XDDD Nice.
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Hollow had never been on a gummi before. He was just four years old then, so he mostly clung the red robes that Ansem now wore, shivering just a little at the thought of being away from any planets. Hollow remembered to call Ansem “DiZ” when they got to…where were they going?
“You don’t remember it, but we have to go to Radient Garden. Well, they call it Hollow Bastion now. Like your nickname and last name.”
“I don’t have a last name,” Hollow protested. “And the only nickname I have is when the others in Halloween Town call me Hallow. Jack and Sally didn’t call me Hallow, though. But the others did.”
Ansem stared at Hollow, mystified that he didn’t even know his real name. Shaking his head and chuckling a little, he pulled some sea-salt ice cream out of the miniature freezer in the small cockpit of the gummi. Handing Hollow one and immediately licking his own, he watched amused as the little boy unwrapped the ice cream.
Pressing the blue bar to his tongue, Hollow winced at the sweet taste. Still, as he grimaced in disgust (to the amusement of Ansem), Hollow detected a salty flavor embedded in the ice cream. He thoughtfully put the bar of sky blue into his mouth, not breaking a part of it off, just tasting, analyzing with his mouth. He listened as Ansem spoke.
“Now, when we get there, we have to try to talk to them. Violence will always result in horrors untold if you are fighting with a former friend. Their wounds will be deep, and they’ll want revenge.”
Hollow nodded, not understanding or particularly caring about what Ansem was saying. If he’d known it would be their last peaceful conversation for an unimaginably long time, he would’ve tried to be a little more considerate.
At some point, Hollow fell asleep. He dreamed of a bright light swallowing Ansem. When he awoke and told Ansem of his dream, just before they landed, his father told him that the dream must’ve been a pleasant one. Hollow was unsure. The dream—no, the light had made him feel uncomfortable and scared.
“We’re here,” Ansem said. They stepped out of the ship and were immediately bombarded by a group of tall, slender beings in dark coats. Hoods were drawn up over the people’s heads, and they each held a menacing, customized weapon in their hands. Hollow, to his distress, was immediately separated from Ansem, which terrified the four year-old. He started to cry, not being able to help himself. Huge, black tears rolled down his eyes, though his sobs were silent.
Then Hollow saw the worst sight he’d ever been witness to. Ansem was staring at him with tears in his eyes, looking as if Hollow had died. The four year-old misinterpreted the message. His next words were just above a whisper.
“Are you… Mad at me?”
They must not have heard him. The little boy’s tears stopped falling, and it was as if a part of him had died inside, seeing that look on Ansem’s face. That look made Hollow feel like he had let Ansem down. He’d had a father for less than six hours, and now his father hated him?
A redhead grabbed Hollow by the arm, wrenching the little boy upwards. His hood was down, he was stroking his crimson locks, emerald eyes flashing in the sunlight. Hollow stared up at him, watching the man grin towards the sky.
“Why are you smiling?” Hollow asked. It barely came out as a question. His voice was hoarse, dull, uninterested and critical. The redhead stared down at him.
“You look like a little gopher.” The redhead ran a hand through his hair, laughing in a young-sounding voice. “My name’s Axel. A-X-E-L, got it memorized?” Axel stared down at the little boy, grinning, though his eyes glared down. He wasn’t that old.
“You look like a hedge-hog, Hedge-hog,” Hollow sneered back. Axel laughed it off, but he actually looked a little uncomfortable. Kneeling down to Hollow, whose arm was still being gripped by Axel, the redhead muttered, “C’mon, kid. You’re what, four? Five? You’re supposed to be all…happy and stuff.”
Hollow looked around. Ansem was being yelled at by Xehanort; a silver-haired man who was referring to himself as Ansem. Other people were discussing the “darkness of the heart experiments” as a near success. Hollow squinted, wondering if he knew about these experiments. “To tell you the truth,” Hollow murmured, “this isn’t exactly my idea of a birthday party.”
Axel shrugged. “Whatever, Gopher. We were supposed to torture you until you snapped out of that ‘Happy-little-rodent’ mode, but you being like this makes it easier.”
Hollow ignored the man. A blue-silver haired man with bangs thrown over one eye walked up besides Axel. He whispered something about the final test. The Nobody test?
“Hey, ya know, kid. If you don’t hurry up and do something, that Ansem the Wise guy’s gonna be sleepin’ with the fishes, if you know what I mean. Dead. Pushin’ up daisies.” Axel raised his eyebrows, giving Hollow a look that said he knew what he was doing. “He’s dying.”
It’s easy to lie to children. They believe it, when they’re that young. Hollow’s head snapped automatically, remembering the fake parents Jack and Sally had told him about. How they could never came back. He didn’t want that to happen to Ansem, even if he did hate Hollow. Jack and Sally had lied, but they hadn’t lied about death. Hollow suddenly wrenched his arm out of Axel’s grip.
“Daddy!” He shouted, running as fast as his legs could take him towards his father. A smaller cloaked person threw off her hood. She had blonde hair, with two bangs that fell down like antennae. She threw long, slender kunai knives at Hollow. They ripped past his flesh, a few of them raking into his skin and staying there. Silvery blood poured down his back, making his eyes widen.
