Redemption Frägment

Chapter Eight: Those Who Fight Further

Sora felt his eyes grow wide in disbelief. Ansem was alive? And not only alive, but he was traveling with Riku? Wait. Supposedly traveling with Riku. Can’t get the two mixed up. But…

Ansem was alive?

“How…? How can Ansem be alive? I defeated him and he vanished in the light from the door to Kingdom Hearts. I know he’d stolen Riku’s body, but I saw Riku. He helped me close the door.” Sora heard the disbelief in his own voice and saw the sympathetic look on the Princess’s face. He felt a sudden surge of hatred toward her and immediately felt guilty. He shouldn’t be angry with her. He couldn’t have known all the perks that bodysnatching could entail.

“It is because of the bond he had with Riku that he managed to survive. At least, this is what we think. I’m not entirely sure that’s the case. Something with much more power could’ve had a hand in this. But I promise you, Sora, we will find anything that could be of use to you on this journey. But now, I think you have something important to take care of.”

He heard the dismissal and grinned, taking his leave with a quick impish bow. Leave the information hunting to the Princesses of Heart; he was going to fetch Riku. Fetch him, bring him home, and subject him to utter debauchery. A huge grin was plastered on his face as he returned to the gummi ship, a furious duck and a childish dog on his heels.


“This damned forest is bigger than I thought.”

“Well, the road has to lead to civilization. They wouldn’t put a road here just to confuse us.”

“Or maybe they did and now they’re laughing at our stupidity.”

“So,” there was a long pause, “what do you call stupidity?”

Riku stares at me like I’ve grown a second head but at my grin, he smirks. “Stupidity.”

“What I thought.”

We’ve been walking this path for hours, maybe days, stopping to rest only when we’re attacked by hunger or by pure distraction. Riku is right, however. This forest is way too large to be normal. We haven’t even been bothered by the local wildlife let alone Heartless. Usually, you can’t go three steps without running into some monster to beat the crap out of. And we don’t even have any items to cause the beasties to run. Hell, we’re talking targets. Might as well carry around a large neon sign that says “free dinner”.

“No Heartless, no monsters, hell, not even a damned squirrel. It’s too quiet and it’s driving me insane!”

“Ansem.”

“Just shut up. Don’t even say it. I know.”

He snickers to himself, peering at me with sea-blue eyes from under silvery bangs. I stare back and we indulge ourselves in a staring contest that, by all rights, I should’ve won. Unfortunately, Emma’s caterwauling interrupts our fun.

“What do you think has the fluff worked up?” I ask.

“Who the hell knows,” Riku replies with a shrug, “Probably some giant squirrel having it’s evil way with a demon marshmallow.”

I stop and stare at Riku. “Where in the hell do you come up with this crap?”

He just turns and grins at me, grabbing my wrist to pull me along. “It’s an ancient Gongagan secret. Now let’s go see what the princess of lint wants.”

We take off running, following the sounds of Emma’s yowling. I nearly step on the white fluff-ball before I come to a complete stop. Stare.

Mass destruction. Any megalomaniac sociopath would’ve called it a work of art. We begin to slowly pick our way down to the battlefield, Emma now perched on my shoulder. It seems a caravan took a moment to breathe, to relax, and paid dearly for their moment of peace. Bodies are torn to shreds, the ground is soaked in blood and makes a funny “squick” sort of sound as our boots sink into the earth. I notice Riku has summoned his Keyblade. I draw my dagger, just in case. Another unbidden urge coerces me to take the chain from around my waist, unclip it from my belt, and hold the end with the clip in my hand.

“They put up a fight,” Riku whispers in my ear as soon as I reach his side. He stares at the bodies of two children, a boy and a girl. The boy holds a dirk much too large for his small hand and the girl clutches a porcelain doll whose face is broken. Both their chests are torn open, huge gaping holes that should have been whole.

“Just children,” I mutter back. My mind stutters to a halt, my body feeling cold as realization sweeps through me. “Children. How many children did I kill?”

“Don’t you dare start, Ansem. You didn’t kill anyone. The Heartless did. You may have had a hand in freeing the Heartless, but they did the killing out of their own volition. You never told them to kill, never gave the order.” He shakes me a bit, apparently trying to force the words to sink in. I offer a small smile and he relents, though he still keeps a tight hold on my upper arm. And I’m thankful for it.

“Whatever attacked them may still be around here. We should be careful.”

I nod, gesturing to him to lead the way. As he chooses our path, I sheath my dagger and reattach the chain to my belt. Doesn’t look like we’re going to need our weapons and Riku’s Keyblade can cause a heck of a lot more damage to anything that attacks us anyway.

