We left Twilight Town and carried on down the road. My bag seemed heavier now – and it wasn’t just from all of our new items. My feet ached, my head hurt, my heart was being pulled down…I wanted to see Gildas again. But I knew I couldn’t. I knew it was too late to turn around now. “Look up ahead, Haru – there it is. There’s Balamb Garden, just like Vivi said.” I looked where he was pointing, and sure enough, there was the great white building that fitted Vivi’s description. I looked all the way up the building, to the very top. It was so tall, and it blocked out most of the sunlight. A sudden dizziness overwhelmed me, and my legs collapsed under me. “Haru! Haru!” I could hear Riku shouting my name, feel him shaking me. But it was too late, and I gave into the overwhelming exhaustion, letting myself fall into the darkness.
When I woke up, I didn’t know how long I’d been out for, or where I was. I was on a bed made up with crisp, white sheets, in a room devoid of warmth. Turning my head to the side, I saw a woman with long, blonde hair fiddling with a few machines. “Quistis?” I croaked. She turned round abruptly, a puzzled look on her face. “You shouldn’t strain yourself. You suffered from lack of rest and dehydration. But, yes, my name is Quistis. Should I know you?” “No,” I said, my voice getting used to being used again. “I was told to come and find you by a black mage in a place called Twilight Town. He said you could help me learn some more magic.”
Quistis sighed, and sat in the chair next to my bed. “You must be talking about Vivi. I taught him some of his magic. “Yes, I can teach you most of the black magic that exists. But not now. You need some more rest, and I have a class to teach in five minutes. Come and see me in…three hours. My classroom is on the next floor up from here, and it has my name on the door. Ask someone if you can’t find it. Meanwhile, there’s someone out there who seems to be very worried about you. I wouldn’t let him in until you woke up, so I’ll fetch him in on my way out. See you in three hours.” Without waiting for a reply, or any confirmation, she breezed out. A few minutes later, Riku came in, his face pale.
“Haru!” he breathed. “You’re okay. You worried me.” I smiled, and apologised. “I’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again.” Riku laughed shakily, and took my hand, sitting down. He used the other hand to brush through his hair. “I’ve got to rest for three hours, and then I can go see Quistis,” I explained. He nodded. I noticed he looked exhausted. “Go get some sleep,” I said. “No, I want to be with you,” he replied. “That wasn’t a request, it was an order. Sleep here if you want, but sleep. That floor can’t have been comfortable last night.” Reluctantly, he agreed, and was asleep in minutes. It wasn’t that easy for me, though. I stared out of the window, at the nearby town, and thought of Gildas.
I had shared so many memories with Gildas; it seemed so wrong to not know where he was or what he was doing. It felt like a part of me had gone with him…If only it had. I passed the time thinking about everything we had done together, all the happiness we had shared. The time passed by, slower than it ever had before for me. But eventually I could go and see Quistis. I shook Riku gently until he woke up, and jumped out of bed myself. After a quick wash, Riku and I headed off to find her classroom.
In the hallway, we saw L, sitting on a plastic chair in his usual manner. He got up as soon as he saw us. “So, are we off to see the magic woman?” he asked. We both nodded, and walked on without a word. As we rode the elevator up, I couldn’t help but press my hands up against the glass to look at all the students milling around. There were so many people…Maybe someday I could come here to learn…That is, if I could ever leave Riku, and if I ever finished this journey.
The elevator came to a jamming stop, and we walked out. Right in front of us was a door marked, ‘Quistis Trepe’, but just as I reached out a hand to knock, the door was pulled open and out stormed a boy of about eighteen, but he seemed much older than that. He had a scar over one eye, and dark, spiky hair. He didn’t take any notice of us, and we had to scurry to the side quickly to avoid being knocked over. “Squall, watch out! There are other people around, you know!” Quistis’s testy voice rang out from the classroom, and I was a little nervous about going in. But we didn’t need to knock, because she saw us, and beckoned us in. “So, what magic do you know and what do you need to learn?” she asked – straight to the point, then.
“Well, I know the first two tiers of the basic elemental magic. I also know Holy, Aero, Bio, Gravity and Drain. But I came to you hoping I could learn the final tier for the elements, and maybe Stop, Death, Poison and Meteor.” Quistis didn’t answer at first, she just kept looking over the three of us – she also couldn’t see Sha’dak. Finally, she gave a curt nod. “Very well. I will take you out of the Garden to a place where we can practise. We will leave in five minutes. Meet me by the gate.” She walked out of the room, and we followed suit to find our way to the gate. I was excited, but nervous at the same time.
