Chapter 15: The Dark
Tekunoroji charged at Rixa, who was slightly hidden behind Roxas. Roxas had gotten out his keyblade just in time to block Tekunoroji’s sword.
“Rixa! Run!” Roxas shouted, deflecting another blow. Rixa didn’t have to be told twice. She turned tail and ran, only looking back once. Tron, Roxas, Donald, and Goofy were fighting Tekunoroji, all at the same time.
‘Keep running,’ Rixa thought to herself. ‘Just keep running. Don’t look back.’
And she didn’t. Rixa kept on running. She didn’t know where she was going, only that she had to get away. Rixa eventually found herself in a weird cell-thingy with a terminal up against one wall. Curiosity overcoming her, she touched the screen and in a flash of light, she was gone.
When the light died down, she was in a huge computer room with a computer up against a glass wall and a weird looking portal-thing on the wall opposite the computer.
‘Where am I?’ Rixa asked herself, looking around. She saw a door and walked out of it onto a glass ledge. She looked down and immediately regretted it. She saw the ground about 100 yards below her.
‘Just keep walking,’ Rixa told herself. ‘Don’t look down. It’s not going to break…’
As she stepped off of the platform and into a hallway, she heard voices.
“What are we going to do about the computer?” a male voice said. “We can’t have anybody else going into that world. It’s not safe.”
“All in good time,” another voice said, also male. It sounded familiar. “I’m just going to get a new program to install, one that works better than this one.”
Rixa stopped at a corner, took a deep breath, and cautiously made her way out of the hallway and into an office that looked extremely familiar.
“Oh. Hello. What are you doing here?”
Rixa looked at who said that. A blonde haired man sat behind a desk, eating ice cream. He wore red robes and his eyes were a chestnut color, with a tint of red in them.
“I……. ummm…… I’m not sure,” Rixa admitted.
“See? Another one! Except this one came out instead of going in.” The other man had spoken. He had brown hair that was spiked downward and he had three belts on his right arm he had a scar running from above his left eyebrow down the bridge of his nose and ending below his right eye.
“Squall, calm down,” the blonde man said.
“It’s Leon,” he pointed out. “And no, I won’t. You need to do something about it. There’s Heartless from that world coming into Hollow Bastion. We have enough of a problem without them showing up.” The blonde man sighed and closed his eyes for a second.
“Leon, we have a guest. We will continue this conversation when it is best allotted.”
Leon scowled and stormed out of the room. The man turned to Rixa.
“What is your name young one?” he asked, making hand motions to come forward.
“Rixa, sir,” she said, walking towards his desk.
“Ah, I’ve heard about you. The new Keyblade Warrior.” He reached into a drawer and pulled out another ice cream, handing it to Rixa. “I hope you like sea salt ice cream.”
“I love it,” Rixa said, taking the ice cream and sitting down in a chair in front of the man’s desk, who was smiling and nodding.
“Good,” he said. “I’m Ansem the Wise. Or DiZ. Whichever one you would like to call me. I could care less.” He licked his ice cream. “How did you get here?” he asked. Rixa shrugged.
“I’m not sure,” she said. “I was in Space Paranoids and this guy showed up and tried to kill me so I ran and I ended up here.” Ansem frowned.
“What was his name?” he asked, curiosity glinting in his eyes. “The guy who tried to kill you?”
“Ummm… I think it was… Tekunoroji.” Ansem very nearly choked on his ice cream. His eyes were wide with fear. Rixa raised an eyebrow and stood up.
“Are you okay?” she asked. Ansem looked at her.
“It was you!” he accused. “You were the one who came here to steal my papers! You and your partner with the spiky blonde hair.” He was hyperventilating. His eyes flashed to the hallway that she came out of and he jumped out of his chair. Rixa saw the movement and lunged toward Ansem, landing on top of him and pinning him to the ground.
“Yes, I was,” Rixa admitted. “But I’m not like that now, I swear. I don’t know anything about my past. I just want answers, just like you probably want right now.” Ansem struggled underneath her. “Are you going to help me? Please?”
“Fine. But can you get off…. Of…..” Rixa raised an eyebrow and tilted her head slightly to the side.
“What’s wrong?” she asked. It took Ansem a few seconds to reply.
“The purple in your eyes……….” He said faintly.
“What?” Rixa asked.
“Get off of me and I’ll show you what I mean.” Rixa got off of Ansem and helped him up. He went over to his desk and pulled out a mirror, handing it to Rixa. “Look in it.” She did.
“I don’t see anything wrong. Everything is completely normal for me. My eyes are supposed to be like that. I don’t see what’s-“ It was like somebody pressed the mute button. Rixa lifted a hand up to her eye. The purple was almost halfway to the edge of her iris. She looked at Ansem. “That’s not good, is it?” she asked. He shook his head.
“There is Darkness in your heart, Rixa,” Ansem whispered. “And what’s worse is that it’s spreading. If it gets too far, it affects everybody around you who was previously aligned with the Dark. It’s never a good sign.”
Rixa put the mirror down and sat in a chair, obviously still trying to process all of this. A few seconds later, Roxas, Donald, and Goofy ran into the room.
“Rixa!” Roxas shouted, running over to her and giving her a big hug. Then he caught sight of her face and frowned. “What’s wrong?” Rixa took in a shaking breath.
“I’m turning back to the Darkness,” Rixa whispered. She was so quiet that Roxas could barely hear her.
“What?” he asked, clearly stunned.
“I’m turning back to Darkness,” she said, louder. “And I’m gonna end up taking you with me.” Then she broke down in tears.