Then he remembered that he had claws. Flinging an ebony hand out, stiff, jagged fingers tearing through flesh, Hollow blindly let his hand fly through anyone who touched him. Turning to see who it was, he stepped back, gasping.
Ansem was lying down on the ground, silver colored blood mixing with his own crimson. Hollow stared down in horror as the silver blood flew through the rogue shade of Ansem’s. His father stared at him, too, confusion and hurt in his eyes.
“What’s this… Hollow? What have you done to me?” Ansem didn’t know either? How could Ansem not know? What was happening? Axel answered.
“You’re turning into what we like to call a Nobody, Ansem. Hollow’s blood carries a special chemical that doubles as a silver-coloured pigment. It’s what dyes his blood that colour, and what will dissolve your heart faster than you can memorize it.” The crimson haired youth rubbed his head. “And then, the spores from the mix will float into the air, and we’ll bottle them and infest the worlds with the combination. That way, everyone who turns into a Heartless will also turn into a Nobody under our control. It’s science.
“Of course, we have a vaccine that we’ll administer to ourselves before we release the spores. Even’s got it right now.”
“Axel, stop telling them our plans,” Even sneered. He had greasy brown hair, long, and a sneering rat-face. It was annoying to Hollow, but he listened as Ansem gasped for breath. Immediately, Hollow found himself breaking down bonds with his father. He was already letting go. He had no faith in his father’s recovery – because there was no faith. Something Hollow had told himself for a long time.
“When you’re only thirteen, you don’t make decisions in this group, Axel,” Arlene said, sneering at him.
“Shut up, Arlene! You’re not that much older than I am!”
Hollow glared suddenly as Ansem stared at his son. These people had tricked Hollow into hurting his father. He was going to be worse than dead because of Hollow. The yellow-eyed boy could already see that his father’s heart was disintegrating, which was obviously very painful. Hollow glared at Ansem, but his eyes were full of sorrow, too. “Soon you’ll be reborn into a Nobody, and that’s better than death, right?”
Ansem stared at him. He rubbed Hollow’s hair before saying, “No, my pride and joy… It’s worse. You might as well have killed me.”
Then, he was unconscious. He would sleep until he’d turn into a Nobody, a being without a heart, but nobody knew what would happen while he was unconscious. Hollow rounded on those others, still arguing about that stupid Hedge-hog boy.
“You guys are going to suffer the same fate as my father.” Hollow leapt at Even, grabbing the potion out of his hand and letting his black claws smash through the glass. He watched as the potion sizzled on the ground. Hollow stared at the others.
“I’m getting out of here before the explosion.” Hollow crept slowly to the gummi. He was crawling, for he still had gashes and wounds all over his body, he realized. The Organization of assistants had hurt him badly.
But Ansem was alive. He was mad at Hollow, but Hollow told himself that he wouldn’t need him anymore. He noticed that tears were falling down his face, but he forbade himself to cry for anyone else again. He would have no emotional attachment, because that was weakness. Nobody was a friend. Maybe there were some who weren’t enemies, but no one was a friend. He knew this in his heart as a part of it died. He knew it as an explosion swept over the world, knocking him unconscious. No one was a friend.
Hollow woke up in a white room, surrounded by people in tall chairs. They were in a circular room, and they glared down at him, angry with him.
“Arlene, right?” Hollow asked, standing. The blonde-haired girl tried to kill him with her eyes, pulling at an antennae. There were holes on her forearm. She had turned to drugs in her sorrows.
“No, it’s Larxene now. An anagram, but we add the X.” Hollow raised an eyebrow.
“So, you’re Nobodies, too. I figured. Ansem told me, before he became a Nobody, DiZ, he called himself, told me that he was a Heartless, and that there was going to be an explosion. But I’d be alright, because the chemicals came from my blood. You’re all Nobodies now. It’s because you hurt me and Ansem. I could’ve saved you, but I didn’t. And now your plans are ruined.”
“Not quite, you brat. We’re dropping you back off on your little Halloween Town, but we’ve already let the spores infest the other worlds. So we’re Nobodies. So what? We’ve still gotten control of anything that turns into a Nobody. We are in charge.”
“I don’t care. I’ll remember this and kill you all,” Hollow said. It was weird, having that four-year-old vow to kill them, but they didn’t care. Hollow was not a threat. Arlene- Larxene grabbed him by the shoulders, having leapt from her seat.
“You’re coming with me, kid. Say goodbye to your memories.” Hollow remembered that she injected him with something, and then he was unconscious.
He woke up in Halloween Town, and he couldn’t remember a thing. As far as he was concerned, he was still four, and there had never been an Ansem, and the villagers weren’t going to tell “Hallow” that he’d been gone.
He wasn’t happy, though. Something had happened. Everyone thought he was dead inside. It disturbed them, which was even more frightening, because they were used to death and such. But it was such a change for Hollow to be this way. They ignored him for a long time. They pretended he had never left, and he grew up, still murmuring “Light’s dead. No more faith.” They were used to that chant by now, and it had never left him. They wondered if it ever would.
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MAKE ME UDPART AGAIN! >_< AND RESPOND, FLAMMIT! >.<
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