introduced himself, clapping on his chest and grinning.
"Roxas." The boy gave his name in reply, though seemed to want to remain silent otherwise.
"I'm Axel," Axel responded to continue the getting to know each other moments.
"Riku." Riku let his name go only because he did not want to seem suspicious.
"I'm Larxene!" The blonde girl interrupted, climbing over the booth and plumbing her caboose between the two boys that had given up their names. "Nice to meet you." Larxene's voice couldn't be described scratchy, but it was something like that. Whatever it was, it made Riku slightly cringe because he was suspicious of her and for all he knew, she could have been the mastermind. "What about you guys?" She asked honestly, in her mind she was wondering why these two seemed to be traveling with these other two.
"I'm Alphonse," The boy in the armor replied, though sighed as Edward had won another card game.
"I'm Ed." Edward didn't feel like addressing his full name so he didn't proclaim it and started to shuffle the pack of cards.
"I'm Demyx," the last one said, as he had not said anything before and he did not want to interrupt anybody during their own introductions. There was a bit of silence before Larxene slightly bluntly asked,
"Why do you suck at talking so much?" Honestly, this was the keyblade wielder? I guess they were right when they said that just about any idiot can wield a weapon. Larxene blinked though when Riku gave her a harsh glare, daring her to say more about Sora's talking. Larxene kind of found it funny because it reminded her of Axel's possessive protective nature of Roxas (even if the other one didn't need it half of the time). It was amusing slightly, so when Riku replied, she found herself even more amused,
"He had a bump to the head and doesn't remember much, you have a problem with that?"
"Nope, nope." Larxene replied back happily, feeling something she was sure she hadn't felt in a long time. So was this what it felt like to have emotions? Larxene found herself hungering it to be amused even more.
"Hey, Larxene, you mind?" Axel gave her the clearly annoyed tone and Larxene simply let her arms wander to both of her companion's shoulders with a smirk.
"Oh I don't mind at all." Axel glared at her, not knowing what else to do and Demyx couldn't help but feel slightly lonely as the rest of his companions kept where they were and talking to the keyblade wielder and his so called protector. Demyx didn't understand it at first, but Larxene had (rudely) explained it that when the heart of the heartless tried to drift above to Kingdom Hearts she saw clearly black hands that simply dragged it down to the earth's core and disappeared out of nowhere. Larxene wasn't exactly sure what they saw so they she decided that they would tail the heroes to see if they knew any better. Demyx did understand that it was highly probable that their leader would get angry soon if they didn't report back but Larxene had scoffed off that warning and managed to get them on the train ride and riding with the group.
"So where are you all heading?" Alphonse asked curiously, glad that he could talk to someone instead of having his older brother beat him in the card game again.
"The East City," Larxene replied easily, this time looking over from up the booth seat and over to Alphonse.
"Really, that's a coincidence, so are we." Alphonse replied cheerfully and Riku felt himself paling as he could hear from Alphonse's tone that the boy was already in an extreme liking to the girl. Riku swore, he would never see what Alphonse had in delight for women, then again, maybe Alphonse had a thing for blondes? Riku didn't know, he hadn't been with the two long enough for that kind of knowledge either. So the train ride continued and there really was nothing much else to say except that Riku let himself talk and continue talk to all of them, Larxene talked the most of all of them and surprisingly beat Edward in a game of cards and Demyx pointed out that Edward had some cards falling from his sleeve. Edward soon after got chased and yelled at by his younger brother. When they finally made it, the groups separated and Riku followed the reluctant Edward.
"So we're going to meet your boss then, finally?" Edward glared over at Riku with a horrible twitch and Riku felt his mouth twitch a bit trying not to smile.
"Yeah, and then I can get rid of you too." Edward grinned evilly, laughing almost maniacally and Riku looked up as it started to darken a bit to show that it could rain soon.
"Ed...really want to get rid of us?" Sora asked, his puppy eyes shining brightly and Edward stared blankly. The boy sighed then looked away, not knowing how to face the poor puppy-eyed boy.
"Yeah, Ed, you don't really want to get rid of Sora so quickly, do you?" Edward gave a sharp glare to his younger brother then marched on ignoring the jeers he got from the three. It had started raining officially when they managed to make it to the office headquarters and Edward stared at the iron gates with depression.
