After that bright blow, Rix and I landed on our feet. We circled around to the back of the heartless to see how slow or fast it would be able to move. After we stood behind it for a few second it just started to make its way to turn around. I smiled and knew that this would be easy. The heartless started to swing its weapons, but Rix and I both dodged them. She gave it a few magical blows with Ice and fire, which did stun it a little. The heartless spun around wildly as it swung its weapons and the fire on them blazed. Just before I saw Rix would be hit I teleported to her using the darkness and teleported us above the heartless's head.
"Thanks," Rix said.
"Sure thing," I smiled.
"Hey think you can loan me the power of darkness for a moment? Just for a moment, I don't wanna get all corrupted like you, Renxsuke and Riku." There was Riku's name again....yet again affiliated with the darkness...maybe I could ask Rix what she knew about it and hopefully she would tell me. Was Riku possibly a bad person? I honestly didn't know why I was so hung up on Riku, a person I only met once, all he did was save me and then disappeared. But I guess it was more so of the fact that his name tended to pop up quite often around castle oblivion, along with Sora's, but Riku came up a bit more frequently.
"Uh...alright...what are you going to do?"
"You'll see, now just hit me with it!"
I nodded as my grip on her became a bit tighter and I let some of the darkness seep from my hands. It began to move up her arm in black and dark purple strings, like water. And then It seeped into her skin. I noticed that she had closed her eyes when the darkness was attaching to her, it must have hurt her heart a little. When I touched her I could feel that she had quite a fragile heart.
When the pain passed she shook her head and looked down at the heartless that had finally stopped spinning. It flung both its weapons at us and we both dodged them and then the heartless roared in anger. As its mouth was open Rix blew a blast of darkness in its mouth and it went down its throat. We heard a grumbling in it's stomach and the blast exploded but it didn't cause much damage.
I chuckled at her and said, "I could have done that."
"Hey! I tried! And I just wanted to see how it felt."
"And?"
"I don't like it, get it off me." I laughed and took her hand and absorbed the darkness that I gave her as it returned just like in went, like strings of water.
"Alright, let's get this over with, you take the back I'll take the front."
She nodded and landed on the heartless's shoulder and ran along its back and I floated around to its front. "Alright, I'm ready!"
"Now!" I lunged forward as I summoned my other blade Lost memory and we, from both sides, plunged our blades in its body and slid down the heartless as blazes of white light followed like a flame, to cut it in strips. And when we landed on our feet and Rix met back up with me, the strips of the heartless flared around as the heartless roared. A bright light shined, blinding us, and when it disappeared the heartless was whole again as if nothing had happened.
"What?!" Rix screamed.
"It rejuvenated?!" I said. The heartless roared and swung its weapons. "Wait!"
"What?" Rix asked.
"You know how you gave it that blast and it seemed to not do anything?"
"Yeah?"
"Well maybe it did more damage than we thought. See if you can get it to open it's mouth for me."
"What?! You're not really gonna go inside that thing are you?"
"It has to be done."
"Ughh, ew, fine. I'll get it to open nice and wide." She ran towards the heartless and ran up its body and gave it four hard hits to the head and lashed it with a finishing combo which caused it to roar in pain and open its mouth wide open. "Go now, Ayame!"
I flashed to the heartless's to go inside its mouth. As I slide down its throat it didn't take long until I started to get covered in this black and sticky slime. I wasn't sure if it was from that little blast or this is just what it looked like inside a heartless, either way it was sickening. When I landed on my feet inside the stomach of the heartless, there was nothing but this black gook everywhere. It made me shiver a little.
"Ayame!" Rix called. "Are you ok?"
I didn't bother trying to respond because she probably wouldn't have been able to hear me. I stood still as I took a deep breath and concentrated on the dark energy of the darkness that flowed in my body. I needed to call on a great amount of power of the darkness in order for this to go right. I began to show a little of the darkness's true colors as purple and black swirls moved from my hands and expanded around me, the same ones that appeared before when I was in Olympus. So by this time I knew my eyes apparently seemed to turn purple. I took both of my keyblades and held them up in the air as I focused the energy of the darkness and moved it towards my keyblades.
