"How ARE we supposed to do this?" RaXi asked. I pulled my head away quickly. It didn’t look good to look like we were withholding something. RaXi gave me an irritated look, but she instantly looked up as the Emperor started talking.
"Very well...we shall aid you however possible." The Emperor consented.
With that we headed out of the palace with Mulan. She walked just ahead, but I was couldn’t help feeling a bit admitted. We were to head straight for the training camp to gather all the able fighters to help deal with the heartless. Both RaXi and I had insisted that these weaklings would just hold up back, but Mulan ignored us. I sighed realizing that I didn’t have the authority here that I had wanted. There was nothing to be done but acquiesce.
We arrived...only to be swarmed by three men of various well...sizes. One was tall, and fat...another about medium height and freakishly thin….and I thought I was thin...while the third was...well short and husky, one of his eyes bad.
"Mulan...who're these wimps?!" the short one asked.
I felt a sudden nerve run through me. How dare he call me weak…I was Axel’s student and not one to be messed with lightly. I decided to teach him a quick lesson before the fight and started to raise my hand to form my scythe. RaXi grabbed my hand and brought it down quickly. I glared at her, but she just shook her head.
"We're going over here for a sec...okay Mulan?" RaXi said calmly dragging me off.
"RaXi I swear you..." I began. I was not about to let this go.
"Let's go over the plan of action..." RaXi interrupted...I sighed and let it go….. "I've never done anything like this..." she said flatly.
"The Leader," I stated trying to find the right way to explain what was going to happen. I knew very well that invoking the Leader’s power through my own body would get him angry, but it was for the right reason. If we didn’t seal off the world, it would become a battle ground just as Wonderland had, and in the end many would end up dead. I refused to see another world slashed to pieces by these children who call themselves Organization Zero. Realizing that I had stopped for more than a few seconds, I started again.
"All we have to do is eliminate all the heartless/Nobodies in this area...drive them back and get out. When we're safe...then the Leader will cut the ties to the Land of Dragons. From everything..."
"It sounds simple but I know it’s not..." RaXi answered. Her face screamed worry over why the others had been here….honestly I was worried to……
The alarm bell screamed in my ears, and the entire camp was on high alert. I seized the nearest soldier’s shoulder and dug my fingers into his armor. He gave me a fearful look.
"What is going on?!" I asked sharply.
"The...the Huns....in the mountain pass...." He stuttered.
"Huns?" RaXi asked. "But they're all dead..."
"RaXi!" I said quickly. She nodded and we took off towards the mountains.
All along the ridges of the snow...there were hordes of heartless and nobodies...all waiting....there were hundreds...no thousands...I felt my face change to awe, but I quickly tried to put on a calm composure. I was completely lost for words….how had they all slipped through so easily?
Suddenly a portal opened up before us. Minx stepped out smiling happily. I felt my eyes narrow into a death glare. There was no doubt that she had created this horde...but she wasn't alone. She'd brought Verex with her this time. He stood there by her side...a blank expression on his face...he wouldn't even look at us. I felt my eyes move towards RaXi and wondered if she would fight him…..
"Hehehe...now you're both in trouble." Minx laughed in a high pitched tone that reminded me way too much of Nim. I wanted to instantly silence her. "As a gift for my Xerebus-sama...I've promised him your heads...heheheh,” she said clapping her hands together.
"Tough luck...Nobodies don't die." I answered back. I summoned my scythe and sparks of fire had already consumed the tips of the blade and chain.
"What...did you come here to gloat Minx?" RaXi asked haughtily. She started clapping, and I felt my eyes drawn away for amoment. "Congratulations...you've made excellent replicas. Must've taken some effort...I didn't think you'd have it in you,” RaXi said so sarcastically that it made me want to throw up.
Minx’s smile faded away into a look of pure sadness. She moved beside Verex and grabbed onto his arm. "What's that RaXi? You shouldn't be so sarcastic...after all...I have what you hold precious. I've heard interesting things from Xerebus-sama...heheheh...But you know what? Verex-sama is mine." Minx smiled sticking her tongue out at RaXi. "And you can't have him. Hehehe...he was a gift to me from Xerebus-sama."
I felt my eye twitch at the word gift, but then it was instantly dispelled. So that was what Xerebus was paying Minx with….The question of Minx’s existence once again ran into my mind. Could this be connected?
"A gift?" RaXi snarled. Her entire body was tightening up with anger at Minx. I seized her shoulder immediately. She needed to calm down….and it was my turn to keep her cool….
"RaXi." I said. She glared at me with hateful eyes, and for the first time I wondered if that was what my eyes looked like when I was angry. "Now isn't the time for that..." I said quietly. I stepped forwards and glared at Minx. “Minx! You're a foolish child. Xerebus is just Using you...haven't you figured that out yet..." I asked.
"YOU'RE WRONG! YOU'RE WRONG! YOU'RE WRONG!!!!" Minx recoiled violently screaming back at me. "Xerebus is the only one! The only one who cares for me! But what would you know Triskix?! You don't have anyone!"
That strangely hurt me. I didn’t quite know what to say to it……
"He has me. And Lexian and Nyx...and many others who look up to and respect him. You really are a foolish child." RaXi answered suddenly. "We're going to stop you Minx...it doesn't matter what you throw at us."