Exalta Dissidia Gildas... Gildas’ Royal Lineage. The words shocked me. Royal Lineage? That couldn’t be right. Royal? No way! Me? Are you kidding? Zexion say the look of awe on my face. I would need to tone it down a bit. “You know,” Zexion began, “You need combat training. I can’t help you there, and unfortunately, there’s only one person in the world who ever mastered Scythe Combat.” He looked at Axel, who shook his head. “You kidding? We can’t go see him, he’s a raving lunatic!” Zexion looked down. “We have no choice, it’s either him or...” He mouthed the last word. I caught the letter ‘e’ on his lips, but nothing else. Axel piped up. “Okay! We’re off! Don’t you two worry, me and ‘Zexy’ know the way.” He shot me a sly grin. I was the only person who called him that. Me! Not him. Zexy was my word.
Meanie.
Me and Sora (who was skipping along, humming some sort of theme tune) followed Zexy and Axel, who were looking quite nervous. This... Scythe master was obviously an acquaintance of them. Zexion’s ex-boyfriend? Axel’s ex-girlfriend? I hadn’t a clue. We arrived at some big castle, all white, but crooked, as if leaning to one side... I was just about to open the front gate when Zexy put his hand on my shoulder. “Close your eyes. I don’t want you to see this.” I was confused, but did what he told me.
Minutes passed. My hand was no longer on the gate. I was getting rather bored. “You may open them now, Gildas...” came Zexion’s voice. So I did. And I was stunned. Gone was the gloomy night sky, the dark, gothic architecture. Gone was the exterior of the castle. We were now inside, in a room of such pure white it was unbelievable. Several sculptures of flowers lined the edges of the ornate carpet that ran along the centre of the room. The sculptures were also white. The only colour I could see was us...and a shape at the far end of the room. Black robes... just like Zexion, and Axel... I looked harder. The figure was gone.
Then, all of a sudden, it was inches in front of me. Jumping backwards, I noticed more details about the figure. Zexion’s hand grabbed its arm. Hazel eyes, beneath a shock of Bubblegum pink hair. A scythe. A smile...no, a sneer... “Marluxia, if you so much as touch him!” Zexion began. The man looked down at me, bent down to my level. He stroked my cheek. I shivered. His was not a gentle touch. Zexion slapped him, hard, across his cheek. “Gildas came here to learn Scythe combat, not to be groped by a psychopath!” Marluxia glared at Zexion, then looked back to me. His eyes gazed into mine, almost...hypnotic... He stroked my cheek again. “So...” came a bittersweet voice from behind his sneer. “You’re Zexion’s latest plaything?”
It was difficult pushing through the throng of people, since we were going in a different direction to them all – and they were all so much stronger than us. We all held onto each other in a strange human chain, just to stay together. L was gripping my hand so tightly, I wanted to shout. We managed to get to the gate in one piece, but we all looked distinctly worse for it. Riku bent down, leaning on his knees and breathing heavily. He had been at the front of the group; he had been putting in all the strength, whilst we had just been concentrating on hanging on to each other. I rubbed his back soothingly, and then Quistis was there. “Right, let’s go.” I wasn’t sure I liked how hasty she was; everything had to be done quickly.
While we walked out of the garden, she carried on speaking. “It’s good to see you managed to survive walking around; the students are generally oblivious to what’s around them. So, I’m taking you to the outside, where there are fiends. That means that while we’re practising your magic, you’ll have to be a quick learner, as well as a quick thinker. Those fiends mean real danger. Somebody will get hurt if you don’t kill them fast enough.” Okay, now I was scared. This was a lot of pressure. We left the outside gate, and I glanced back at the garden. It had felt safe in there; where we were going, there were far too many fiends for my liking.
Riku noticed, and took my hand. It made me feel a little better, I have to admit. We followed Quistis out from the garden, along the road, until we came to a wide, open space of grass. “There!” Quistis said loudly, making me jump. She was pointing at a jelly-like…thing. “That is an elemental flan. This one is blue, see? That means it’s a water flan. Water’s weakness is thunder, so try using Thundaga; go on!” With that, Quistis pushed me forward. “Umm…Thundaga?” I mumbled. A huge bolt flew down onto the flan, and it died immediately. I could hear cheering from behind me, but Quistis wasn’t quite so happy with my performance. “Well, you got the job done, that’s for sure, but that isn’t the sort of strength I expect from you. You need to put your passion into your magic – and you should actually use your staff! Try again, there’s another flan over there.”