"He isn't that bad, is he?" Riku asked, staring at how sad and angry the oldest Elric continued to look. Alphonse peered over to his brother and sighed,
"I don't think he is, but niisan always likes to exaggerate."
"There's nothing to exaggerate! That stupid man and his know-it-all shit-ass attitude! Then he'll look and he'll be like 'Oh hello hagane no, destroyed a few cities I see, and still no discovery of any clue of the Philosopher's Stone, huh? Oh where did Edo-kun go? Oh there he is! I didn't see him beneath my desk because he's such a bean!'" Edward shouted with anger, holding his head and twisting his body around in anger at the thought of facing his so-called superior.
"Niisan..." Alphonse just said and Edward heaved another heavy sigh,
"May as well get it over with." Edward heaved another sigh and Edward went through the gates and Riku and Sora followed him. Alphonse took a bit but he entered in when they got into the building for the military. Riku peered around as Edward led them to a waiting room and walked into the room that presumably belonged to his superior as Edward forced himself to be dragged in there.
"Ed really not like Roy, huh?" Roy? Oh that's right, Riku remembered that Edward's superior's name was indeed Roy Mustang. Riku was getting incredibly curious about the man and he stood up to look around to see if there was any information lying around about anything for space travel. Riku kept forgetting that was what he was out here for.
"Right."
"Good evening." Riku blinked and looked to his side as a woman walked in. She seemed young for a woman but also had the look of being wise beyond her years and a look that seemed stern and disciplined look.
"Good evening Ms. Hawkeye." Alphonse replied, with a smiling tone behind his helmet. The woman named Hawkeye seemed to give a soft quick smile towards the boy and then looked over at the other two.
"Who are these two?"
"These are our new friends, Sora and Riku." The blonde hair woman with her hair pinned up took another quick look at the two then just nodded and Riku found himself feeling very relieved, as though he made a good friend in return of not looking like the wrong crowd. Sora grinned and waved his hands towards the woman and Riku found himself thinking that it growing slightly troublesome of Sora to be granting everyone his smile.
"I'm Sora!" Though from that sentence, Riku felt himself smiling despite himself because it sounded like Sora's regular voice, and that made Riku feel a little better.
"It's nice to meet you Sora. If you feel so inclined, you may call me Riza." Sora seemed to pause at that sentence, not quite sure what the woman had just said, but got the general idea when Riza had said her name.
"Okay!" Riku felt that Sora was trying to seem a little smarter around this woman, then again, she did have that type of stance that made you want to look smarter so you just wouldn't go down on her list of respect.
"Hawkeye, we have a little trouble over here." Peeked a head from the door, hair was a dirty blonde and a toothpick seemed attached to his mouth. Riza Hawkeye rose an eyebrow and gently asked,
"What seems to be the problem?"
"Breda's on top of the ceiling proclaiming something about a man eating creature in the office." Riza blinked then sighed and then walked off to where the blonde needed to escort her after saying that she'll be back. It was then there was an angry shout from the room Edward had went in and Riku couldn't help but be a little shaken because of the loud ranting cursing muffled noises he could hear from the room.
"...He...really hates him, doesn't he?"
"I think niisan just likes to exaggerate."
"Why would he like to do that?" Riku asked, and Sora turned to Alphonse with the same question. Alphonse just shrugged slightly, not sure of the answer because it was just something his brother had been born with.
"Maybe Ed like Roy, really!" Alphonse paused at Sora's cut sentence and the armor started to snicker at the thought. Sora grew confused by this and Riku stared at Sora.
"What would make you think that Sora?"
"Cause we ex-ex-exa-exaggerate things too!" Riku rose a thin brow, comprehending what the boy could possibly mean but it didn't come so he asked,
"What do you mean Sora?"
"Papou fruits!" Sora answered and Riku found himself blinking blankly. Did Sora remember the little teasing that he had done to Sora with the papou fruits back at home? Riku felt glad that Sora was starting to remember things from the past, but it was also kind of bad in his mind. If Sora remembered they had betrayed each other, there would be some awkwardness between the two, and Riku was sure that Sora would do something stupid and outrageous.
"Papou fruits?" Alphonse asked and Riku just laughed slightly, explaining to Alphonse that it was a fruit back at their home and that they loved to tease each other over the fruit's legend. The talking stopped when Edward's yells came out of nowhere once again only this time Edward opened the door from the office, his eyes blazing with fury and his face dark with a blush. "Hey niisan."
