Chapter Four: The Golden Chamber
We had planned our next move as well as we could for now. Now we just had to persuade the others, and then distract ourselves until morning. Zexion and I made our way back to the group and addressed everyone at the same time, ignoring the filthy looks Roxas kept throwing at us. I explained the plan as quickly as I could; Zexion didn’t want to talk to anybody. “No! I won’t let you do it, Haru. It’s too dangerous!” Riku exclaimed, once I had finished explaining. I shook my head. “It’s the only way, Riku. I’ll be fine. Honestly, do you really think I’d let myself get hurt?” I was talking bravely, but I was scared, really. Terrified, actually.
Once we had finished discussing the new plan, most people went to bed. Riku, Zexion and I were the only ones still up, sitting quietly by the fire. I watched the light from the flames skitter over nearby rocks and twigs. I could feel a lump in my coat pocket, and remembered I still had Gildas’s book in there. I got it out, so I didn’t sit on it. “Is there anything new in there?” Zexion nodded at the book. I looked up at him, and then opened it to the last page. There, shining words had been written. They looked fresh. I nodded, reading the last page. I had just finished when Zexion pulled the book out of my hands.
As Zexion read the last part of the new page, a smile stretched across his face, and tears of joy sprang from his eyes. “He…misses me. He misses me! He said he misses me!” Zexion jumped up and danced around, before coming over to me and giving me a hug where I sat. He announced he was going to bed, the smile still plastered across his face, and he wandered off to settle down for the first night since Gildas had left. “Do you reckon we ought to go to bed too? Are you tired?” Riku asked. I shook my head. “I want to be with you.” I rested my head on his shoulders and stared into the fire. Riku stroked my hair almost absent-mindedly as he spoke to me next. “Aren’t you scared about tomorrow? If it works, I mean.”
I was silent for a while, before nodding slowly. “Yes, I’m scared. But I’m more scared that we’ve already lost our chance, which proves that I have to do this. I’m more scared that Gildas won’t ever come back to us, that he won’t ever forgive me. I’m terrified that I won’t ever be able to talk to him, or laugh with him, or just be near him, ever again. Besides, I’m scared of what I’ll do to Zexion if he stays this miserable.” Riku laughed softly. “I’m sure that will mean a lot to him, when you tell him.” I shrugged. “What if I can’t?” Riku pulled my chin up gently with his finger. “You will be able to. If the plan doesn’t work, then we’ll try again. And again, if we have to. We will do whatever it takes to get him back. Like you said, we’re a team. We have to help each other out.” We didn’t share a word after that, just sat together by the fire until we fell asleep where we were.
As I reached the ground and walked to Demyx’s house, the front door opened. Demyx walked out, looking like he was late for something. “Oh, Gildas!” He began, “Thank goodness! I was worried you’d be late. Listen, I need to go see a few friends, they need my help, but I’ll leave the door open for you, okay?” I smiled, but not like I had before. “Are you okay?” He asked, and stroked my cheek. “You look... different somehow... maybe it’s all that newfound power eh? Oh! How did it go with the two Aeons?” I smiled again. “It went okay. I have their co-operation now. I can finally go find the Final Summon. Did you find out where it is?” Demyx looked crestfallen. “Unfortunately, no. But my friends have been there before, I’m sure they can point us in the right direction! I gotta go,” He kissed my cheek. “I’ll be back soon, okay?” I smiled, nodded. He opened a black portal, waved, and disappeared inside. My smile faded, fast. I walked into Demyx’s house.
I didn’t have much time. I didn’t know how, but Demyx was the one clouding my mind. He was doing something to me, and I knew it wasn’t good. I had to leave. Ultima had a good effect on me, after all. With my new insight, and my new heart, everything was so much clearer. It was Demyx. He caused Zexion and Haru to kiss, and they didn’t want to. I was unsure about him, but I would never have spent the night here under normal circumstances. Time was running short.