We were out training until the sun began to set, and then Quistis finally told me I had mastered the spells. After that long day, I had learnt Firaga, Thundaga, Waterga and Blizzaga, as well as Stop, Poison and Meteor. However, Quistis was unable to teach me Death. She explained that it was the single strongest black magic I could learn, and even she hadn’t managed it yet.
As the garden was filled with students, and there were no spare dormitories, Quistis pointed out Balamb Town and told us we could find a place to stay the night there. We walked with her as far as Balamb Garden, and then had to go the rest of the way alone, cautious to stay on the main road so as not to run into any danger. The town itself was sleepy looking, but it was getting dark, so it came as no surprise. We spotted a building with a large ‘Hotel’ sign, and weaved our way through the streets until we were standing outside. “It looks expensive…” I muttered. But we couldn’t see anywhere else, so we were going to have to deal with the price.
It turned out that the rooms there weren’t as expensive as we had expected, but it was still quite a lot to pay, so we shared a room. It had two single beds and a sofa, and yet again Riku refused to let either me or L give up our beds. I knew Riku was uncomfortable, though. I was unable to sleep, caught up thinking about Gildas, and I heard Riku fidgeting around, trying to get to sleep. But I didn’t talk to him; I wanted to be alone for a while so I could sort out my thoughts.
Morning came, and we could all tell that L was the only one who had slept peacefully. Whereas he was filled with an uncharacteristic vigour, Riku and I were slow at everything we did. When we were all ready and had taken advantage of the hotel’s free breakfast, we picked up our stuff and left yet another comfortable place. In the cobblestone square outside the hotel, we saw the dark-haired person from the Garden – Squall, I think his name was – talking to another person, this one with pale hair and an unfriendly smirk.
Now it was my turn to slap him. Just as I went to, he grabbed my wrist, then caressed his cheek with my hand. I was disgusted. Zexion turned to me, and said “I’m sorry...” Then disappeared. Sora was in the corner by now, rocking back and forth, tears rolling down his cheeks. Axel made a vague attempt to calm him down. Marluxia leaned forward, closed his eyes... Had Zexion left me? Left me here with this... freak? Marluxia’s lips touched my own. I couldn’t fight back, his hands were holding me in one place, his grip so strong. I was... trapped... alone...
Zexion appeared behind Marluxia. A heavy-looking tome in his hands, he opened to a page halfway through the book and flipped it round to face me. He threw the book at Marluxia (literally, as well as figuratively) and Marluxia was sucked in my some odd vortex. As he faded into nothing, the pages filled up with words, written in Pink ink. The book dropped to the floor, with a new title: Marluxia.
I looked down to my side. Why didn’t I try to stop Marluxia? I couldn’t, he stopped me. I should’ve tried harder. I couldn’t. There must have been someth-I COULDN’T! My mind was reeling. I felt so... so sick... I hated myself, and now I’d hurt Zexion even more. Zexion welled up with tears, and ran forward to hug me tightly. “I’m sorry.” He said, “I couldn’t get back quick enough. Are you okay, did he hurt you?” I looked down. “What did he do, my love? Tell me!” I could barely talk. “He... kissed me...” Zexion was outraged. “I’m sorry,” I stuttered, “There was nothing I could do. His hands were so strong, and I couldn’t pull away, and...” Zexion was looking at me, fury in his eyes. “Axel, you can control fire to its very limits. Burn this book, all but pages 78 to 105. Apart from those pages, burn it completely. Leave no trace of it on this earth.” Axel was shocked. Zexion was so commanding. He’d never seen him lose his temper before.
With Marluxia’s 27 pages all that was left, Zexion stooped down to my eye level. “I don’t blame you, my love, it’s not your fault...” I couldn’t hold the tears back then. Zexion stood back up and hugged me, whilst I was sobbing into his shoulder. Axel and Sora left the room. “I... I tried to... I couldn’t...” I began, but Zexion pressed a finger to my lips. “Hush, dearest, there was nothing you could do... I know what it feels like... to be under his control...” We stood there, weeping, for what seemed like an eternity, before I wiped the tears from my eyes. I looked up at Zexion. Kissed him gently. We walked out the doors, and Zexion told me to close my eyes once more. I turned my head, but didn’t close my eyes. Darkness enveloped me. I looked around. Nothing. Then, before I knew it, me and Zexion, and Axel and Sora were stood outside the castle once more.
