Chapter 28
The sound of the familiar voice rang through the air. Immediately your head whipped around to the source quickly followed by the stares of your companions. There he sat on the grand arch outlining the door to the clock tower. In a flash mid-day turned to mid night cloaking the tower in darkness. He sat there lazily leaning against the pale stones that made up the unbelievably tall tower. A wicked grin was plastered to his face as his eerie yellow eyes appeared to glow in the darkness.
"Well that got creepy fast," Zack gawked at the tower. You ignored his statement, caught in a staring contest with the one person you didn't want the boys to see, Vanitas.
"It's rude to keep people waiting ------," Vanitas tutted leaning forward.
"You know this guy?" Axel asked looking between the two of you. You ignored his question not breaking eye contact. Your brain was reeling trying to think of ways to get the boys out of here. This Vanitas guy knew a lot about you and you didn't want him exposing any of your secrets.
"Yeah, me and ------- go way back," he grinned as the boys looked at you sensing your unease. Even Peter stood there cautiously watching.
"Are you the person that's been messing with time on this world?" Gray asked.
"I see you've got more body guards this time," Vanitas ignored Gray still keeping his gaze set to you.
"We're not guards, we're friends," Axel raised a brow clearly curious about your relation to this guy.
"Ha friends," Vanitas spat, "she's got me as a friend she doesn't need a couple weaklings like you."
"I hate to burst your bubble but I don't think she likes you," Zack chimed in looking at the glare you were shooting in Vanitas' direction. Vanitas' grin faltered for a second at Zack's comment before becoming even wider.
"Argh!" Zack screamed in pain behind you. Finally you tore your gaze from Vanitas to see Zack squirming in pain gripping at his arm that was slowly being engulfed by darkness.
"What the hell?" Axel reached out to Zack in an attempt to help him but you shoved him out of the way grabbing Zack's arm yourself. The pain was excruciating as the darkness tried to spread further into his body. You wrapped your hands around his arm and began absorbing the darkness into yourself. Waves of darkness slowly began wrapping around your arm and spreading throughout your body as they receded from Zack.
"What are you doing?" Gray stepped up trying to stop you. You simply turned your head in his direction and he stopped, stunned. You knew what he saw. A pair of jet black eyes staring back at him. The eyes of someone succumbing to the darkness.
"Stop it ------," He yelled at you, fear in his eyes. However by now Zack was cleared of the dark energy. You let go of his arm and his body slumped to the ground. Axel rushed over to check if he was okay as you then expelled the darkness from your own body and into the surrounding environment. The only problem with darkness is that it needs some where to go. With you being a dark mage you couldn't purify it with light meaning it would simply be released into the atmosphere, acting as a heartless hot spot. It wouldn't be long before a lot of heartless would converge in this area.
You looked around at the boys. Gray was just staring at you with a look of confusion as Axel pulled one of Zack's arms over his shoulder to help prop him up, but where was Peter? You twisted back around toward the tower to see Peter making a mad dash toward the tower's entrance which Vanitas was perched over. With a flick of his fingers Vanitas sent a wave of dark magic at the rabbit. Giving yourself a boost with wind magic your body hurtled toward Peter, arms outstretched. You wrapped him in your arms and flew out of the way before the dark wave could get to him.
"You okay Peter?" You breathed getting up from where you landed on the twig covered ground.
"I- I'm fine," he stuttered.
"You're bleeding," you told him looking at the red patch corrupting his fluffy, white, fur.
"It's not mine," he adjusted his now broken glasses looking at your leg. You followed his gaze and let out an annoyed sigh as you looked at the giant graze on your leg.
"You're no fun ------," Vanitas complained from his perch.
"And you're a nuisance," you got up dusting dirt of your leg.
"That's not very friendly of you," Vanitas frowned.
"I don't recall being your friend," you retorted.
"But you will," his grin came back. You knew it wasn't a good sign and you needed to get the boys away.
"Hey Peter, I need your help," You spoke in a hushed tone.
"I don't know how much assistance I can be," he said eyes filled with worry.
"I'm going to distract him, I need you to get the boys into the tower," you told him. Peter looked from the door to the boys before back to you.
"I- I'll try."
"Great." You walked with him back over to where the boys stood not taking your eyes of Vanitas.
"Why are you here?" you yelled over to Vanitas as Peter started talking to the boys. Zack was looking a little better but Axel was still supporting him.