I begin to tense, having the sneaking suspicion something is watching us. Judging from the stiff way Riku is stepping, he feels the eyes as well. I move closer to him, wincing from Emma’s claws.

The suddenness of the next events makes me wonder if they even occurred. One minute I’m walking beside Riku and the next he’s on top of me, the whole of his weight thrown on my body. We roll across the muddy, bloody earth, narrowly avoiding the spike that could’ve eviscerated us both in one blow. On our feet, Riku calls his Keyblade once more, holding it protectively before me as he steps between whatever is attacking us and myself. My dagger is drawn and in my hand before I consciously register the movement.

“What the hell is that?”

What the hell is right. The monster we face now is obviously the one who caused this sociopath’s dream. It seems to be a cross between a behemoth and a scorpion, with a mouth full of razor sharp teeth and nasty looking talons. Its maws come together and we are far too aware of the hissing sound and the smoke rising from the driblets of saliva that fall to the ground. So, obviously, it can inflict damage not only from its claws and its teeth and its spiked tail, but it can also cause a severe case of death by poisoning.

“Oh, this is just great,” I moan. “We have no items to save ourselves with, you realize that? We get mauled, we die. We’re utterly screwed!”

“Shut up, An. We’ll figure something out.”

We dodge apart from each other as the monster’s tail comes shooting at us. In one smooth motion, Riku’s on his feet and charging the thing, dodging a talon and leaping to strike its back, only to have the Keyblade bounce off the hard shell. He hits the ground as has only a second to move before the tail begins to streak towards him.

Riku’s window of opportunity, that second, is up before he even regains his balance.

Riku wasn’t going to make it.


“Hey, you hear that?”

“Yeah. Sounds like a battle.”

“Shall we?”

“What the hell. It’s not like we haven’t fought enough already.”

“Those little black things were easy. Child’s play.”

“Whatever, porcupine. Lead the way.”

“Shut up, Knight.”

“Ex-Knight.”

“Whatever.”


Riku watched as the tail flew toward him. He was going to die. His eyes closed and he pictured Sora in his mind, watched a move of events in his life flash on the screen of his eyelids, waiting for the killing blow.

That never came.

Sea-blue eyes opened, widened, and used the opportunity granted him to get to his feet and retreat to a safe distance, his rescuer following shortly thereafter. Riku was staring at Ansem, at the weapon the boy held in his hand. He recognized the chain, but the weapon was something entirely different. A Keyblade. But not just any Keyblade, but a seemingly unwieldable Keyblade.

The blade was as long as Ansem’s body from shoulder to ankle, the end of the blade curled into a sharp ‘V’ with little prong-like barbs off-shooting from the blades of the ‘V’. The blade itself was coloured a deep violet, shot through with ebony vines. The hilt was the size of Ansem’s forearm, a bright ivory, wrapped in thick leather straps whose ends were tattered fashionably. He held it with one hand with seemingly very little effort. Their eyes met and Riku saw surprise and a little bit of fear in the other’s eyes.

“What’s it called?” A quiet question made the fear in Ansem’s eyes lessen just a little. The other opened his mouth to speak, but before the name of the Keyblade could be spoken, the scorpion-behemoth attacked again. They broke apart, spinning to identical crouches and launching themselves at the creature again. And again.

“Hey! Hit the deck!”

A brief glance was all the silver-haired boys gave each other before they followed the order, and witnessed a giant fireball crash against the creature’s mouth. It stumbled backward, rising on its hind legs. The boys made to rise when a black haired man appeared between them, swinging a rather insanely large broad sword at the creature’s exposed stomach.

“Get back! Move it!”

The black-haired man grabbed their shoulders, dragging them back toward a blonde who watched with amused interest. He leaned down, took Ansem’s hand and pulled him up, helping the black-haired man push Riku to safety. The quartet turned as an incredible hissing sound came from the battlefield. The innards of the scorpion-behemoth creature spilled out onto the ground, smoke rising from the putrid mass.

“Oh that’s just wonderful. Even its insides are acidic.” Riku muttered. Ansem made an agreeing sound, staring at the Keyblade that had since returned to the dagger-and-chain state. He sheathed the dagger as Riku let his Keyblade vanish, and they both rose, jumping a little when the two that had saved them clapped their hands down on their shoulders.

“Hey now, where are you two going so fast? Doesn’t your mother deserve a hello, Riku?” this from the spiky, black-haired man.
“Mother?” Seifer and Ansem said at the same time.

A small grin was on the black-haired man’s face, mirth dancing in softly glowing woodland eyes. The broadsword was now on his back, held by twin straps around his shoulders and waist. The blonde was grinning as well, green eyes glinting in amusement. At his waist was a very familiar weapon. At least it was familiar to Riku.

