We walked around Lindblum for a few hours, taking in the sights and stocking up on items and new armour. We bought as many potions as we could carry, and I never once dropped Riku’s hand; just in case. “Okay, we’ve bought tonnes of new stuff and are running low on funds. It’ll be late soon, and if it gets too late then you’ll insist on us going to bed. Don’t you think we should go and find this chamber of yours now?” I was annoyed; Roxas had forced us to come here and yet we weren’t doing anything. Riku looked at me and smiled softly, knowing just what was going through my mind – the sooner we got on with sealing the chamber, the sooner we could go and look for Gildas.
Roxas shook his head. “Don’t you think it would be better if we wrote today off, got a good night’s sleep, and checked out the chamber tomorrow? It could be dangerous if Demyx has managed to break in and we charge in unprepared.” I started to panic. We couldn’t wait another day! “No, but…we won’t be any better prepared tomorrow! We don’t know what we’re stepping into! Can’t we just go now, please?!” I cried, a little louder than I intended. Roxas opened his mouth to argue, but I spoke over him. “Look, we are doing this for you! We could just leave it to you, but we aren’t! So you need to help us, too – you need to let us get this over with as soon as possible, so I can get on with searching for my friend!
“Because if we leave it too late…I’m scared that we won’t ever find him again…When…when we were trying to save him before…I built my hopes up…and now it’s like I’ve lost him all over again…I miss him so much…so please…please can’t we just go now…so I can start looking for him…please?” The realisation suddenly hit me that I might truly never see Gildas again. I gulped back tears that were threatening to spill over, and looked Roxas square in the eye. He agreed with a nod; he didn’t know what to say.
Roxas led us through the lower levels of the castle sneakily, trying to avoid the guards. We were at the docks soon, and we entered a crumbling stone passageway from there. It was dark, so I conjured up a ball of fire and let it float just ahead of our group. At one point, the passageway shrank so we would have to crawl through, one by one. Roxas led the way with Namine just behind him. I was behind her, followed by Riku, with L and Sora at the back, complaining about the dark and the mysterious slime on the walls. When the crawlspace opened up again, I straightened up, brushed myself, and gave my hand to Riku to help haul him up. Then we looked around, and gasped.
In front of us was a dazzling door, made completely out of what looked like solid gold. It gave me a headache to look at, and I had to shield my eyes. I wasn’t the only one to do so, either. Roxas stepped forwards and began to chant in a low murmur. I couldn’t understand what he was saying; it seemed to be in a completely different language to English, and yet he seemed fluent. He finished chanting in a quiet groan that faded away slowly, and the door melted away. I was astonished, and searched everywhere for the puddle of gold that my mind was telling me must exist, but there was no trace.
I was pushed into the chamber gently by Riku, and was stunned by all the treasure we saw. This gold was softer, and seemed to give off warmth. I saw two figures in black standing in the centre of the room, and held my magic rod out, ready for a fight. But then I realised who it was. “Gildas!” I shouted, and sprinted at it, jumping into his arms. We hugged tightly, my tears mingling with his on the golden floor, and I couldn’t stop stammering at him. “Gildas…you’re here…I…we thought…Demyx…and you…then Zexion…your eyes…gold? And you’re here…and we are…and Roxas said…Demyx…but…almost missed…I missed you so much!”
Haru and I hugged like we’d never seen each other before. I didn’t need to say a thing, Haru understood what I felt, I could feel that in her hug. When she pulled back, her eyes glistening with tears (like my own), I couldn’t take it any longer. “Haru, I… I’m so sorry…” I stammered, and then fell. My head hit the ground, not hard, but due to the metallic nature of the floor panels it hurt quite a bit. I picked myself up. “Sorry… I… I’ve just gotten the Final Summon and I’m… kinda weary… and hungry too…” Haru grabbed me, opened her bag. Pulled out a Potion. “I knew this’d come in handy at some point!” She said, and pulled out the stopper. She held it out to me. “Thanks… What’d I do without you, eh?” I laughed, and tipped the bottle’s contents down my throat.