"I'm here to get you of course," Vanitas once again leaned forward to talk to you.
"And why would I go anywhere with you?" you said as you began edging away from the group pulling Vanitas' attention from them.
"So we can go back to old times, just you and me, just like before. I'll help you remember." His smile turned from eerie to hopeful.
"I hate to burst your bubble but I'm not going anywhere with you," you told him. A sad look crossed his face.
"You don't belong with these people. They don't know you, I know you. I'm the only one." He jumped down from the arch over the doorway. "And I don't need you to come willingly." He started towards you creating the perfect opening for the others.
Peter quickly charged for the door, Axel dragging Zack behind him and Gray taking up the rear. Vanitas reeled back, rage consuming his face as he sent a wave of dark magic at them. Gray quickly erected a giant ice shield giving them enough cover to break into the building slamming the door behind them. You were so glad the boys had followed orders for once. Vanitas let out a grunt before turning back to you charging straight at you.
"You may have saved you friends," he spat "but now you're mine."
"I don't think so," you called once again using wind magic to propel yourself out of his path and landing in front of a new entrance to the maze. "You'll have to find me first." With that you set off into the massive maze in a desperate attempt to buy yourself some time and lead him away from your friends.
Almost instantly he was hot on your heels. You noticed the hedge begin to move and you picked up speed. Just in the nick of time the hedge pulled together behind you separating the two of you.
"Damn it!" He yelled and you could hear him pulling at the hedge, cutting it, trying to break it. Thank goodness the self-maintenance hedge was adamant to keep its shape.
You pushed on running through the hedge, it was almost pitch black but that didn't bother you. You could sense his dark presence and you were working your way away from it.
Left, Left, right, Left, faster, faster, FASTER... Crap.
The heartless had finally shown up, attracted by all the dark energy. You called forth your shadow claws and began tearing your way through them. Thus far they were only small fry but all the added dark energy was making it harder and harder to differentiate Vanitas from the rest.
Left, right, right...
The hedge began to rustle behind you. You turned just as it started pulling a part an arm breaking through.
"Got you," Vanitas said his voice deep and dark. His hand tightly wrapped around your arm pulling you closer. You flicked up your shadow claws slicing the flesh on his arm. He merely looked down at the cut as his blood dripped to the grass.
"Now that's not very nice." He spoke tightening his grip. You shoved your palm into the crook of his elbow making him loose his grip on your arm. In one swift movement you kneed him in the stomach forcing him to double over slightly before you dropped low kicking his legs out from under him sending him to the ground. He flew to the floor with a loud thud knocking the wind out of him. You dropped too, sitting on his stomach and pinning his arms.
"You're better than I anticipated," he half chuckled half coughed.
"I didn't want to kill you but you're not giving me much choice," you roared adjusting your weight on him as he struggled.
"Well I can't let that happen," he sighed, out of breath. A wave of dark magic was sent at you increasing in strength until you were forced to let him go. Squirming free you saw him reaching into his pocket. You tried to reach out and stop him but all too suddenly your body froze.
"Thank you secret weapon," He tapped two fingers on the golden pocket watch as the all too tragic melody spilled into your ears.
Damn him!
You began mustering all your strength trying to overcome the paralysis the music brought on. Your finger twitched slightly and he seemed to notice.
"Not this time," he said stepping behind you.
Thud
He hit you in the back of the head, hard.
"Don't worry you'll be fine," he spoke softly as your vision began to blur and your body crumpled back as he effortlessly swept you up in his arms. Your consciousness hadn't left you quite yet and you knew he was about to walk through a dark portal taking you who knows where and separating you from your friends. Your mind was slowly drifting further into the darkness unable to save yourself. All of a sudden something struck Vanitas causing him to almost drop you. You felt him turn around and could barely make out a figure standing a couple meters away clad in a black cloak.
"You- You're still alive?" Vanitas sounded shocked but you could hardly make out his voice any more. The figure took a step forward and Vanitas one back. "This can't be," he breathed. That was the last thing you heard before your mind slipped away and your head filled with nothing but darkness.
A/N: Hey Guys! New chapter. What do you think? Haha yeah it was Vanitas, pretty obvious huh and now I leave you with yet another mystery character. I reckon this one'll be harder to guess. Anyway hope you enjoyed and See ya in the next chapter!