6I ran up the stairs, into his bedroom. Grabbed my bag. Ran downstairs. Where next? Kitchen! Supplies. Fridge... Top Shelf? Middle Shelf? Aha! Right at the back. Bacon. I closed the fridge door. Heated up the oven. I didn’t want to ruin the bacon with Ifrit, now did I? While the bacon was cooking, I raided his breadbin for some bread (Wholemeal, my favourite! That was getting kind of creepy.) And found a packet of biscuits. I re-opened the fridge, grabbed some butter and prepared the bread for bacon sandwiches. The bacon still cooking, I grabbed a bottle of drink from the fridge (How many times had I opened that now?) and stuffed it in my bag. Bacon almost done. I opened a few drawers till I found some re-sealable food storage bags and got a few ready. Bacon finished! Bacon. OUCH! Hot! Bacon. Bread. Butter. Sandwiches! Food bags. My bag. Oven off. Door. Close. Run!
I didn’t know where I had to go, but anywhere was safer than here. I was on his good side, but he’d realise all too soon that my love for him was false. I was in love with Zexion (Did he cloud my mind when I left, too?) and that was that. I’d been a fool, a stubborn, power-hungry fool, but I needed to realise that there was nothing I could do until I was reunited with the group. All I could do was pray that south was the right way to go.
The next morning, we set off. I was jittery and nervous, but Riku was next to me the whole time, holding my hand and helping me to breathe. My eyes were darting around everywhere, the road ahead of us, behind us, Riku, Zexion, my feet, the road again. I just wanted to get this over with. It got to lunchtime and Demyx still hadn’t shown up yet. Everyone sat down to eat, but I couldn’t eat. I couldn’t stay still either; I had to pace around, knotting and unknotting my fingers. I was anxious for us to set off again. I knew it wouldn’t make Demyx turn up if we just started walking, but at least I would be doing something.
It felt like we were in the same spot for hours. In reality, it was probably only half an hour, but I just wanted to get going. I ushered everyone to be quick, and packed up before they had even finished, pulling them up and pushing them forwards. “Let’s go now, okay?” We had only walked a little while after that before the usual black hole appeared. I breathed a sigh of relief; if Demyx hadn’t turned up, none of the plan would have worked. Demyx stepped out of the hole, a smirk on his face. Somehow, I felt a lot calmer now. “Roxas. Tell me now, I haven’t got much time. My boyfriend’s waiting for me to come back.” Roxas shook his head, and Demyx sighed.
“Okay then. I’m not going to play nicely today.” Demyx lunged forward and grabbed Roxas by the arm, dragging him over. “Normally I don’t use pointy weapons, I like fighting with water. But today is different. I want this to be painful for you.” He whipped out a short sword and put it to Roxas’s throat. “Now hurry up and tell me how to get into that chamber!” he hissed. I watched closely, and ran at Demyx, grabbing his sword. He swung his arm around wildly to try and dislodge me, but I held on. Instead, he threw Roxas to the ground and grabbed me. “I’ll kill her!” he shouted.
Here it was. I had to negotiate with him now. “You wouldn’t do that. You haven’t got the guts. In fact, I never get why people say that. It doesn’t take guts to kill a person; it takes a disregard for every person in the world.” Demyx looked puzzled. I wasn’t surprised; usually a person with a threat on their life didn’t talk that calmly. “Right…” he said. I smiled dazzlingly. “Besides, if you kill me then you have no leverage.” I was trying to hint as subtly as I could, but I got the feeling it wasn’t working.
“Don’t kill her!” Namine cried, in an attempt to help me out here. A slow look of realisation dawned of Demyx’s face. Finally! “Okay. I won’t kill her. But I will take her with me.” We all gasped in mock horror. “Yes, that’ll work quite nicely, I think. I’ll take her with me and then keep cutting…bits of her off…and bringing them to you as proof that I’m serious.” Ouch. I couldn’t believe how lame he was, but I had to make him believe that we were scared. I let my lower lip tremble a bit, and sniffed slightly as though I was trying not to cry. Really, I wanted to laugh.
