xD
I'm actually working on the next chapter now... While your waiting, maybe get some more people to read, if possible. More readers always makes me feel more inclined to start updating. ;3
Chapter 22
-------------------K-Y-L-E-----------------
“Well, are you ready to meet our leader?” Larxene asked. Kyle felt a strange feeling of dread fill his mind.
“Uh, I’m not sure…”
Larxene ruffled his hair and replied cooly, “It’s okay. He isn’t some evil tyrant; you don’t need to be scared.”
Kyle still wasn’t sure if he could trust any of these people yet.
“Hey, I have a question.”
Larxene looked back at him, waiting for him to say something.
“Could you explain why we’re chosen more clearly?” Kyle asked. “I’m still completely in the dark here…”
“Oh, sorry. I didn’t explain very well.” Larxene apologised, blushing.
“Well, uh, what you lose is usually dear to you and decides what your destiny would be. Like I said before, after you lose that person or thing, your destiny is gone. You become nothing. Our leader grants us a new destiny. In return, we do his work. We help keep Destiny the way it should be, and along the way, try to find a way to rid the Universe of the Heartless. But the core of this whole thing is our leader is making us… whole again. Without destinies, or replacements, we would be doomed to fade into the dark, or light, depending where we are. Got it all?”
Fade into the light or dark, depending on where we are? Kyle thought, feeling puzzled. “Okay, thanks for explaining that. I’m still pretty confused about the situation, but, let’s just go.”
Larxene looked annoyed. “Well, alright.”
The two of them walked into the corridor, passing by what seemed like hundreds of doors.
“Um, how many rooms are there here?” Kyle asked, looking around curiously. The corridor seemed to stretch forever.
“To tell the truth, I don’t even know,” Larxene replied, laughing.
Kyle, despite being rather unnerved, continued on. They continued to slowly make their way across the possibly endless corridor until they reached a huge double door, towering above them. “Well, here we are.” Kyle edged closer, his anticipation growing with each step.
“Go on, open it.”
Kyle turned around. “Aren’t you coming?” he asked.
“Sorry, I’m not allowed to. Have fun,” she replied, turning away.
Oh boy… Kyle thought, sighing.
The doors creaked open as Kyle pushed. They were stiff, as if they hadn’t been used in a long time. A wave of mist floated past Kyle’s face, smothering him, intruding into his vision. He closed the door. There was deep breathing somewhere behind what appeared to be a curtain.
“Hello 12th” said a voice. It seemed to come from all directions. Kyle spun around, searching for the source of the sounds. Nothing.
“You cannot see me.”
“What? Who are you?!” Kyle screamed. In a burst of what seemed to be mix of adrenaline and fear, Kyle ran towards the curtain and pulled it away.
“You cannot see me.”
This is madness, Kyle thought. Insanity. He felt a force grab his arm. It lifted up his sleeve, revealing his bare upper arm.
“LET GO!” he shouted.
“Welcome to the 13th Order,” chuckled the ominous voice.
He felt a small prick on his arm, barely scrubbing against the surface of his arm. What the? There was a small pop, and Kyle saw blood. He screamed in pain, as he fell to the ground as the small device plunged into his arm.
12
It came out, and Kyle felt a huge burning sensation on his left arm. It was then that he realised, to his horror, that he had been branded. The number ‘12’ was burnt into his skin, leaving a permanent mark. His skin still bubbled on the surface and was a deep red around the burn.
“What was that for?!” he shouted.
“It happens to all.”
“What the hell?” Back to square one—absolute obliviousness.
“Do you know your destiny?” the voice asked.
“What? The boat salesman thing?” Kyle replied.
The voice laughed hoarsely. “No. You are special among us… you still have a destiny, 12th…”
“Tell me; tell me what my destiny is!” Kyle demanded. At that point he had forgotten his old life, and his parents with it. He had forgotten Twilight Town. Forgotten his old fate.
“Do you see your Keyblades?” the voice asked.
“Uh, wha?” Two lights shone in the darkness of the room, and sure enough, Kyle’s weapons returned to his hands. White and black. Light and dark.
“Oh, those.” Something about them brought back memories. Of friends. Friends that he never knew.
“Do you see the pendant on your neck?” the voice asked. Kyle looked down, seeing the cross just above his chest. Friends. It was a gift. It was just like his friend’s.
It had been given to him on his twelfth birthday. It was placed under his pillow, and Kyle assumed it was from the lady at the orphanage. It was somewhat a good-luck charm for him. He took it with him everywhere.
Both Kyle and Hikaru’s pendants where similar. Kyle’s was pearly white, and Hikaru’s was a dazzling silver. Kyle knew that somehow the two were connected.