"Not now Al." Edward shot a glance over to Riku, and Riku couldn't help but think he met the wild bore before it ate its food. "That bastard taisa would like to speak to you."
"Me? Why?" Riku blinked honestly, not expecting to hear that.
"...He wants to know more about the heartless." Edward commented then moved on, his mood returning to its sore, sour, outrighteously pissed mood. Alphonse followed after his brother of course, the armor boy sighing and Sora simply followed Riku into the office of Roy Mustang. It was needless to say, Roy Mustang was not the kind of person Riku had expected. Roy Mustang was definitely a character of charisma and he used his words to broadcast to pretend he did know everything. Then again, if Roy Mustang was predicting every move that Edward Elric would make, it wasn't really that hard.
"You wanted to see me?" Riku asked, though he felt himself tensing because of the fact that he knew that this man was a military man. Military men knew more death then he did and Riku only killed those who were evil, military men killed whoever was the enemy. Roy Mustang had dark hair and just as dark blue eyes, and his gaze was narrowed with the fact that he had battled over the ages.
"Your name is Riku, right?" Roy Mustang's voice was smooth and careful, Riku could see how Edward found himself hating the older man. Riku felt like he didn't very much like the man as well.
"That's right." Roy then looked over to Sora who seemed to be happy of meeting the person that Sora thought that Edward actually liked. Roy Mustang's composure seemed to change quite a bit when he looked over at Sora with a light smirk/smile,
"And you are Sora, are you not?" Sora grinned and nodded at this. Riku felt himself growing even more annoyed and very much wished that Roy would be buried, soon. Roy then looked over at the more knowledgeable of the two, "These heartless that hagane no has reported to me about, he says that you know more about it then he does."
"If Ed reported you that, then you should know what I told him." Roy nodded but he narrowed his eye's a little further and Riku found Sora getting a little closer to Riku in fear that the man might do something to the silver-haired young one. Roy then asked, his tone clear and soft but completely stern.
"You have nothing to do with bringing these things here, do you?" Riku blinked at those words. Did he? Riku didn't think so, but if he thought about it, every world that Sora and/or Riku would go to, heartless would appear in natural instinct to try and steal the keyblade. However there were heartless appearing to other worlds long before Sora or Riku got there, so the heartless in this world?
"No sir, I do not believe so." And Riku truly believed that because he saw the power of just one greedy person, if there were more just like him out there, then it was entirely their fault. Of course Riku slightly knew he was running away from the accusation, but would not let anything else be said. Roy studied Riku's composure for a second and nodded the boy off,
"Very well, now might you explain what hagane no means when you have to fight with your heart?" Riku didn't want to, because if this place was a military based world, then this would mean that this was one side and there would be another side. Riku preferred if both sides got gobbled up, but Sora grinned at this, as though being an expert in it for years.
"Heart means believe!" Sora started, demonstrating as he clapped out his keyblade and Riku seemed pleased that Sora didn't get the ease of summoning his keyblade anymore. Of course he was only pleased because he had been a little jealous, and Riku would never admit, but he thought himself stupid to be so jealous. Roy stared at the keyblade with a speculative look, a look that Riku had seen on Edward many times during the train rides. "When you fight with heart, you fight to save! Fight to let hearts go home." Riku turned over to Sora with this little bit of information and Riku grew confused immediately because he didn't think that Sora would say that. Save hearts? How did fighting with your heart help saved the hearts that had disappeared because of humanity's mistake for want and power and greed? Roy seemed a little confused about this too, so Sora continued, "To save. To believe. To fight heart and with heart!" Sora swung the weapon around clearly showing his new founding skill with it, a smile brimming on the boy's face and Riku couldn't help but think the boy was up to something else. However Riku knew that couldn't have been possible because Sora was never that deep of a thinker, even when he tried.
"In short, that's what I basically meant." Riku finished dully, not knowing what else to add and Riku supposed that explained it the best. Roy seemed to nod slowly then looked over at Sora curiously,
"Would I need one of those," he gingerly pointed to Sora's keyblade with a gloved military hand, "if a heartless came up to me?" Riku had no doubt that damn heartless would come up and eat Roy Mustang's heart greedily, but really, maybe Riku was biased. As he was seeing everything that Edward said was coming true in front of his eyes, this guy was a bastard.