In seconds, I was feeling better. The weariness was fading, though the hunger wasn’t. That could wait. No, stop. That’s what mother always said… used to say… that attitude was the reason I was so thin. “I don’t mean to be a bother, and I know you’ve come so far and all, but… I really could use some food right now.” I laughed nervously. “Sure! We’d love to have some food, right guys?” Everyone nodded, I turned to Zexion, who smiled at me. “You know, I really like your new eyes…”
Over lunch, we re-capped on everything. Roxas refused to join, instead inspecting each weapon in turn, and noting the place where my scythe was meant to be. He didn’t comment, though. I told Haru about my loneliness, my capture of the last two Aeons, my eyes turning a multitude of colours (And you didn’t get a picture? Aww man!) and finally my defeat of Neo Bahamut. I tried not to brag, but considering all I’d done… I felt that a little bragging was okay. Everyone listened intently, even Sora, who probably still hated me a little.
Once we were done, I had my first true good look at the Chamber, taking in it’s true majesty. Then I remembered the passage. “Oh, Roxas, is it okay if Haru takes something from here? She’ll give it back pretty soon, I know.” He nodded. I bade Haru follow me, and she did. I took her down the passage. There on a golden pedestal and bookstand lay a book, plain leather, with a bright gold bookmark. I let her open it. The first pages contained Fire, Water and so on, and so Haru looked to the bookmark, and opened that page. The last page in the book, in fact. In bright golden script was the word: “Flare”. Haru gasped. She read the instructions on the page, and closed the book. She turned to me. Looked concerned. I asked why, and she answered simply: “This spell is immensely powerful… I shouldn’t use it unless I have to…” I laughed. “Let’s see then, Missy Mage!” She cast Flare. A small explosion in the centre of the room, but that wasn’t the devastating effect.
As the explosion materialised, I took a deep breath… with no oxygen. Or air, for that matter. The small explosion had sucked in all the air around us, and we couldn’t breathe. Haru dropped to her knees, and I wasn’t sure if it was from air loss or simply because the spell had worn her out. I had to stop it. Do something. But I couldn’t breathe, let alone speak. Thinking quickly, I realised that with my powers I didn’t need to speak to unleash my powers, just think. This was risky, what if it was too powerful? I had no choice. We’d die soon. Come on, Gildas. Do it weakly. ( gigaflare ) A small red beam shot from my chest to the continuing explosion, and the explosion… imploded. I have no other words to describe it. It was like a black hole had enveloped it. Haru looked up, gratefully, taking in deep gulps of oxygen-renewed air. I smiled down, nervously. (She was right, it was far too strong, even a small one…)
What now? We’d saved the Chamber, found each other, and gained our full potential. All that was left was… Oh god. Demyx. Zexion had my book. As me and Haru walked back to the main Chamber, I began to despair. I saw Zexion smile at me. And I just couldn’t take it. I ran to him, hugged him. “I’m sorry… I didn’t know Demyx was bad, and I couldn’t stop myself, and I don’t know but we…” He cut me off, stroking my hair. “Shhh my love, calm down. I know. I had your book that night, and I read but the words became blurry. Did you and him..?” I nodded, sobbing once more. He began crying. “I love you so much… I forgive you, my love.” I hit his chest weakly. “No! You deserve better than me, you deserve someone who wouldn’t do this to you, you-“ He grabbed me. “Don’t you ever say that. Don’t. I don’t know what I’d do without you… so don’t you try and tell me that I deserve better. Because I don’t want better. I want you, mistakes and all.” I sobbed once more into his black cloak. How many times had this cloak been drenched in my tears? I dreaded to think.
“Oh I’m SOO Sorry to break up this teary reunion, but I have something that belongs to you, Gildas.” Came an unknown voice. I turned around… it sounded familiar. And then I saw him. Standing there, in the doorway, his hood down and my book in his hands… was Demyx.