A large black and dark blue orb appeared around the teeth of my blades and then I used the power of magic and sent lightning up my blades like they were circuits and the electric flow focused around the teeth of my blades and stayed there. As I slammed the teeth of my blades into the stomach of the heartless I saw that the blue lightning changed to purple. I had to let the power circulate a bit more before I let it blow away. The lightning started to go up my arms and it gave me a sharp stinging, but I held my ground until I needed to. I then let the power and energy go wild as a black light expanded and then in an instant the heartless was blown to bits and all that was left was the black goo that was inside it and it had covered the queen's entire courtyard.
I was completely covered in this gook and wiped it from my face after I took a breath from using so much power. When my face was cleared from the black slime I looked up to find Rix in front of my as she pulled some of the black slime from her hair.
"You alright?" she asked. "I was getting worried."
"Yeah, its all peachy."
"That looks like it took a lot out of you, remember you still need to give my mom her little army before we go."
"I know." Then the queen had reappeared from wherever she was hiding, covered in the gooy remains of the heartless.
"Oh my, that was quite the fright, but I'm glad you were here to take care of it. And my darling Rixile, I am quite surprised."
"Uhuh..." Rix brushed her off until another thought struck her. "Mother, where's my father and my golden brother of mine?"
"Oh....um..." the queen said as she laughed oddly and frantically.
Rix's eyebrow arched in suspicion, "What did you do? Are they gone?! Did you get rid of them?! For your own greed?!"
"Why no of course not," the queen stammered. I could see the guilt in her eyes. "They are out doing boy things."
"Let's get on with this shall we?" I interjected, I could tell we needed to leave soon, Rix was getting antsy and didn't want to be here any longer, as the seconds went by she seemed to get more angry.
"Yes...let's," Rix said.
I held out my hand and used the darkness, regardless of how tired I was, and summoned a large army of heartless of about a thousand from a black puff of smoke. They all bowed to the queen and she squealed as she clapped her hands.
"Now, do you think you can fix my card servants?"
"I'll do better than that," I told her. I assembled all of the card guards and servants that were scattered all throughout the grassy maze. They swirled together in a black tornado and then a large monstrous card servant that was about as large as her castle appeared by the castle doors and kneeled down to her as it bowed its head.
"Oh!" she exclaimed. "What an improvisation!"
"Great, now let's get going..." Rix said.
"Na ah," her mother cooed. "Rixile darling, you need to stay here.
"What?! No I don't!"
"Yes, I do not approve . You a are a princess and a princess should not be involved."
"You can't tell me what to do! I haven't here for so long!"
"You are my daughter and an heir to the throne."
"Forget it. Cheshire was right, you have gone loony." Rix started to walk away.
"Seize her!" the queen said and commanded some of her heartless to capture Rix."
"Hey let me go!" I could now see what Rix meant about her mother dearest, this woman was driven with greed and power, but since it was part of my mission I had, and sure I'd let her keep it but at a price.
"I thank you for your time, Ayame," the queen said to me. "But my daughter will not be returning with you. The heartless began to take Rix away but anger inside me grew. I would not let this happen. How could a mother treat their daughter this way and go so far to take them captive? The darkness seemed to fuel me and gave me an advantage to show its true colors. Black winds started to occur and blow violently as my long black and red striped hair danced with it. The heartless that had Rix then stopped their movement. Regardless of who I let control them, they were attracted to the darkness.
"You will do no such thing," I said as I rode the winds as a tornado and went towards her and floated right above her in her face. The echo in my voice had appeared.
"Whoa..." I heard Rix say. "Glowing purple eyes.."
"I beg your pardon?" the queen said. "I am the queen and can have you beheaded! You do not tell me what I will and will not do!"
I chuckled evily, "I can and will, I am the one who gave this army and sense of power that you have and I can take it back!"
"Yes...yes...you are quite right...I'm sorry."
"But that is not the problem," I growled. "I do not understand how a mother could treat a daughter as you have treated Rix, no wonder she disowns you!"
"Well...I-I.."
"You may have you army and sense of power because it is my duty, but you will have it at a price. You are the one that needs consequences."
"What do you mean?"
"You are a queen who has been graced with selfishness and greed, a queen with a black heart. You will be bounded here and never to leave wonderland by what you seem to love the most!" It took Two Across and aimed it at her chest as a black light shot at her heart. She yelled in pain as her dress started to change black and her scepter as well. Everything that had the color red changed to black, all the way from her castle, to her card guard, and her red roses. I then released my hold on her heart and landed on the ground and went to get Rix from the heartless.