“I don’t mind that you control darkness, Zexion.” I said, as we walked back in the general direction of Twilight Town. “I knew you were watching...” He chuckled, fingers twirling his hair. I held his hand, squeezed it slightly. Nothing changed who Zexy was to me. I loved him... and nothing else mattered. Zexion pulled out Marluxia’s left-over pages. Surprisingly, none had even a hint of charring or burn-marks. Axel WAS good. I looked at the title on the first (or 78th) page... Marluxia, Chapter 8: Scythe Secrets.
L looked Squall up and down, before turning to me and Riku. “He’s a fighter; look at his stance. We could use a guy like him, if we’re trying to find somebody whose existence isn’t certain. Especially now we’re roaming around fiend-filled territory.” And with that, L began to walk over to the pair. But just before he reached them, they began to fight. Squall pulled out a long sword with what looked like a gun attached to it, and swung it around masterfully. L stopped where he was, and scuttled back to us.
“Come on, L, he’s not going to hurt you,” I said, walking forwards. Riku tried to hold me back, but I shrugged his hand off. “Excuse me, are you Squall?” I asked politely. He turned, distracted, away from the person he was arguing with. In the second Squall gave up to look at me, his opponent had drawn his own weapon, and slashed Squall across the face. He went flying backwards, and fell with a thud to the floor. Now the man turned to look at me, a malicious grin stuck on his face.
I was determined not to be intimidated by this man, but it was hard not to be. He swung his weapon onto his shoulder, and started walking around me. I could see Riku fighting to get over to me, but L was holding him back; he was strangely strong considering his lack of muscle. Squall was behind me, moaning softly due to the blood spurting out of his head. I kept my eyes on the man as he circled me slowly, talking in a low, threatening voice.
“My name’s Seifer. I’m at the Garden with Squall, and we were in the middle of settling something. Now it looks like I’m going to have to settle it with you instead.” I laughed nervously, but I knew it came out more confidently than what I heard. Seifer was standing behind me when he spoke next. “Oh, you’re laughing? Do you find this funny? Well, what about this, do you find this hysterical?” he hissed, swinging his blade around so it was resting on my throat. I flinched, but swallowed my shouts. Riku knocked L to the ground and came running over, but Seifer dragged me away. “Oh no; we wouldn’t want to cause an accident, now would we? Because if you come running over here, I might slip, and my gunblade might accidentally make a little cut…and there goes little missy’s life. That would be a shame, don’t you think?”
Riku looked stunned, and stepped back reluctantly. Behind me, Seifer chuckled. “That’s better. Now, little girl, what did you come here for? Why did you want to talk to Squall over there? You can tell me, and maybe I’ll even be able to help you.” I couldn’t think; all my blood was rushing to my head, and I could feel the cool blade pressing down on my neck. I wasn’t sure what to say, what I could do to get this crazy man away from me…
I began to read the pages of Chapter 8. The Pink writing made me shudder as I remembered the man who this chapter now contained, But Zexion, who had sneaked up behind me, placed his head on my shoulder and looked down at the pages. “Number 1.” He said, “Raise the scythe above your head. You gonna do that, or just stare all day?” I laughed. I was just... not feeling that great remembering everything that had happened for me to get this Chapter... But that changed nothing. What’s done is done. I raised my Scythe above my head. “Erm, Zexy?” He swivelled his head to look at me. “Could you read this out? I can’t hold it properly...” He took the pages from my hand, sneaking a quick kiss on my cheek as he went by. “Sure.” He said, “Number 2, Slice the blade vertically down through the air in front of you. Number 3, Bring the blade up to your left and quickly slice to your right.” The instructions went on like this for a long time. Axel and Sora began to play Hop-scotch.
However, despite the fact that they were so annoying to do so slowly, they were very in-depth, and taught me every move to block any strike. I noticed, around half-way through, that the techniques involved a lot of body movement, almost like dancing. As soon as I considered the techniques as dance movements, everything was so much easier. I made my own rhythm, the scythe merely an extension of myself. Everything became an instinct rather than a chore, and I understood that Marluxia must have been a dancer himself. I knew I’d chosen the right weapon for me. The scythe was a perfect accompaniment to dance... And as a Summoner, it was the perfect choice.