"No matter what I throw at you...hehehe...how stupid." Minx answered. She directed this directly at me. "Not even the two of you will survive this. Good bye RaXi...Triskix...We WON'T meet again. Come Verex." She turned and walked through the portal. I felt more anger watching her leave than I did seeing her to begin with…
Verex looked at RaXi before leaving and dropped something. She ran to get it, but as she came back, I saw the hordes of nobodies and heartless descend from the mountain. I threw up a wall of fire instinctively. It had become a natural reaction……RaXi reinforced this with large ice spikes jutting from the ground. Any that got through the fire would meet with certain death upon the spikes. This tactic managed to keep the horde struggling for several minutes. Until the stronger ones got through the flames, and RaXi’s spikes were no longer putting up a defense.
We were ready to attack the masses, but then we suddenly heard the sound of a cannon fire behind us. Mulan was shouting orders to a small fraction of soldiers. The ground began to quake as the upper mountain's top began crashing down before us.
"TAKE COVER!" Mulan shouted at the top of her lungs. They'd started an avalanche...the same tactic she'd used on the Huns.
The ice terrified me. An explosion of fear that I would be encased in the ice forever shot through my mind. I waited a few seconds to let the terror die down before I looked at RaXi for a plan. Sensing RaXi’s eyes told me she had a plan. I ran over and we stood back to back.
RaXi gathered up all the snow beneath our feet and began to raise us up on a platform of ice forming a large pillar. As we jutted upwards, I felt my keens try to buckle from the shock, but I forced them to stay. RaXi reinforced the pillar, and the massive amount of snow came crashing towards us…..
I brought my scythe and fire down on any Nobody that dared rear its head above the surface of the wave. Watching them being destroyed brought me a crude sense of happiness….soon the snow seemed to stop its movement. RaXi stood and looked at me. I nodded and she jumped straight off the pillar. I followed trusting her not to let me sink into that icy mess. RaXi made a thick disk of ice and pretty much crushed anything underneath the snow. I felt a sudden movement of compassion for the crushed heartless and nobodies wondering how it felt to be crushed by all that ice…..
RaXi kneeled down and was trying to catch her breath. I looked through the ice and saw that there were a few stragglers of nobody and heartless who survived the attack. I destroyed them instantly. I felt the sudden extreme fatigue only after. I hadn’t realized that I had continued to keep the flame wall even after the avalanche was coming. It was poking itself just above the snow desperate for life. I sighed and let it go out. It was then that I felt the ice completely. It was freezing, and my lack of energy was making it worse……but we had destroyed them all……we had won…..
It was eerily calm after something like that. The Chinese soldiers rushed us cheering. They had Mulan held high up on their shoulders, praising her once again for her heroism. I made a mental note that if I ever did see her again I would give her a fifty hour lecture about bringing down ice on a pyro guy…..that was just wrong….RaXi pulled out two bottles that I figured she had retrieved from before. She handed me a red one, and I looked at it.
“Drink it. It'll restore your lost energy,” RaXi insisted. “ But not all of it...save some for later. Just a drink or two will do."
I looked at it and watched RaXi take a few sips. I smelled it and then took a sip. @_@ it tasted terrible……like…..someone put sake and milk together…….. I resisted the urge to throw up and took another sip. This one went down a bit better….I felt a bit of my energy returning….
"Now what?" RaXi asked.
"Time to seal this world."I answered.
We said our good-byes which couldn’t have been more dramatic…..if they had tried…….I sighed and waited for it to be over….
"Thank you so much." Mulan stated bowing. The others followed her example.
I gave RaXi the “time to go.”
"We don't have that much of an opening...we have to go now." RaXi said. "Good bye Mulan. Take good care of China."
RaXi followed me through the portal to a world close by. I sighed as the Leader started rampaging through my head. He was reading my intentions and was having a near outraged attack on my thoughts.
“If you seal it, we won’t be able to conquer it later!” he shouted angrily, “Don’t even try it!”
“If we don’t seal it then the organization will conquer it,” I answered in my head, “and besides…..we’re only sealing the dark pathways….we can still go through…..”
“Don’t even speak of that stupid ship!” the Leader yelled, “But fine. I would rather have all the worlds sealed away then have them fall in the hands of the enemy. Do it.”
“Thanks,” I said calmly.
“I said do it,” the Leader answered angrily. He left my head and I turned towards RaXi.
“RaXi this is going to put a lot of strain on me,” I said calmly, “I have no idea how this will affect after I do it…….”
“Don’t worry Triskix,” RaXi answered.
“Good,” I answered.
I summoned my scythe and bathed it in flames.
“The sharing of power through the pact of Leader and Second,” I started, “The power to seal the dark pathways to the Land of Dragons belongs to my Leader as his creation right. But I have made the Pact necessary…and I demand that I use this power! Now Entrust me with it!”
I felt the rush of power run through me. It ran straight across the link and a black aura rushed into my scythe turning the flames black. The danced up and down my scythe creating images of heartess smiling out.
The flames jumped forwards and created a closed door with a nobody symbol on the top and a heartless symbol on the bottom. Several chains were wrapped around the door with a heartless skull hanging and smiling out towards us. It was the gate we all unknowingly used to portal our way through the worlds. Only now did it actually appear in physical reality. I ran straight forwards and slashed at the door with my scythe. It broke into pieces and the pieces disintegrated into nothingness.
“It worked…..” I panted a bit trying to catch the air that had suddenly escaped me. I slumped to sitting on my knees one hand on the ground another trying to find some sort of way to bring back the air.
“Triskix!” RaXi said quickly trying to get out the bottle from before. I put my hand up and she stopped. It was approximately ten minutes before I could finally catch my breath. I sighed and when the air finally returned I stood up again.
“Are you ok now?” RaXi asked.
“I’m fine,” I answered, “Now then….where………are we……” I started looking out into the area. I had no idea where we were.....
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XD RaXi continue......