"No." Sora replied honestly, this time grinning again and letting the man know that he just needed belief. Riku sighed to himself, that kind of thing was troublesome and cheesy, but it wasn't like anyone could do anything about it really. Because it was the truth, and it was the only way to describe fighting over the heartless. Roy sighed and then nodded then blinked as Riza Hawkeye entered in the room with a slightly amused look.
"Hawkeye?" Roy asked and Riza gave the man a piece of paper. Roy stared at it for a few seconds then blanked out, "What is this?"
"An issued challenge from Edward Elric." Roy rose his slender brow then sighed heavily, placing it down on the desk.
"I'll talk to hagane no about this later."
"Of course." Riza nodded simply then turned to Roy's guest and smiled over at Sora, "Are you hungry?" Sora blinked and nodded in a big way. Riku's stomach growled as he realized it had been awhile since he last ate (the train offered food but it was expensive and not in Riku's own personal taste). "Very well, are you finished with these boys, sir?" Roy nodded and banished them with a shoo motion with his hand. Sora gave a childish grin and grabbed a hold of Riza Hawkeye's hand happily. Riku blinked, did this woman remind Sora somewhat of his mother? Then again, Sora's mother was very stern and soft when she wanted to be, so I guess any woman would do but this was really the first woman that the two had came along since they started on this world. Riza Hawkeye did not mind and led the two towards the cafeteria and Sora almost drooled visibly at the food drifting to his senses. "I'll go get you two some seats, please go get your choice of food." Riku nodded and found that Sora followed that piece of advice immediately. Riku felt himself smiling despite himself, Sora could be cute when he wanted to be.
Riku gathered foods he liked and was shocked that he didn't have to pay as the cashier had been told that the food would go towards Edward's account. Riku wondered briefly if Sora had enough money for the blank hole known as Sora's stomach, but he kept to himself and peered over the mindless crowds of alchemists and military men. Riza Hawkeye beckoned the boys over to where she was and Riku sat down next to Edward while Sora sat opposite. Edward grunted slightly, looking in a sore mood.
"Something happen?" Riku asked, biting into a sandwich as Riza had disappeared from the table. Edward looked over at Riku and sighed honestly,
"Alphonse wanted to keep a cat he found in the rain. I said no, and he ran off with his full plate open." Riku could hear a soft regretful tone in Edward's voice because the boy probably didn't want to hurt his younger brother, but they really couldn't keep a cat, right? Riku knew that if they were traveling and had no permanent residence, it would be hard on the poor animal that would grow attach to the owners. Poor miserable impressionable beasts.
"Well I was talking about the challenge you issued to your boss, but I guess that would explain your sore mood."
"Kairi...okay?" Sora asked hesitantly, not wanting any harm to fall upon the girl. Edward looked away for a second but replied,
"Yeah, she fell out and I caught her, she's resting in one of the dorms here." Riku gave Edward a fierce glare and Edward fixed that quickly with the statement, "It's okay, only me and taisa have a key to that dorm." Why would Edward's hated boss have the same key? Oh well, Riku felt reassured and better knowing Kairi was finally resting back in a bed instead of an uncomfortable up position. Riku could already hear her bitching when she woke up and every one of her joints would pop. Riku couldn't help it, to himself it was a funny sight in his mind because when Kairi truly whined about something, it was just...funny.
"So about that issued fight?"
"Eh, I don't feel like giving the details yet." So in truth, Edward knew nothing about what he was going to do. Riku found his eyes rolling despite himself but he did nothing but continue eating.
"Is Alphonse going to come back eventually?"
"If eventually translates when he thinks I need help, yeah, he'll be back." Edward sorely said and Riku learned then that Edward did not like being far away from his brother. For any reason, and he slightly understood, after all, Riku never liked being too far away from his friends but he would do so if he needed to.
"Edo..." Sora started then looked around, seeing watches hanging from military pockets then looking around some more, "Why so many people?" Edward blinked at that question and shrugged,
"I have no idea, I think most of these guys are Central alchemist, here for renditions that was happening over at there 'quarters." Riku nodded at this, but to himself it made no clear sense but he wouldn't let that show. Riku peered around and looked at all the faces of the state alchemists.