I sat down. After three hours of rigorous Scythe training, I was exhausted. Zexion picked an ice cream wrapper out of his bag. Undoing the wrapper, I saw the ice cream was light blue... “Sea-salt flavour. It’s really random, but quite good.” He licked the top. Shuddered. I giggled. He held it over to me, and I licked the ice cream too. I couldn’t help but shudder, either. It was sweet... but it had a tang to it, a salty aftertaste, the person who made this must be a genius. Me and Zexion sharing the ice cream, and in the background, I could hear Axel and Sora making gagging sounds. Some people can be so immature...
We made it back to Twilight Town by the next morning. Having slept under the stars, open to the elements, we were all quite tired, but we needed to plan a course of action. “Well I can defend myself now, it’s just a case of improving my ability. We never did go to Lunar Tide Laboratory, did we?” Axel shook his head. “Remember? You and Haru fought, then we ended up on Destiny Islands with this monkey.” He pointed to Sora. Sora giggled. “I think it’s time we went there.” I started, “And get Leviathan. If we get the elemental Aeons on reverse order, and are able to defeat them, then we know we’re strong enough. Defeating an enemy with an element it’s strong against only attests to our strength.” Zexion smiled. Not even he had thought of that. He looked at me, and gave me one of his oh-so-gorgeous ‘That’s why I love you’ looks.
I melted. Sora pretended to stick his fingers down his throat. Axel snapped his fingers, and I phased back into normality. “Anywho,” I said, “Lunar Tide Lab is quite a ways away. It’ll take a few days to get there...” Zexion just smiled at me. “As long as I can look into your eyes, I’d walk a thousand miles...”
Riku shouted, but I couldn’t tell what. Then I felt free, I could breathe again, I could think. I felt a hand shove me from behind, and fell to the floor, banging a knee on a sharp cobblestone. Seifer towered over me. “Tell me what you came here for, or I’ll shoot your guy over there.” I panicked then. Looking over at Riku, he seemed calm, but I could tell by the look in his eyes that it was all an act. He was staring at the barrel of the gunblade with terror in his sparkling green eyes. Time seemed to freeze. That’s when it hit me. Freezing time! I could use Stop on this crazy person!
“Stop,” I breathed. “What was that?” Seifer asked. “Stop!” I shouted. “Is that an order?” Seifer’s eyes were mocking as he wrapped one gloved hand around my throat and lifted me up. My eyes welled up as my throat closed off, and my fingers scrabbled uselessly at the hand cutting off my air supply. Now I realised why my Stop magic didn’t work; as it was a stronger spell, I needed my staff to use it – the staff that was lying uselessly on the floor, just metres away from me. I couldn’t think of a plan; all I could see in my head was the gunblade pointing at Riku, and his look of terror. Seifer cocked his gun. “Okay!” I cried. “Okay, I’ll tell you!”
Seifer laughed and let go of me. I crashed to the floor, but pulled myself up straightaway. “You think it’s okay for you to just tell me now; you think I’ll let you walk away after you tried to tell me what to do?” Seifer’s eyes flashed red. He walked over to Riku, slowly, savouring every minute of this torture. Once he reached Riku, he positioned his blade directly over his heart. “Beg me. Beg me to accept your apology and let your poor, defenceless boy go.” I didn’t know what else to do. “Please! Please, leave him alone. It’s my fault, it’s all my fault – he didn’t do anything wrong! Just let him go! I’m sorry, I’m so sorry!” I pleaded. “Please…”
I started to cry then; from exhaustion, fear, and loneliness. I wanted everything to be normal, to be with Riku and Gildas and be left alone by all the weirdoes in the world. And that’s when it happened. A great ball of water grew around Seifer, and he started thrashing around, panicking. He dropped his gunblade; it fell to the floor with a clatter, where Riku grabbed it, shaking off the moisture. “Let him go now, Haru. I don’t think he’s going to bother us any more. “I…can’t!” I shouted. There was a pain inside my head, growing worse and worse. “I can’t control it! I didn’t even mean to create it in the first place!” I screamed, the pain becoming too much to bear.