"What have you done?" she asked holding the pain she felt on her heart.
"As I said you have a black heart and will be bound by what you love most..."
"All you have done is make some decoration changes...that does not bother me..."
A smirk appeared on my face and I walked over to one of her bushes and picked one of black roses that had appeared. I then turned to face her, holding the rose, and crushed the rose in my hand. She cringed in pain and held her chest with each harsh movement I made towards the rose. "The black heart of a queen tied to her precious black roses," I then dropped the crushed rose on the ground and created a dark portal for Rix and I to walk through. About five minutes after walking through the portal I had returned to normal, Rix was pretty happy in a way about what she had witnessed.
"You were a bit scary, Ayame," Rix said. "It was kinda cool."
"Well just don't make me mad at you and you'll be fine," I said. She laughed. "Hey, Rix?"
"Yeah?"
"What can you tell me about, Riku?"
"Other than the fact that he's pretty cute...only what I know..."
"What's his connection to the organization? I've only been told a little but I don't really get it..."
"Well," she said. "Apparently some time ago, about a couple years, Riku kinda in a way became possessed or something by some big bad guy, named Ansem. Because of that, Riku was consumed in darkness, and since then has had hard time keeping it under control and keeping Ansem locked away. In the beginning Riku would kind of seemed like a bad guy, but it wasn't his fault, he was manipulated by Malificent and Ansem, and the darkness."
"What?! Malificent? Ansem?" I had then remembered the summon stone I was given to summon her.
"Yeah, Ansem kinda still lingers, anyways, a way that he kept his darkness under control and keeping his amount of light strong is with his keyblade, Way to Dawn. It helps to keep him balanced, so his darkness doesn't go crazy. But apparently the whole reason this all happened is because he wanted to protect his and Sora's friend Kairi. I think he liked her..."
"I see....it makes sense so far..."
"Yeah, but somewhere between that time Riku was helping the organization, I guess until he went rouge, thinking that they had bad intentions."
"But they're just trying to get hearts of their own."
"Right? What's wrong with that? Maybe Riku was just crazy. But now he's back traveling with Sora doing whatever to try and stop us and the organization, blah, blah. But that's pretty much the story of Riku, the boy with as much light as he has darkness."
"Did you know, Riku?"
"Oh no, when he was around I was no where around, but we all kinda know his story from the organization and its just kind of traveled from there."
"Ok...it all makes since, thanks." I now understood why Riku was such a vital subject in the organization, he was actually helping them at some point and just ditched them. I'm sure that had to hurt some of them, But they didn't have worry about me ever leaving them. I wouldn't let RIku and Sora stop the members from getting hearts of their own, and building kingdom hearts.
"Why'd you ask?" Rix asked.
"Just curious..."
We then made it back to castle oblivion and it was quiet and dark which meant everyone was asleep. Rix was about to walk away and go to her room but then she stopped and turned back around with tears in her eyes.
"Huh? What's wrong, Rix?" I asked. She then walked back over to me and pulled me into a sudden and tight hug. I could feel her wet tears on my cheek.
"I wan to thank you for helping me when my mother tried to take me."
"Of course, I wasn't going to just leave you there, and if your mom put up a fight I would have killed her, but Xemnas does need her, but even if I had to knock her out I still would have helped you, Rix"
I could tell that she started smiling and her grip became a little tighter. I know understood why I could fee that she had a fragile heart. Rix may have seemed to be tough and always together, but on the inside it seemed that she was at a constant battle with her feelings, whether it was with boys, like Ashtcher and Axel, or with her family. Her heart was tearing up inside and being worn out. And I guess for once, in this moment, she didn't feel she had to fight or was had to battle with my judgment of her. She knew she could trust me.
"I'm just glad you were there for me," she said. "I'm glad that I know I can trust you, and that you'll look out for me. Anyone who didn't care would have left. Good friends are hard to come by, and I'm glad that I can call you my friend, and that I'll always have your back."
I patted her back and smiled and then hugged her back. I would always have Rix's back, I also knew that I could trust her, and now we both had someone to open up to if things got too bad. In such a short time she had reminded me of my best friend, Celty, and when she reminded me of her I knew that I could look at Rix like a sister. "Me too."