Well, since votes for TWTNW outweighed the others, the two shall go there! Figments of Your Imagination ~~Chapter 3~~ ~~Dolur~~ After coming out of the dark corridor, Marluxia found himself in the World That Never Was. The Castle That Never Was loomed over him like a monstrous bully, leaning in ever so close. The feeling gave Marluxia the chills, not just the wind. He shivered as he backed up onto a flowerbed. Screaming, he picked up the one that was bent. He quickly reshaped it, and then examined it further. "Hmm...It's a daffodil." As he said that, a memory came sweeping into his mind. In a moment, he was flushed back to when he was a grade-school student at Hollow Bastion. ~~~Hollow Bastion Elementary~~~ Rambunctious kids ran around the playground. Every so often, they would trample a rhododendron plant, or a delicate rose. Lumiara would then swoop in to clean them up, fix them, make them right as rain. And after each time, someone would sock him in the cheek for it, yelling things about gayness and sissies. Marluxia watched as a 4th grade girl carelessly bounced on a sunflower, then bounded off as she remembered she had forgotten her lipstick in class. Marluxia rushed over to it, faster than his younger counterpart, and tried to repair it; his hand went straight through it. Instead, the memory played as it should have. A 5th grade boy then punched Lumiara in the head, sending him sprawling into the woodchips. One got lodged below his right shoulder. Trying his best not to cry, he removed it. ~~~TWTNW~~~ Marluxia sighed. "Did my life suck that bad back then?" He pulled up his right sleeve; the mark of the woodchip was still there. Time hadn't been able to erase the jagged scar. Just then, Marluxia noticed Lumiara (the shadow) waving at him from the castle's entrance. Marluxia growled and ran after him into it. Flight of stairs after flight of stairs, Marluxia hustled to keep up with his shadow. He rounded a corner and caem into the room where Sora had once fought Xigbar. Instead of #2 on the high platform, Marluxia saw Luxord. "Luxord!" he called out. "Can he hear me?!" Luxord only smirked. "Of course I can hear you. I am not deaf. But...do not call me Luxord. Rather, address me as Dolur. My former name." Marluxia grunted. "What's that supposed to mean, Luxo...Dolur?!" "Don't you recognize me?" "Of course I do! You're Luxord!" Dolur laughed. "You're so naive." He took a deck of cards out. Nonchalantly, he drew five of them out. "Try to get me." He threw a card down to Marluxia. He caught it swiftly. Immediately, he turned into a die. "Crap..." Cackling, Dolur jumped down and did a frontflip in front of the small plaything. He kicked it around, all the while Marluxia screaming at the top of his lungs. He smashed into a wall before he was able to get out of the form. Dolur squeaked as Marluxia summoned his scythe. He teleported behind Dolur and struck. His enemy fell to the ground, but threw a card which sliced part of Marluxia's good arm. While he writhed, holding his arm, Dolur made his cards humongous, and they encircled Marluxia. A fake Dolur appeared, and Marluxia had no trouble fighting him off. "Take this!" he screeched as his weapon dug into the fake's skin. The cards fell and Marluxia took a big swipe at the real Dolur. Blood went flying as he fell back. As he hit the floor, spiky cards started flying at Marluxia. With a quick move, he blocked the first few with his scythe, but got tired; he was bombarded with sharp objects. He yelled out in agony as he collapsed to the floor. Blood flowed by his person. Dolur appeared above him, his cards aligned into a dagger. "Time to say goodbye." He thrust his arm down, but failed when Marluxia kicked his legs out from beneath him. Marluxia caught the dagger and, without knowing what he was doing, threw it at Dolur. It lodged into his head. With a gasp of surprise, he fell to the floor and disappeared. "Heh. Not bad for the first fight, Flower Power. I'm half-impressed." Marluxia looked up to the balcony and saw Zexion. He had a slight sneer. "You got beat up inthe process, but kudos to you; you beat an illusion." When he saw Marly's look of surprise, he expounded on the topic. "Lumiara is no longer in the World That Never Was; in fact, he got out a long time ago. I helped. You were merely fighting an illusion of Luxord I created; with one exception: He was tougher. And, he had emotion. If you noticed, his gasp of surprise was emotion; if he was a real Nobody, that wouldn't have happened. "And, since you no longer have Lumiara inside of you, you too have emotion now, Marly. I imagine you felt fear and desperation. Those are human emotions. Without your shadow, you can feel those now. "Well, since you also beat someone, I might as well give you a little flashback." He waved a hand in front of his face. ~~~Castle Oblivion Gam Room~~~ The latest episode of Family Guy was playing. An adult Stewie ran into an older Lois's arms. The normal Stewie was very pissed. "What?! She's still alive?! What the hell, man?!" Marluxia and Lexaeus burst out laughing. "Oh, man. This show always makes me laugh!" ~~~~~~ Zexion had a blank look on his face. "Oops. Wrong flashback." ~~~Lumiara's Room~~~ Lumiara cried at the foot of his bed. Scratches littered his frail body. He was quivering, shaking uncontrollably. "Why...? What did I do to deserve that..?" ~~~Castle That Never Was~~~ Before anything more happened, the memory faded into darkness. "What was that about?!" Marluxia shrieked. Zexion chuckled. "Do you want to find out? If you do, then you must go through here." A corridor of darkness appeared in front of Marluxia. Without hesitation, he crawled in and disappeared. ~~~End of Chapter 3~~~