Demyx opened another black portal and walked through it, dragging me through, pretending to kick and shout. I looked back briefly and smiled at Riku, and then I saw Zexion running for the portal. Everyone was shouting for him to stop, but he kept running. I think he made it in, but it was hard to tell; everything went as black as the hole I was in. I couldn’t see, but it didn’t seem to scare me. This hole was creepy though; it seemed to be crying in pain and terror. We emerged into the sunlight, and I had to shield my eyes from the sudden light. There was a house on the horizon, and I assumed it was where we were headed.
Sure enough, we went into the house, but we went down the back stairs into the basement. Demyx threw me into a chair and then went up to the main house and I could hear him calling for Gildas. I felt in my pockets while he was gone to make sure I had everything; food, water, magic rod, Gildas’s book, check. Demyx stormed in. “Where is that little git?” he raved. I panicked then. It seemed like Gildas wasn’t here; so where was he? At least I knew he wasn’t dead now. Demyx turned to me. “Stay here. Well, you don’t really have a choice, actually. The doors are all locked, so you have to stay here while I go and look for your little friend.” He faded away, and I jumped up to try the doors. Of course they were locked, like he said. And Gildas was gone…My only hopes lay with Zexion now. I slumped into the chair to wait for something new to happen.
I ran, and I didn’t look back. Demyx could appear at any moment, and I couldn’t risk being seen or being found out. If I was, I’d be punished. I was like a slave to him now, and wherever he was going, whichever friends he was going to see, he’d be boasting. He wouldn’t let me go easily. Summoning the power of Typhoon (who realised the sneaky thing would be so helpful?) I blew the wind against my back, hastening by movement. There wasn’t a moment to lose. I had to get… somewhere, anywhere as soon as I could.
South… that was my only hope. South would be where the group would be, I’d have to find them and… oh god. Apologise. I’d have to apologise to Haru and apologise to Zexion and apologise to Riku… no-one wanted me there, did they? I slowed down. Stopped. They were my only hope… but they wouldn’t want me anymore. If they did, they’d be using my powers, but they weren’t evil. They’d just ask me to leave, not wanting to see me anymore. I had nowhere to go, did I? Sora, Riku, Haru, Zexion, Naminé and L… they would want me gone… I’d caused them enough trouble, I didn’t want to bring Demyx to them again…
I sat down; fought back the tears for what must have been the hundredth time this journey. What could I do? Where could I go? Nowhere. No-one wanted me now but Demyx, as a prize to be killed and hung on his wall… I summoned Titan, who looked down, almost caringly. “Titan… I’m sorry to ask you to do this, but I don’t have anywhere else to go… I know that orders can’t be taken back, but I have no-one to run to anymore…” I swallowed. This would be… my last order… “I want you to take the piece of land I’m standing on, from that tree,” I pointed to a nearby oak tree, “to that one, that one and that one, this square, I want you to take the ground from beneath it and swap them over. I want you to make a cavern under the ground, right where I’m standing, and swap the earth over. Somewhere where no-one would ever have to see my face again.” Titan nodded. “Yes, Master.” There was a glint in his eye. Was he happy? Did he hate me too? I hadn’t the foggiest idea, and it didn’t matter anymore.
Titan began to pull the earth from beneath my feet, and began tipping it over. Just as the earth became near-vertical a black portal opened up. Demyx had found me at last, I was doomed, he’d kill me down there, and I’d die by his hands in the gloom… But wait. Rolling out of the portal. That wasn’t Demyx’s shape… and as the figure rolled, his hood fell down. Zexion. “No!” I screamed, as the earth tipped over, and I found myself in an underground cavern, in total darkness… and I’d trapped the one I love in doing so.
About ten minutes after Demyx left, I stood up again. Zexion clearly wasn’t here…maybe he just hadn’t got through the portal in time? Or maybe…maybe he ran into Demyx! I started to worry about Zexion…and Gildas. I started pacing around the room, looking for anything that could help me. There wasn’t anything useful in here! I wanted to shout out. The plan had worked, but…Gildas wasn’t here, I was trapped and Demyx was seriously angry. Great. I talked things over to myself as I walked around, trying to make things clearer. What did I need to do? Get out of the locked door and find a way back to everyone else, preferably with Gildas, too. But first things first. I needed to get out. I started looking for a crowbar, or a screwdriver or a key…And then it hit me. How stupid had I been? I could just burn the door down!