"What do you have to do to become a state alchemist?"
"Pass their test." Test? Well that would make sense, so that would have to mean all of these alchemist would competent in one way or another. Riku wondered if they could all perform the same alchemy that Edward could.
"Oh I see."
"Also that challenge, it's going to help me keep being a state alchemist." Riku turned his head towards the blonde alchemist and tried to comprehend exactly what the boy said.
"Help you stay a state alchemist?"
"Uh-huh, I have to go through some messy work to show that I'm still worthy of being a state alchemist, but because I don't want to deal with that, I decided a fight against that bastard would show my abilities." Riku nodded at this and saw Sora looking pale at the thought of Edward's huge evil grin.
"Ed, why ex...ex..." Sora paused, trying to remember the word, "exaggerate?" Edward twitched and opened his mouth,
"Who told you I exaggerate?" Sora opened his mouth but there was a frightening sound and the group looked over and there was some miscellaneous screaming.
"Oh but you HAVE to see her! Elysia is just the most adorable thing on this earth! See, see, she's wearing this beautiful and cute bathing suit!" Riku wondered what that noise was, but he definitely did not want to stick around if it was making people scream.
"Oh no." Edward groaned and hid his face behind his automail arm and the source of that voice came up to Edward with a bright grin.
"Hello Ed!" The man had a very likable face and stance, but Riku found himself shaking in the back of his spine for some reason, "have you seen Elysia?" The man flashed a few pictures of a cute little girl who was hugging a huge teddy-bear, "Isn't she just the most adorable thing?"
"Hughes..." Edward started, "YOU SHOWED ME THAT PICTURE FIFTEEN TIMES SINCE I GOT HERE!" Edward yelled, and many a soldier applauded Edward's bravery of yelling at the happy father. Hughes was not taken back then looked at the picture,
"Oh really?" He banished the thought easily then brought out another picture, "How about this one?" Hughes got what Riku would like to call a coddling look on his face and showed Edward his newest picture. This time the girl was in a giant sun-hat that was presumably her mother's.
"I've seen that one too, Hughes, please just leave me alone."
"What about you, have you seen Elysia?" Riku felt himself jumping slightly, in slight fear of getting caught into the gale of this man's photography. Riku opened his mouth to lie but Sora and his damned childish mouth answered,
"No!" Hughes seemed to adore this and went into a showing rant. Riku would have to hit Sora very hard on the head when they got out of this.
--------------------------------
"This world is weird." Larxene said immediately, moving sunglasses around on the situation of her face.
"What are we doing just lingering here?" Roxas asked, his eyes dully staring at the other more brightly faced blonde. The girl blinked through her shades and looked around,
"Why? Not enjoying yourself?"
"Hardly."
"Demyx is enjoying himself."
"You lie horribly."
"Well Axel likes it down here."
"Axel's an idiot." Larxene couldn't help it, she giggled at Roxas plain and dull tone. Apparently the boy didn't enjoy being in the mortal realm. Larxene didn't see why though, she rather liked it. Humans were amusing pawns and the heartless were slowly creeping their way around to make this another new home. "Where is that idiot anyway?" Roxas asked, looking around.
"Roxas," Roxas felt himself holding back a grown but he turned around to see Axel actually grinning. Larxene's happy nature had got to the hothead and Roxas stared and looked over at Larxene.
"You didn't put him that, did you?
"Well he had the hair to match the color."
"Doesn't it look good on me though Roxas?"
"Axel..."
"Yes?"
"Get out of that dress."
--------------------------------
It was finally the day that the challenge had been issued on the date that was on the challenge letter. Roy Mustang looked very much like he didn't want to be there and Edward looked very happy to the fact that he was going to beat the crap out of that stupid smirking face!
"Ed..." Riku couldn't help but groan as Edward continued to grin. The boy was truly happy over the fact that he was going to be fighting this man? Riku heard the whispers among the other soldiers and alchemist that Roy Mustang could be a force to reckon with when he wanted to be.
"Go Ed!" Sora yelled cheerfully, cheering the boy on. Riku remembered hearing Roy said that they weren't going to have to do this fight but a man called the fuhrer (who Riku got more weird heartless clenching feelings around) said it would be all fine and dandy to watch a battle. After Hughes's sickening display of his daughter and almost being killed Hughes announced the start of the battle. While running away rapidly, because, despite his super father powers, he was still a normal person.