“It is not yours,” muttered the voice.
Kyle’s eyes flared. “What do you mean?! It was given to me!” he shouted.
“Regardless, it is not yours. It was given to you by the 3rd. Two days before that, we knew that you were the one who’s destiny would be destroyed,” the voice explained.
“You knew?! Why didn’t you tell me?!” Kyle screamed, more enraged then ever.
“We couldn’t. You would know of our existence. We could not allow that to happen.”
“Well, I know you exist now!”
“That is because you are one of us.”
“I never ag-” He was interrupted before he could finish.
“It is evident that you are displeased, but before you joined us, you would’ve drifted off into a life of nothingness. Just like another I know. But when I saw him again, it was too late. He had changed; he reached a point of no return. Without us, your true destiny can never be realised.”
“What, so if you live your life without a destiny you change? What do you mean, change?” Kyle asked in confusion.
“Not exactly; you would drift around worlds doing nothing; just what you need to do to survive; not be able to achieve anything worth achieving. You search for a meaning for existence that does not exist.”
“Do you die?” Kyle asked, curious now. For some reason he felt like he could empathise with these people… as if he had experienced it all himself at one point. But that was impossible.
“You survive, and you live a much longer life, as your mind is not at peace until it believes that you have achieved your destiny. You can be killed, but you do not die naturally until you have achieved what fate has put in front of you. Many of these people end up becoming Heartless,” explained the voice.
“Heartless?”
“It is time for your test,” said the voice.
Kyle could sense the being who had been talking with him was smiling now. There were eerie white flames burning from candles, attached to wall-mounted lamps lit the room, revealing nothing but more desolate space. Was the Leader even in the room? Kyle thought. He looked around him, seeing a large gate.
“These are Heartless.”
“What? The gate? The lamps? What are you talking about?!” Kyle shouted.
“All of them.”
The gate began to twitch, and Kyle thought that it was about to open, but he was wrong. It burst into life, the two symbols on the gate turned into real, living, breathing creatures. “What the goddamn hell is going on?!” Kyle shouted.
No reply.
He looked at the lamps, anticipating the worst. He remembered what the voice had said. “All of them.”
Suddenly, the candles began to burn brighter, and then a figure came out of that wall, as if it was behind it the whole time, waiting for the right moment to pounce.
It flipped its body around, revealing what seemed to be a creature with two different forms. It laughed hysterically, then flipped around and began to yawn. Insanity.
“What’s going on?” Kyle shouted, staring at the hideous creatures.
They charged forth.
Kyle flung his two Keyblades to his sides and tore the two Heartless next to him apart. “Hey, that didn’t seem so…”
SLAM.
One of the doors on that gate smashed into him, sending him flying across the room, smashing into a wall. Kyle gasped for air, feeling his whole body becoming numb.
Then, rage kicked in.
He leapt into the air, seeing the gate amazingly bounce around the room in hot pursuit. He threw his white Keyblade down, then his black one. They spun rapidly in such amazing form that they appeared to be mirrored images, save for the distinct difference in colour. They drew a circle around the room, taking out most of the candle wielding Heartless, and headed towards the gate. After the long trip around the room, the two weapons were losing momentum, and could fall at any second. There was the clang of metal, and the two doors smashed the two Keyblades back up at Kyle.
Luckily enough, Kyle was prepared. He pushed himself forwards through the air and amazingly enough it worked. How he did it, he wasn’t sure. It was as if there was a step in the air which he could push himself off with. Shaking his head, Kyle put his mind back to the task at hand. He reached out and grabbed both of the Keyblades in his hands. The force pushed him back slightly, but he down this time, towards his enemy, and slammed down the Keyblades onto the gate as he landed.
It shattered instantly. No, it exploded. Tiny fragments of Heartless flew in all directions, before fading into nothing.
Kyle fell to the ground, all his energy gone.
The voice. “You are making amazing progress, young child.”
Kyle didn’t reply. He was at the brink of unconsciousness.
“Your anger contributes to your ability to defend yourself. An interesting trait. You are becoming one of the Order.”
Kyle tried to talk, but his mouth couldn’t move. He was too exhausted.
“But you must learn to control the anger, or you will never reach your full potential.”
His eyes began to twitch. His eyelids fluttered as he tried to retain his consciousness.
“Young one, there are still more,” said the voice.
Sure enough, as Kyle looked up, there they were.
They had all changed; changed into their other form. There were only two left, and they seemed to be in some kind of deranged tantrum.
They threw themselves at him, then grabbed his body. There was an explosion, and everything went black.
GO TO THE KHAD FORUMS! kthx
