Yes, a man grows older, but his soul remains alive. While those tremulous stars still glitter, I will survive. Let my heart grow colder, and as bitter as a falcon in the dive. I am a man who lost my heart. It seems like so long ago that we surrendered ourselves to that grim fate. We submitted to a life without hearts, without meaning. Was it all worth it in the end? The rejection of old Ansem's warnings? The continuation of his works? I would never let these feelings show outwardly, but now I start to consider. Could things have been different if we had listened? Could things have been different if I had never discovered what I did? ******************** Oh, how it burned! Braig ran frantically down the hallway, which now appeared so much longer than it had when first he walked through it. He had to tell Master Ansem his secret. He would ignore the burning pain of his fresh facial scar in order to tell him about his new discovery. But before he got there, another student crossed his path. It was Xehanort, the extraordinary white-haired youth Master Ansem had discovered such a while back. Xehanort immediately started panicking when he saw the trail of blood emanating from Braig's face. "Xeh, I have something amazing I have to tell Master Ansem! It could revolutionize our rese-" "No, you have to go to the infirmary." He said in a frantic tone, cutting Braig off. "Help!" Yelled Braig's friend. -----2 hours later----- "How bad is it, Xeh?" He asked Xehanort. "It isn't so bad," He replied, "It was only a superficial wound. But you say it burned badly?" "Yeah." "How exactly did you receive this wound, Braig?" "That's what I have to tell Master Ansem! I made an incredible discovery about our research!" He said. After he said it, he got up and started to leave, before Xehanort stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. "No. Master Ansem has discontinued our research." Said Xehanort. Braig looked disappointed. "But I found something incredible! I-" He stopped when Xehanort put a finger up. "Easy, easy. Dilan and Even have already agreed that we must continue our projects. Even suggested we wait until the meddlesome King from the other world is gone, but we needn't bother. Now tell me, what is it you found?" ---------------------- All six of Ansem's apprentices sat in the lab room beneath the castle. Xehanort, the ring leader stood forth and began the secret meeting. "My thanks to Braig, Elaeus, and Ienzo for being enlightened and joining the cause." The other two in question nodded. "But now," continued Xehanort, "I have very important news concerning our research of the heart. To present this information, I have the one who uncovered it. Braig." He finished, beckoning said student forth. Braig looked around at the small circle of people. "Yeah, the other day I was up in the mountains, around the dark depths, when I found these people. They used blades of keys, and were really strong. I met with them and tried to greet them, but they wouldn't say anything about who they were or anything. One of them was a chick, with blue hair, and one was blonde. The leader was wearing a helmet. After I met them, I decided to try and catch one to study 'em." "I decided on the blue-hair chick. She was coming through the city, and I tried to cripple her with a rifle. It didn't really work, and she ran- actually ran- up the wall of the building I was on. Tried to take her down at close range, but I ended up with this scar." He pointed to his new wound. The massive Elaeus looked at him inquisitively. "How does this advance our research?" He asked. Braig pointed a finger at him with a 'bingo' expression on his face. "That's the cool part. As a sort of failsafe measure in case I couldn't subdue her, I brought some of those creatures we made, some of those 'Heartless' to test 'em against a real opponent." Even looked skeptical. "And? We know they're made of corrupted hearts, but there is no way to get at those hearts. Killing the Heartless destroys the trapped heart as well. You found a solution?" He asked. Braig nodded confidently. "Yeah. I figured it would be like that, but when she killed the Heartless with her key/sword thing, it didn't just kill the Heartless, it freed the captive heart inside." This statement aroused murmurs and gasps of surprise among his colleagues, except for Xehanort, who had already heard of it. --------------------------- The six of them had agreed that Xehanort would take the bulk of the blow if something went wrong with the machinery that was to open the door. The rest of them would get clear once the darkness started to come through. But before he could even start to think about what he would do, a sound of an opening door reached his ears, and an old voice rose. "What do you think you're doing?! Xehanort, Braig, stop!" Braig and the others spun to see Ansem the Wise standing in the doorway, shocked and appalled at what his wards had done. Braig thought quickly, removing his gun from the holster and pointing it at the man. "Master Ansem, just please leave. I don't want to hurt you, it's too late to stop it." Ansem shook his head in subtle disbelief. "What are you talking about? Braig, you know better. Stop this nonsense! This is madness!" Braig began to sweat with nervousness. This man had taken him in from day one. Was he just going to kill him? But they had come so far. What to do? He didn't have time to think about it. Ienzo hastily shouted an incantation and cast some kind of energy at Ansem. A portal formed, more like a ripple on reality, and their old master began to be absorbed into it. A final desperate "No!" escaped his lips as he was banished to the realm of nothingness seemingly forever. --------------------- It had happened. It really had. Xehanort was opening the door. He was the only one who could do it. Already, the darkness was pouring through like a flood. Heartless were everywhere now. Out of control. Out of his control. Finally, he realized he was trapped. He and Dilan were alone, cut off from everything else. All they had were a pair of guns for Braig and a spear off the wall for Dilan. This was the training room after all. Elaeus used it most. But Braig had never imagined himself dying here. Braig looked shakily at Dilan. "Friends 'til the end, right?" Dilan returned his shaken smile. They each gave one thumbs up before the beings from darkness, worse than any Morlock had ever been, were upon them. 20 stories up, nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. This was it. Braig was able to hold them off at first. He even gave a laugh as he realized the effectiveness of his guns against the Heartless. But his game came to an end when he heard a click from the gun held in his left hand. As he scrambled to reload it, black hands grasped and clawed at his hand, forcing him to release the weapon from his grip. He tried to aim at the other group, but they were already too close. One grabbed his arm and was trying to take the gun against Braig. Braig struggled helplessly against the darkness. He felt his human strength fading. He gave an exasperated yell as the gun was turned in him. As he looked down the barrel with his right eye, he knew- this is it. He yelled in pain as the bullet pierced his eye and his head, missing his brain, much to his dismay. He clutched his eye with the gun still in his hand. Desperately, he tried to get the other gun, the one he had lost. He knew it was pointless. Before he was dead, the creatures would be over him. And before they were, one could swear they saw the most insane grin on Braig's scarred face, before he was overcome. Braig died, and the last thing he saw was his best friend Dilan falling from the window, covered in Heartless, still clutching the spear in his dying hand. ---------------------- Did I deserve this? I don't know where I am, why I lost my eye. All I know is that my name is Bra... Brul... an X? Braxig, Grabix, Xigbar... As he was thinking, a distant voice called to him with the last name he had thought of. "Xigbar!" Xigbar! My new name. I'll love it forever... Love? What is... that? ----------------------- The first thing he saw as he opened his eye was a mansion. A beautiful mansion, set in a beautiful place, before a beautiful wood. It was lost on him. All he acknowledged was the white-haired man standing over him, his voice so much deeper and more mature than the boy Xibala had known before. That's not my name, is it? "What is your name?" Is what the man standing over him said. And as he sat up, he spoke his first words of the second life without hesitation. "My name is Xigbar." My name is Xigbar.
Thank you for all the positive comments. I appreciate it. But surely there must be some errors that needed fixing?
Truthfully, I didn't see anything... But I've got a short term memory, so I might've forgotten... XD; I'll look over it again sometime, but right now, I'm kinda procrostinating on a project I should be doing, and it's driving me up the wall, making it hard to concentrate. Zexion: *slaps forehead* Oh, for the love of-- JUST DO THE FRICKIN' PROJECT! D< Me: Oh, sure. Says the pro-active one... >.>; Go run along and... Do something productive. >\ Zexion: >.>