I was just about to use Fira when Demyx appeared again. “Sit down,” he growled. Crud. He seemed more than a little angry; I guessed he couldn’t find Gildas. Or had he seen him but missed his chance to bring him back? I sat, wondering about Gildas still. Demyx was striding around, muttering furiously. “You!” he shouted at me, making me jump. “I have a name, you know.” This probably wasn’t the best time to be smart with him, but I wasn’t really thinking things through. “Shut the hell up!” He kicked my chair backwards. “You were going to use your magic to burn the door down, weren’t you?!” I shook my head. “Stop it! You seem to forget I could kill you at any minute!” I laughed, wanting to infuriate him even more. It worked.
Demyx growled, and threw his short sword at the wall behind me. It hit the wall with a thud, and the end of the blade was embedded in the wall. “Empty out your pockets, girl.” I blinked. “I said empty them!” he screamed. “Before I empty them for you!” I smiled at him. “Fine…have it your way,” he grumbled, and went through my pockets. He took out my food and water and threw them on the floor. I knew he wouldn’t find my magic rod; it was in a concealed pocket on the inside of my coat. But then he took out a book, and I blanched. I had completely forgotten to hide Gildas’s book! “What’s this?” Demyx said, more to himself than me, and ran his hands over the book. He opened it and began to read random sentences out loud.
“My parents forced me to spend time with them,” and “I have an aeon! This is so exciting,” and “I miss him…” I wanted him to stop; he didn’t have the right to read Gildas’s private memories! I tried to get up and pull it out of his hands, but I couldn’t move. I struggled desperately, trying my hardest to do it discreetly, but Demyx still noticed. “Dark powers can come in very handy sometimes, don’t you think? You can stop people from moving…make them relive their worst nightmares…force them to do things they wouldn’t even think of normally…” And then that night with Zexion was playing in my head again. “Poor you.” Demyx poured hatred out with those two words.
“So, what is this? That person’s diary or something? No, it can’t be…It seems like his thoughts at the moment he thinks them…his memories, maybe? No…Well, whatever it is, I’m sure it doesn’t matter. Right?” He smiled at me frostily, and tore one page slowly out. I shouted; I couldn’t help it. I remembered Zexion telling me that if anyone pulled out any of the pages, Gildas would be in agony. And if anyone pulled out every page…Gildas was going to die if I didn’t stop Demyx. “Oh, what? Is this tatty old book important to you? That is a shame, isn’t it…?” He pulled out another page. I bit my tongue.
Once he had pulled out a few more pages and I wasn’t reacting, he got bored and dropped the book to the floor. I closed my eyes in relief. “Let’s go for a walk,” Demyx said suddenly. I opened my eyes in surprise. A walk could be my chance to escape; why would he want to go for a walk? “Come on, get up!” he urged. I stood up and walked over to him. He led me over to the door and outside, and I realised it was already dark. How long had I been in there? Then my legs started walking; I wasn’t controlling them. Demyx walked alongside me, a smile still playing around his lips. We walked until his house disappeared over the horizon behind us, and then stood still, in the middle of nowhere. What did he plan on doing here?
