RaXi clearly understood that someone here was watching us. "Rex...act as though you sense nothing," I mumbled lowly. "If they want to try and spring some kind of trap on us...very well. Let's just go on with our mission as though we're completely oblivious. We shall be the ones to catch them off-guard."
I nodded once, flashing her a glance, and then striding off towards the castle doors. She turned back to the others, saying, “Come, to the castle. Be prepared...I'm sure we're in for quite the welcome in there. “And beware,” she warned, “the Beast is NOT fond of visitors. Especially the black-cloaked kind...if you get my drift. Well....not since Xaldin brought his 'winds of despair' here at least...”
The five of us carefully made our way to the dark castle, RaXi and I leading the way as the other four followed. I slipped slightly into my element, using my hyper-heightened senses to try and determine what was going on, what that strange feeling in the air was. It was tugging at the basest of my instincts, making me growl a little.
Suddenly, RaXi stopped. "Something is terribly wrong here...and I don't just mean them," she muttered. "The Heartless are being drawn to something here...what could it be? But more importantly...why has nothing changed...nothing. Not in ten years?"
RaXi was right; the place had an air of stagnancy, of having never changed in a long time. I saw RaXi looking around at each of us quickly, formulating a plan. I was glad. I was the assassin, not the strategist. I could hunt down a mere fragment of a thought, but full-on battle planning wasn’t my forte.
“Listen, here’s what we’re going to do,” RaXi said, explaining quickly her idea. We all nodded once we understood, and took to our positions.
Pushing open the tall doors, I immediately entered into a crouch, all of my senses on full alert for the slightest bit of motion. Finally, as the Heartless began to appear, I dove forward, slashing through them with my claws like they just stole my favorite desert. For a moment, I was distracted, thinking about how much I could go for some lemon sherbet. But like I said, only for a moment.
Water splashed beneath my feet as I furiously made my way through the Heartless to my position halfway up the main staircase. I dropped my Legato Melodies to the floor, awaiting the next stage of our plan. When I got the all clear from RaXi, I roared, “COME OUT HERE! I smelled you the instant we entered...cowards!"
"I'm sure they aren't from the Organization. I doubt they'd accept such low-class Nobodies into their fold such as these," RaXi scoffed, an evil grin playing across her lips.
"Yeah...I mean, they're practically advertising their cowardice!" Vexe laughed.
"How dare you!" My ears twitched and I looked automatically to find the source of the shrill voice. "Haven't you ever heard of observing your enemy?!"
"Yeah! You aren't supposed to just jump into combat! That's just irresponsible and dumb!" Another voice sounded, though it seemed like it was in a different location…right behind me.
I spun around to see an Organization member land directly behind me, at the top of the stairs, and another, blocking the entrance. I looked to RaXi, who nodded at Rayix. “Rayix, NOW!”
In the instant that she screamed, I jumped up and was thrown even higher into the air by Rayix’s massive air current. Things started happening fast from there on out. It was, after all, the nature of our plan: strike first, and strike hard. The moment we were all in the air, Sparx called forth a bolt of lighting, which hit the flooded ground, effectively electrocuting the member who was standing near the doors.
As she fell smoking and coughing to her knees, I worked quickly, hissing out, “Bind,” and my chains shot up from the stairs to wrap themselves around our other opponent.
She screamed. "SARAX! SARAX! ARE YOU AL—UGH!" I hastily pulled my chains tighter around her neck, cutting off her air supply so she would only have just enough to survive. I could only hope she would stop trying to escape; the more she squirmed, the tighter I would adjust them.
RaXi froze over the water before we all landed on the ground. I didn’t watch, but heard as she walked over to our other opponent and harshly demanded, “What business do the two of you have here? Answer!”
After a few moments passed without response, RaXi called out to me. “You heard the question,” I growled to my captive. “What are you up to?”
“Ha,” she gasped out, “as if I would tell you—UGH!” I pulled the chains tighter. I had no patience for this nonsense. Either she would answer me, or her life was completely expendable. She obviously wasn’t as strong as either myself or RaXi…and not even as strong as some of the other members of her own Organization, I thought as I remembered Pashnirix.
Vexe rushed up the stairs and crouched beside me. She flung back the chained girl’s hood, revealing a hairstyle of light brown pigtails. How childish. “Out with it, already,” I growled.
“Rayix, watch this one,” I heard RaXi command. She came quickly to my side, regarding the captive coldly. "State your name," she ordered flatly. Our captive was stubbornly silent. A film of ice began to form and grow around her feet. "Listen here, you," sneered RaXi. "It won't bother me one bit to cover you in ice and shatter you into nothingness. I'm giving you the chance to comply willingly."