Then Riku was there, holding my hand, wiping my tears, stroking my hair. “Let it end…please, let it end,” I sobbed. And then, it did. With no warning, the pain just stopped, and the great bubble of water burst, letting Seifer drop. I clung onto Riku, and he rocked me forwards and backwards, like a tired child. L paced over to Seifer’s motionless body. “There isn’t a pulse,” he whispered hoarsely. I looked over at him. “Life,” he murmured, placing his hands on Seifer’s temples. Then he shook his head. “I can’t bring him back. That magic must have had some serious ill intent behind it.” I felt disgusted at what I had just done. “It must be when you get emotional that you use serious strong magic. Like, in the park, you were all messed up. And with Gildas, you were really angry. Here, I guess you were sad, or scared or something,” L observed coolly.
“You…you…” Squall finally dragged himself off and ran away, allowing one look of unguarded fear before he turned the corner. I wanted to throw up, to feel even worse so that I could start feeling better. I refused to look over at the body of the person I had just killed. “I’m scared…” I forced myself to whisper. “I’m so scared…what if I become something I don’t want to be? If I lost regard for human life, started killing people…I just wouldn’t know what to do…help. Help me, please!” Riku bundled me up and carried me back into the hotel, L dragging behind carrying my bag. We rented another night, and I was put straight to bed, still letting the tears stream down my face.
I woke up abruptly in the middle of the night, and turned over. The moonlight filtered through the net curtains, and lit up Riku’s calm face. He snored gently, a soothing snore. I couldn’t bear to hurt him anymore; I was nothing more than a burden at the moment. So I got up, grabbed my bag, and crept out, taking one last wistful look back at the window, imagining Riku sleeping, a smile lightly etched into his face. I turned away, and walked off into the night. In the room, a draft fluttered in under the door, making the paper with my note on fight to free itself. ‘Don’t look for me.’ There was more sadness in those four words than I had ever felt before.
I never realised how powerful, how controlling love could be. Ever get that feeling where you’re in love with someone, and everything you do, you do it without realising? Me and Zexion were looking to each other’s eyes, holding hands, walking along, Axel and Sora close behind, and slowly, I felt a chill rise up from my feet. It rose up my legs, beyond my waist, and slightly up my chest before I realised... it was wet? I forced myself to break eye contact. Water. Lots of it. A lake. Me and Zexion had walked into a lake. At least, it was as still as a lake. For really, it was a river. There, far away in the distance, were Axel and Sora, sat down on the bank. “Oops...” I said. Zexion merely laughed. “Come on, we better get back to dry land and get out of these soaking clothes before we catch colds!” I blushed. Had Zexion meant... Then he blushed. “Not like that!” he began to mess with his collar, I could see a drop of sweat run down his cheek. My turn to laugh. I pulled him back, challenged him to a race. I let him win, of course.
Axel started a fire and me and Zexion undressed. Under that big black robe, he was wearing a deep blue T-shirt, matching his eyes, and skinny black jeans, “A guy can be into fashion, you know”, but of course, they had to come off too. I was soaked to the core too, so my top and jeans had to come off. Axel began to laugh. I turned, to see what he was laughing at. Zexion’s boxers. If it wasn’t for the pink hearts all over them, they’d be quite... normal. We all laughed, but Zexion just blushed constantly. Axel sat between me and Zexion (Honestly, as if we would!) and Sora sat next to me. “You know, we called out to you guys, but you were deaf or something...” Sora said. “Sorry ‘bout that.” I said, “I was kind of focusing on something...” I looked quickly at Zexion and he blushed deeply. He turned away, swivelling on the spot to face a different direction. “What’s bugging him?” Sora asked. Me and Axel looked at each other and laughed. Sora was not amused.
“No really guys, what was bugging Zexion?” Sora asked, as we trekked to find a crossing over the river. “Don’t worry, Sora, you’re too young to understand...” Axel said, and I laughed. Poor Zexion felt quite embarrassed. His hand became a little sweaty, and he coughed. “This river’s called the Moonflow,” He began, changing the subject, “And it connects us with a different dimension.” That surprised me. “What dimension would that be, smarty-pants?” I asked, and nudged him slightly. Zexy cleared his throat again. “Spira.” He said simply, though his voice was a little more high-pitched than normal. I gave him a slight hug. Poor thing.