I looked away. It didn’t help, the darkness was absolute anyway. I hear a quivering voice. “Gildas? Is… is that you?” I didn’t answer, I was too ashamed. If I said it was, he’d only realise he was trapped with an unwanted person, and he’d hate me even more. “Please Gildas; if that’s really you… answer me…” I couldn’t speak to him. (Hellfire.) So much for last order. I created a burning ember at several point in the small cavern. One for each Aeon… One for each time I’d wanted to kill myself in the past week. I had my eyes closed, my back turned to Zexion. “Please Gildas… Talk to me… Please…” He began to cry. Great… I was causing him more pain. Even worse. “Don’t waste your breath on me, Zexion… I’m not worth it…” He ran over, hugged me, his head buried in my back. “Don’t you dare say that! Don’t you dare! You mean so much to me… I thought I’d never see you again…” Flash. He… missed me? I mean something to him? “I only mean so much because I’m causing you so much pain…” He sobbed once more. “Stop it Gildas, just stop it! I love you, I’ve always loved you and I’ll never stop loving you, you mean so much to me and I thought you were gone…” I turned my head, then my body. I couldn’t look at him, so I stared at the floor. “Gildas… damn it Gildas, look at me.” I jerked my head up. Gazed into his eyes for a second, then looked back. “I can’t… not after all I’ve done. Not after what I did to you…”
My teardrops and his mingled on the cavern floor. He held me tight, I could hear his heart beating… so fast. His fingers ran through my hair, telling me in their own way that everything was okay… I plucked up my courage and looked up, gazing into his deep blue eyes that were always shining… And he stepped back in surprise. “What’s wrong? Are you okay?” I asked, he was totally shocked. “Your eyes… they’ve changed, I can’t describe them…” The darkness. They’d turned my eyes, I knew it… My eyes cannot lie… “Here. Is there anything you can use for a mirror?” (Tidal Wave. Hellfire.) From my left hand came water, just enough for a medium-sized puddle, and in my left burned a small flame enough to see well in a dark space, perfect for the centre of the room. I bent down, kneeling by the side of the puddle. And my jaw dropped.
My eyes weren’t black, nor white, nor brown, as they had been before. They were… how can I describe it? My eyes were split. The whites of the eyes as normal, the black iris the same, but the pupils… the colours… Each pupil was split into eight parts. Deep Blue. Aquamarine. Crimson. Silver. Brown. Yellow. Pink. Purple. The colours of the elements… Upon acquiring Ultima, the spectrum was complete, and my eyes were transformed… I gazed down into the puddle, somehow feeling drawn into it, mesmerized by my own eyes… Just as my nose hovered above it, I jerked my head back. My arms twisted. I screamed. Shrieked in agony. I blacked out, the last thing I remember was Zexion shaking me, holding me down, looking with fear at me and then, as my vision went dark, his gentle hand caressing my cheek…
What seemed like an eternity after, I awoke. Zexion lay by my side, his hand and mine interlocked. I didn’t want to wake him, but as soon as I saw the far wall I had to shake him up. “Zexion… please wake up, this is important…” He looked blearily up at me and smiled. Hang on. That smile… like a far-off memory… I’d seen the exact same smile before, but where? Why could I not remember? Anyway, the wall. I pointed, and Zexion followed my finger to the wall, the embers failing, their light receding. “That wasn’t there before…” Zexion began, and I nodded. (Hellfire.) I shot a meteor in its direction. And it just kept going, forever… And then I couldn’t see it anymore. The passageway that had opened went on… forever.
Whichever way I looked, there was nothing anywhere. I was in the middle of a vast emptiness. And I was alone with Demyx, who had dark powers. And nobody else knew where I was. Okay. Things didn’t look so good honestly; but if I kept a cool head I might be able to find a way out of this. Demyx was talking, so I figured I should start paying attention. “Out here, nobody will disturb us,” he was saying. Disturb us? What were we going to do?
“Now I hear that you can do magic stronger than normal old third tiers. Right?” I figured he was talking about the fire magic I had done in the park all those weeks ago, the thunder I had used on Destiny Islands, and the water in Balamb Town. I decided it would be best to act confused. “Don’t look at me like that! I want you to show me this superior magic!” I shrugged, scared by the fiery look in Demyx’s eyes. He slapped me round the face with enough force to knock me to the floor. I rubbed my cheek and looked up at Demyx angrily. “Don’t look at me like that!” He was crazy; I hadn’t even imagined he would ever shout and scream like this.