The girl was nothing, if not loyal. She refused to say anything until the ice reached about her waist, when she said with a painful wince, “Janex.”
Her name was good, but not good enough. RaXi glanced to me, and I shrugged. I didn’t care if this one got hurt. The ice continued up her body, closing around Janex’s neck. “Damn…you,” she struggled to say.
“Your purpose,” RaXi said calmly, as if she was merely reminding Janex of a dentist appointment, not threatening to end her existence.
Finally, she began shouting desperately. "LOOK! We were just supposed to mess with you guys! I don't know why...but it's the truth!" The ice began to envelop her chin, slowly forming a crystalline mosaic across her cheeks. "IT'S THE TRUTH! I DON'T KNOW!" As she screamed, I could tell two things: one, that she wasn’t lying, and two, she was extremely weak of character. Only a true coward would beg and plead for their lives under torture, telling their captives everything they wanted to know, betraying their cause. I wanted to kill her just for that.
With a snap of her fingers, RaXi shattered the ice around the girl, and it fell away to the ground. Looking me in the eyes, she said, “Let her breathe, Rex.” I could tell she harbored the same feelings as I, and loosened the chains around Janex. Vexe held her steel fans to the girl’s throat as a precaution.
“I would say to bring them back to the Castle to see if they know anything of importance,” I commented slowly, thinking as I spoke. “They could be easily persuaded to say anything, with a little torture, and we at the Castle know enough about that. But…”
RaXi seemed to understand what I was thinking. "Yes. I believe so...though I doubt they know anything," she stated, her finger on her lips as she thought as well. "They seem the type that are viewed as ‘dispensable’. I doubt they'll know anything of value..."
As both of us were thinking, we barely noticed when the Beast suddenly appeared. My ears and nose twitched in alarm. No one had ever been able to sneak up on me before. At least, no one as weak as the Beast was compared to Nobodies like RaXi and myself…
“This isn’t good,” I snarled as the Beast charged Rayix, causing him to jump away from Sarax. Sparx sent out a lightning bolt…that went straight through the Beast?
“Damn,” muttered, turning back around to make sure Janex was still there. Of course. They weren’t. “WHAT?! Someone find—” I looked furiously all around to see Janex and Sarax perched in the ceiling beams. We all looked up.
"You win this time, but it'll be different next time we meet," Janex stated condescendingly. I snorted. “Yeah,” I muttered, “next time, you die.”
"Pawns such as you cannot defeat me," RaXi stated dismissively.
Sarax wagged her finger at us mockingly. "You shouldn't judge anyone by appearances," she said, before vanishing and taking the entire illusion of the unchanged castle with her. No wonder we’d had that feeling of ill ease…the entire castle had been under a spell.
We followed RaXi up to the Beast’s chambers. She had told us about a hunch she had concerning the reason for the surplus of Heartless. We entered the room and saw a single shining rose trapped under a glass, unchanged though the rest of the castle was. “This can’t be,” said RaXi softly.
I sniffed the air carefully and grabbed the back of her coat just as she took a step forward. “Wait,” I commanded, as a swarm of lesser Nobodies appeared. Not again, I thought, opting for a more subtle route. I sank into my element and growled in warning at the Nobodies, hoping they would get the message on a primal level. They did, and disappeared immediately.
Looking back at me in thanks, she approached the table with the flower. As soon as she touched the glass, however, it disintegrated into dust, and the flower blackened and wilted. "Well, this explains the Heartless...maybe they thought it was a strong heart?" She looked back to the four of us.
“Most likely,” I said. I had seen this type of thing before, where a person attached so much emotion to an item, it became almost as a second heart to them. But I didn’t want to dwell on that. I needed to get back in time for my meeting. "Anyway, we're done here. I've managed to tame that rather large group of nobodies...so I say our mission is a success. Shall we return now?"
“Yeah,” said RaXi, smiling at me. I think she was sensing my impatience. “Why, you have a hot date later?”
Okay, she was sensing my impatience. I snorted. “Hot date? Yeah, right. With who? I go out with anyone in this Organization, and it’s statutory rape,” I said snidely.
She clamped an arm around my shoulders. “I never said it was with anyone in the Organization…” RaXi said conspiratorially.
I froze. There was no way she could know…I glanced at her face and saw she was laughing. With an exasperated sigh, I shoved her away from myself, and we all portalled back to our Castle.
Hot date…as if.
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Rexikat: Hot date...*mumbles*...what the hell is she thinking?
KitKat: I think she's thinking you're thinking about--
Rexikat: Go away. I don't even want to hear your thoughts.
KitKat: But--what about Pashnirix's thoughts? I think he's thinking--
Rexikat: x_x