"Huh?"
"To slow!" And Roy Mustang snapped his fingers. Riku watched as the man demonstrated control over the fire arts that had surpassed spells up in space, he would give Maleficent shame on how well he controlled the fire arts. Riku witnessed all three of the fires that had been named as spells all snapping after Edward and unbelievably, Edward managed to dodge most of them. Of course when he jumped into the crowd, Roy Mustang seemed annoyed. "Well I can't kill you all, it'd be a terrible mess to clean up." Riku somehow got the feeling that Roy was joking but it still scared the alchemists that he had been around. "Ah well, this wouldn't be so hard if he wasn't such a little bean."
"WHO ARE YOU CALLING SO SMALL YOU CAN EAT!?" Roy Mustang smirked as Edward jumped out and snapped offering a piece of advice for Edward to take in the future. Beings flew through the air and Riku was very glad that he wasn't exactly in the crowd, and watched Sora cling to his seat in excitement. It was then Edward manage to perform a nice technique of replacing himself and cutting the glove that Roy had that helped him perform his alchemy. Edward transmutated a huge canon from the ground and was ready to fire when Roy took a hand out of his pocket.
This hand also had a gloved symbol of fire alchemy on it.
Edward was so screwed. There was a shriek as Roy Mustang did a higher power of fire into the canon and it exploded on impact and Edward flew to the ground. Roy Mustang came to the boy and there was a few gestures exchanged between them and Riku was sure he had seen a horrified look on the man of war and it ended off as a stand-off between the two because Edward had managed to get his metal sphere of an arm close to Roy Mustang's neck. It was then announced that Roy and Edward would clean the mess they made, by themselves. Riku, Sora, Alphonse and Riza stood out there as Edward transmutated things and Roy lazily worked with a shovel. Riku had no idea what they were talking about, but he was sure it was something good because the alchemist had yet to yell at Roy.
"When are the next state alchemist tests?" Riku asked the blonde hair woman to his side and the woman blinked her brown eyes.
"A few weeks from now, why?"
"I want to enter."
End Chapter
Alright, before we get into a confused questioning rant. I will answer one thing I think stands above all of the questions and that is: Why the hell is Roxas alive and here? Weeeeelll besides fanservice, I believe Roxas was there since the beginning of Kingdom Hearts. Because Sora lost his heart long ago, I believe, it was just replaced with Kairi's as soon as they traveled to the new worlds, and as soon as Sora gave up that heart, he had turned into a heartless himself. Now in my mind, it shouldn't have been that easy for Sora to have turned into a heartless and I personally think Sora's heart was just flouting around (or is actually a part of Kingdom Hearts itself because of the fact that Sora had managed to make the conscious choice of being able to turn back as soon as Kairi tried to give her heart back in a way of protecting Sora)(That and Sora WAS the chosen keyblade wielder, I think the keyblade did that on purpose to have a backup plan, just in case anything happened). Of course, that's the only question I can think up right now. Anyway, so...was this chapter worth the long wait? I hope it was, because I had been angsting over the chapter for awhile and I have no idea what else to do. I hope the characterization is okay and I hope everyone enjoys the fact that Riku is going to try to become a State Alchemist and Edward now has his own keyblade. Ja ne, review if possible. Though by the time this chapter is out, I guess everyone would have forgotten all about this fanfic. Hahaha. Also, why Demyx? Because I love him and he's my own little fanservice to myself (that and he plays a minor important role that any character could have done, but I want him too) and why Larxene? Because she's awesome and the only female of Organization XIII. Also Axel...Ah well...this fanfic needs AxelRoxas (because that was the most implied coupling in KHII that I had ever SEEN throughout the entire game. Yay for Axel!)(That and Axel also plays an important role in the future). You guys have no idea how much KHII pieced EVERYTHING together so much more easier for me. I mean it, you have NO idea. You will in the future...but I guess we'll have to wait, neh? Mwhehehe.
Chapter
Words: 17,058
Update: 11-24-05 to 01-30-07
Views: 586
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(1):
Refer to your nearest FullMetal Alchemist game, the second one on the
PS2. Golems were basically like heartless; it scared me when I played
it XD.