I felt Riku stiffen next to me, and knew that I had done it, too. Nobody seemed to react to the fact that Demyx was standing right there, right in front of us, all of ten steps away. And then it seemed to happen all at once. Demyx took a slow step forward. Meanwhile, Sora and Roxas pulled their Keyblade out of thin air – as usual – Riku unsheathed his sword, Gildas readied his scythe and I brandished my magic rod. Demyx stood still and laughed; but it was different to his usual laugh. This one was low and loud, and reverberated around the chamber several times.
Demyx held his hands in the air. “Okay, you got me. I clearly have no way of beating all of you. So you win, yeah? I give up. Truly gutted…” I was confused. There was no way that he didn’t expect this, so why hadn’t he planned for it? Unless he had. He was just playing with us! “Oh! What’s this then?” He brandished Gildas’s book at us, laughing his slow laugh again. “Did you forget that I was holding onto this? I could take out his memories and hurt him terribly, all slow and stuff or I could just kill him straight off. Which do you reckon?” I never took my eyes of the book. “Silence?” Demyx was still talking. “So then, I’ll have to decide. Goodie, I like this game!” He opened the book at the very beginning. “Let’s see…The Great Underwear Incident of 2006. He could forget that, right? It’s not going to spoil my fun or anything.” He tore the page out slowly and deliberately, watching Gildas with a smirk the whole time.
Gildas screamed in pain, a terrible scream that cut through the air and echoed in all of our hearts. When Demyx tore the final part holding the page in, Gildas fell to the floor, where he writhed and shuddered. I ran to him, but Zexion was there first, lifting him back to his feet, gripping his hands tightly, whispering softly in his ear. Demyx watched the show, laughing still. And then he tore out the next page. Gildas screamed again, and clutched at Zexion. I stood by helplessly, wanting to help but not knowing how to. Then Demyx made to tear out a third page.
“Stop!” I shouted. “Stop it, it isn’t fair! Leave him alone. Please, just leave him alone!” My voice had started loud and firm, but died away as I spoke. “Please…don’t hurt him…please!” Demyx looked at me. “Man, you are so bossy. You know, you should really get that in check. People won’t like you if you keep telling everyone what to do.” I didn’t say anything, so Demyx tore out the page. Gildas’s scream mixed with my shout and Zexion’s quiet sobbing this time.
I was in agony. No pages had ever been torn from me so slowly… each little tiny rip was a slice to my soul, and as each tiny rip occurred, a piece of my memory faded. Soon, Demyx would get bored of my pain and simply kill me outright, that was just his way of doing things. Once he’d savoured my screams, he’d crush me. And no-one was brave enough to stop him. Caring, yes. Meaning well, yes. Brave? No. Well, maybe. But if no-one would stop him out of fear of my death, then I had to do something.
The pain caused my thinking to become immensely sharp. My mind was totally clear with each little tear, and with each little tear I could see, and feel that the tears became slowly faster. Demyx was indeed tiring. What could I do? I had to do something. My friends were behind me. Each of them not powerless, but power-fearing. I was the only one who could stop Demyx, or slow him down at least. Rip. Pain. Tear. Pain. Slowly. Pain. (here’s my chance) Rip. Pain (GIGAFLARE!). Rip. Pain. Scream. Suffering. Gasps. I opened my eyes. Demyx was gone. In his place was a face I knew all too well, and as Haru looked, confused, everyone else in the room stood in shock. “Who is that? Who is he? Where’s Demyx?” Sora didn’t cry. Instead, he began to rant, and shout. “No! No way! You! Not likely! No! You can’t! I won’t let you!” The man laughed. NOW Haru recognized him. The long, powerful, booming laughter sent chills down everyone’s spines, and Naminé looked sick. I stood up, Riku helping me. We stood together, drew our weapons. In tandem, we charged. Slashed. Sliced through thin air. Almost in unison, we shook our heads, and screamed at the ceiling. “ANSEM!” Soon after, the space where Ansem had stood became just ordinary air, and he re-appeared in the centre of the room.