“I know that you know what I’m talking about. And I know that you’re going to demonstrate it for me. Otherwise, I’ll go and get your little man and hurt him until you agree.” He was suddenly calm again; this guy could flicker between his emotions with an unbelievable speed! He dragged me to my feet by my collar and looked right into my face. I pushed his hand off of my coat and dusted it off before speaking. “Okay. If you’re going to use low threats like that, then fine. I’ll tell you. I know what you’re talking about. But it doesn’t come at will; it happens when I need it most.” Not strictly true, but close enough. “But why do you want to know?” I braved asking. He sighed.
“Okay. I’ve learned how to steal people’s techniques. It comes in quite handy, actually. That’s why I was with Gildas all that time; that’s why I took you rather than Namine. So, if you use it, I can take it from you, and you never have to worry about accidentally hurting people again. Sound good to you?” he explained patiently. Our conversation was almost civil now. “I told you already, I can’t just make it happen. It happens when I need it most, and when I don’t think about it at all.” I wasn’t going to tell him that I wouldn’t use it anyway in front of him; I didn’t want this freak having that much power if he learned how to control it.
“Well then, let’s make you need it,” Demyx said with a friendly smile. He pulled out Gildas’s book and tore out another page. I flinched. It felt as though it was hurting me too, knowing that Gildas must be in absolute agony – and not only that, he must be losing his memories. “Stop it! You aren’t achieving anything! So just stop it, stop it, stop it!” I cried. Demyx seemed surprised. “Oh? Are you upset? That’s a bummer…I guess this is really important to you…but clearly not important enough to get you all fired up. So I’ll just have to take it off your hands.” He ripped out another page. I launched myself at him, but he threw out an arm and I was sprawled on the floor again for the second time in as many minutes. He tore out another page, savouring it this time.
“Fine,” I gasped, “fine. I’ll try and do my magic thing. But only if you give me the book back first.” Demyx rolled his eyes at me, and threw the book down. It landed in the dust, and I scrambled over to pick it up, thrusting it into my pocket. But then I had to unleash some strong magic, and I didn’t know how to. I hadn’t thought this through properly…Just then, I saw a figure appearing over the horizon. I saw the sun hit his silver hair, and then realised who it was. Riku! But how had he gotten here? I turned my thoughts back to Demyx, playing for time. “You might want to step back a bit; it can get a bit strong sometimes.” He laughed, but didn’t move. “I can stand it,” he chuckled. I shook my head, but he interrupted me with a clap of his hands.
“Get on with it already!” I nodded. I closed my eyes and breathed deeply, pretending to focus all my magic. “Hurry up!” called an impatient Demyx. I opened my eyes, glad that he had caused another time stop. “I have to focus all my energy before I can do it,” I sighed. I was getting good at lying. Before I closed my eyes again, I flicked my eyes over to Riku. I could see his face properly now, and he looked worried. He was running over to me. Breathe. In. Out. In. Out. I opened my eyes again, and raised them to the sky. Riku was almost right behind Demyx now.
Demyx walked up to me. I could feel his hands on my arms, his chin on my head. “You’re making this difficult for me, you know. Stop playing around and I won’t have to kill you. I actually think you’re pretty cool. You’d be a great friend for me, I reckon.” I shoved him back. “Tough luck,” I spat, and ran over to Riku. “Let’s go!” He nodded, and opened a portal of darkness. I wanted to know how he did it, but we had no time for questions. Riku ran into the dark hole, dragging me behind him.
I hit the floor on the other side with a thump, and looked around to see Sora, L, Namine and Roxas watching me fearfully. I pulled myself up and grinned. “I’m back.” It didn’t seem like enough. “Where’s Zexion?” Nobody answered me. “So he got through…We got separated, and…I don’t know what happened to him.” I felt so guilty. I looked for Riku, wondering where his hands were so he could hold mine, but he wasn’t near me. He was lying on the floor, face down. I turned him over quickly. “Riku! Riku! RIKU!” I shouted. His eyelids fell open, and I gasped in shock. His eyes had clouded over with black. His whole eyeball was completely black!