“That’s a gunblade!” the silver-haired boy spluttered. “A gunblade. Hi, mom. How’s dad, by the way?”

“No idea,” the black-haired man at the same time the blonde blinked and said, “Well, duh. Wait, how the hell do you know what a gunblade is?”

Riku and Ansem glanced at the blonde, blinking. “I saw someone with the same sort of weapon.” Riku replied.

“Looks like we have some sharing to do.” Quipped the black-haired man. “Well, let’s make camp. There’s a clearing this way. Besides, it’s getting dark and I know I can’t see in the dark all that well.”

Once camp was agreed upon, the four moved in the direction indicated by the spiky-haired man. A fire was set, courtesy of the blonde who grumbled the entire time, and they settled down, treating wounds and the silver-haired boys snarfed up the offered food. An uneasy silence occurred for a few moments before the blonde spoke up.

“All right, enough of this bullshit.” All eyes turned to him. “My name’s Seifer. Seifer Almasy. This is Hyperion, and if you so much as look at her funny, I’ll skin you alive. Got that?”

“Ah, the gunblade’s Hyperion. All right. Cool.”

“Shut up, porcupine.” Seifer grumbled. “And what the hell do you mean ‘mother’?” He ducked the pebble chucked his way and curled his lip in a feral grin at the black-haired man. Riku and Ansem exchanged glances and sighed in unison.

“You’re a prick, Almasy. Anyway, my turn, right?” At the blonde’s nod, the spiky-haired man continued. “I’m Zack. Zackary Fair. And Riku’s mother by blood.” He emphasized the word ‘blood’.

“Explain that part.” Seifer asked. “Because you’re lacking sufficiently in the reproduction area.” He yelped when Zack’s hand came into contact with the back of his head.

“When two people love each other very much and they live in Midgar, shit happens. All you need to know is that little relationship.” Zack said. “Anyway, this idiot and I started traveling together to find some people who are very important to us. Your father, for one.” The last comment was directed at Riku. Ansem watched Emma approach Seifer and sniff his boots. He wished Seifer would kick her. “So who are you?”

“Huh?”

Riku nudged Ansem’s side. “Tell them who you are. They already know me.”

“Because Zack’s your mom.” Ansem grumbled. “My name is Anse- An. I’m a friend of Riku’s and we’re looking for someone important to him too, and it’s kind of become a quest.”

Riku’s elbow in his side was a painful reminder of his near slip. Zack’s eyebrow rose but he said nothing about it, and Seifer didn’t seem to notice. Ansem was sure Riku would end up telling Zack because of familial ties, but both he and Riku weren’t sure about Seifer.

“So we’re all looking for someone important to us, with the exception of An – which is a girl’s name by the way – and he’s only along for the ride. Oh, great.” Seifer mock-whined. “We’re a bunch of losers.”

Zack sighed, rubbing his temples, looking at Riku and smiling. “Says you. The one I’m looking for has a severe bondage issue, probably stemming from a childhood stigmata.”

Riku grinned back. “You know dad looked good.”

“That’s more information than I needed to know,” Seifer muttered. “Who walks around in leather all the time anyway?”

“Your princess?”

Seifer sighed, conceding the point. Ansem looked over at Riku and smiled. “Think Sora’s developed a bondage issue?”

“Sora? Bondage? I don’t think he’s the type.”

“It’s been two years.”

“I fought the kid and I say he’s not the type.”

The tussle that ensued was just getting to be fun before they were pulled apart by the two older men. All four grinned a moment after and laughed. When the laughter died down, they sat in companionable silence for a while.

“Riku, are you going to continue alone?” Zack asked.

Riku looked to Ansem who shrugged, and then back to his mother. “If you want to come with us, Mom, we don’t have a problem with it.”

Seifer snorted. “I’m going with them whether they like it or not. Besides, they get into a lot more interesting shit than you get us into.”

“Screw you, Almasy,” Zack said cheerfully. The blonde’s mouth opened to spit out a sentence stringed with retaliatory profanities, but Zack beat his words to death.

“So what were those weapons you two were fighting with?” Zack said, leaning forward. “Giant keys?”

Riku sighed, sea-blue eyes closing a little bit. “They’re called Keyblades, Mom, and right now mine is in it’s true form. An’s is…”
“It’s not. The chain I’ve got changed it’s form to something different. The true form is the dagger right here.”

“Yeah.” Riku nudged Ansem’s shoulder with his palm. “What is it called? The form it changed into?"

The other three looked at Ansem expectantly. The lavender-haired boy groaned a little bit.

“The Keyblade I held during that battle… it was named… it’s called…”

Redemption.