We found a bridge over the Moonflow. As we began to cross, it hit me. “Of course!” I exclaimed, shocking everyone around me. “MOONflow! Lunar Tide Lab is near here!” Axel looked confused. “You sound as if you didn’t know!” He said. “Well,” I started, “The map was destroyed on Destiny Islands...” Axel stopped. “Woah, Woah, Woah!” He said. “You mean we’ve just been walking around aimlessly for the past few days!?” I blushed. “Well, I wasn’t really paying attention and I...” Axel stormed off. Sora giggled. So did Zexion. That was cute. We got to the end of the bridge, and saw a huge building looming on the horizon. “Lunar Tide Laboratory... Also known as the Lunar Lab.” I said, amazed by the sheer size of the building. I broke into a run. “Come on you guys, my fourth Aeon’s right there!"
I wasn’t certain of where I was going to go. I knew I was going to look for Gildas…I figured I would find my way back to Twilight Town and ask around a bit. Maybe if I was really lucky, he’d still be there. I laughed sourly when that thought crossed my mind. ‘Lucky’ – that was one word that didn’t ever apply to me. By the time the sun’s rays broke over the horizon, I had left Balamb Town far away; it looked tiny when I checked back. I figured L and Riku would be waking up around now. I imagined how they would react to my note. Would they be shocked; relieved?
Thinking about Riku made me long to turn back. I hesitated in the road, unsure of which direction to go. Whichever route I took, there was the possibility that I wouldn’t be able to find anyone and would be forced to be alone for the rest of my life. But it was better that I let Riku and L get on with their lives without me. Gildas was different, though; there was no way – after everything we had shared over the years – that he could forget me, surely.
I couldn’t turn back now. I pushed on along the deserted road, and I was back in Twilight Town by late afternoon. I wasn’t sure what to do first; look for Gildas, or ask for places he might head to. I decided to start asking around first. “Have you seen a boy about my age, with dark hair? He’s travelling with two guys in black coats and a boy with brown spiky hair.” I asked everyone I could find, but nobody had seen him. Not until I visited the weapon shop, that is. He had seen them, he told me, but they had left several days ago. Once I had left the shop, I sank down onto a nearby bench. He had already left. So now what was I supposed to do? I had nobody…
“Excuse me?” A voice coming from right next to me made me jump up to my feet. It was a person in a black coat! I wasn’t sure whether or not I could trust him, so I stayed standing and didn’t talk. “I hear you’re looking for someone travelling with two people in black coats. Would they be in coats like mine, by any chance?” I nodded, still not sure how to react. “My name’s Demyx, by the way. If you’re looking for them then you should check out Castle Oblivion. They could have gone there. Now, I’ve got to run. Places to be, people to see, you know the drill. Here’s the address for the castle.” He handed me a card, and faded away.
I looked at the card lying in my hand. It read, ‘Number Nine, The Melodious Nocturne’. Under that, someone had scribbled ‘Demyx’, and below that were the name Castle Oblivion and its address. I bought a map from the town’s item shop, and flattened it out on the floor, ignoring the funny looks it attracted. There! It surprised me, but this Castle Oblivion place was marked on the map. I decided I would leave in the morning, and find somewhere to sleep tonight. Looking up at the sun, I guessed it was late enough to go to bed. Then, I could have sworn I saw Sha’dak across the sky. I blinked, but then he wasn’t there. Ouch; I was so lonely I had started hallucinating.
I found a little inn, and rented out a room. My feet ached from all the walking I had done and my head ached from not drinking enough. I found a bottle of water in my bag and gulped it down, not caring that it was warm. In bed, I tossed and turned all night, unable to sleep. I couldn’t get Riku’s face out of my head, and I kept worrying about whether or not I would find Gildas…and if I did, there was no guarantee he would want me to have found him…
Once the giant clock tower struck eight in the morning, I couldn’t bear lying in bed for another minute. I left Twilight Town as quickly as I could, and followed the roads that the map showed would take me to Castle Oblivion. When I got there, it was breathtaking. The castle itself was bigger than any building I had ever even imagined before, and was made out of what looked like dark marble. I walked up a winding dirt path to the main gate, and knocked loudly, hurting my fist in the process. When there was no response, I gingerly pushed the door open.
Stepping inside, I had to blink a lot until I could see again. Everything around me was dazzlingly white and clean – it was quite painful to look at. The door slammed behind me, making me jump. I scurried over to it, but it wouldn’t open. I was trapped and alone.
