CHAPTER SEVEN
They had taken refuge in a storage room, filled with boxes. Rude had decided to check out the contents while Reno kept watch on the young guard. After a few seconds he got bored and leaned up against a box, then pulled out a cigarette.
“You know we’re under cover, right?” Rude said still going through the boxes. “They might find us if the smoke leaks out.”
Reno held his smoke in front of him and sighed before dropping it and stepping on it, “Yeah, yeah…”
“Think I found more documents on this Ansem person. Check it out.” Rude motioned to Reno who walked over to him.
“Hmm…what’s this about ‘extracting the heart’ ugh…this guy is into some freaky sh**.”
“Look here, it says that he’s already collected most of his guinea pigs. And on this page it shows some of the things that happened to the failed attempts.”
“Eww…How about we just grab this stuff and get the hell out of here? What do ya say, partner?”
“…?” Rude peered passed Reno with a look of confusion.
“What is it?”
“He’s gone.”
“Wh-…oh!” Reno had turned around and noticed the spot in which they had set the unconscious, young guard, was empty. “…sh**.”
A small click sounded from the doors lock, instantly telling the Turks they were trapped.
“Uh…um…I’m really s-sorry about this. I just don’t want to get in trouble.” said the guard from the other side of the door.
Reno tried to say something, but the sound of receding footsteps stopped him, “Just wonderful.” he said dryly., then kicked the door and looked at Rude, “What do you think? Got any of them flashy explosives on ya?”
Rude shook his head, “Sorry partner, not this time.”
Reno sighed.
A speaker came on in the corner of the ceiling, “Well, well, looks like we have ourselves some intruders. It’s about time that stupid mouse sent someone for us to play with. I was getting bored. Though I half-expected it to be that Leon fellow in town.”
Reno leaned over to Rude and whispered, “This dude sounds gay.”
“I can hear you.” the voice said, irritated.
“Who cares?” said Reno, “Rude, just do your thing.”
Rude nodded and braced himself, then charged towards the door, slamming his massive body into it, but the door still did not budge. He looked at Reno a bit shocked.
“Hmph, you must be losing you’re touch. I guess you have been rather lazy as of late, huh?”
Rude glared a little, Reno was the last person to talk about being lazy.
“Oh forgive my incredible doors. They’re made of steel as well as hardwood coating for decoration, Elaeus’s touch.”
Reno glared at the speaker, then back at his partner, “kuh! Can’t we do anything?”
“I’d rather you think quickly, I decided to shorten your stay. As we speak, the room is filling up with cyanide gas. Very deadly as I’m aware.” said the voice.
“Wait…you have cyanide gas pipes leading to your storage? Isn’t that just a little…well…stupid?” asked Reno.
“…”
“I mean think about it…if one of your workers comes in here and they accidentally trip the alarm, they’re screwed, right?”
“…”
“And what if that worker happens to be you looking for a file or something? I mean, you couldn’t just-”
“SHUT UP!” his voice seemed to drift in a different direction, “Increase the flow!”
“Good work, Reno. You’ve made him mad.”
“Aww come on, don’t be soar. This queer’s just gotta learn to take a chill pill now and then and stop killing off his workers. Don’t you agree?”
The gas blasted from the walls, and Reno and Rude began to cough and stagger.
“This it…partner?”
“Let’s hope…not….”
The two collapsed and were still.
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CHAPTER EIGHT
Reno slowly peaked open his eyes, his surroundings were a white blur, and his body felt stiff.
“uuuugh….I think I can taste purple….” he moaned, his voice groggy.
“Ah! So you’re finally awake.” it was the voice from the storage room. Only this time the man wasn’t hiding. He sat by a desk, it’s surface littered with papers that had been filled with scribbles. His hair was silver and his figure slender. He wore a white lab coat, buttoned up and extremely clean. The man looked over to Reno, who was strapped to a table, “And you have so quickly gained your ability to speak again.” he smiled.
“You’re a very twisted man….trust me…I’ve seen a lot of twisted men….but you…you…t-take the caaaaa~” Reno’s head bobbed and dropped, “Uuuuugh……my head’s so f***in’ heavy……”
The man got up, grinning, “Yes, you’ve been doused with morpheme…which is why I was so shocked you could even speak, and the fact that you‘re even still in the right state of mind….considering the dosage we put in. You’re friend, however, wasn’t so lucky.”
Reno‘s head bolted up, “….R-Rude…..what’d you…do……?” his vision blurred a little, his eyelids flickered and his head dropped again, “…what’d you do to him?” he finished, barely audible.
“We simply began the first step of our procedure. I can’t wait to find out if his heart is worthy! Ku ku ku ku…”
“Ex….Experiments….? Wait a minute….w-what about the….the cyanide…?”
The man’s eyes shifted, “Er…yeah…I’d rather not get into that.” he tossed an evil glare over at the young guard from before, Demy, who shied away into the corner, dropping his head a little. The man’s lip curled, “INSTEAD OF BEING USELESS, GO BACK TO YOUR POST!” he snapped.
Demy stiffened, then bolted out the door screaming a quick, “Yes! Yes, Sir!”.
The man turned back to Reno, smiling, “Honestly, workers these days are so worthless.” he reached into his lab coat and pulled out two things, Reno’s smokes, and what looked like a walkie-talkie. Reno twitched at the site of his cigarettes…he could really use one right about now. The man pushed the button on one of the devices, “Laumair, bring in his….friends.” he said, then pocketed the device. Then he eyed the pack of cigarettes, and looked at Reno, “So you smoke these things? Honestly….” he grinned walking over to a burner, “They’re so bad for your health…” he turned the burner’s nozzle on high, then set the pack aflame.
“You son-of-a-bitch!” Reno snapped, fighting the morpheme. But he froze in shock as a light-brown-haired man wheeled in not only Rude, but Elena as well. “B….But why?….How!?”
“Aah, so I was right in assuming that you knew her. The poor dear was seemed so angry as she stormed the streets of the town. She was shouting something about snow and what-not. But one of our…new members found her and brought her to me shortly after we caught you. Figured you might be interested, since you three are all uniformed the same.”
“You sick, twisted…FREAK! She has n-nothing…to do…with…..ugh….this…”
“Calm down, my soon-to-be experiment. I’d rather you not get all fired up before the show. After all you’ll be witnessing your friend’s going first. Doesn’t that sound fun?”
“ugh…uuugggh….” Elena slowly moved, then peaked open her eyes. She gently lifted her head and looked around the room, a bit shaky. But as soon as her eyes landed on Reno, they set ablaze, and her body began to fight the straps that bound her to the moving table. Laumair jumped back in surprise. “RENO YOU BASTARD! I’LL KILL YOU FOR WHAT YOU DID TO ME!”
“Elena…might we discuss this…another time?” He looked at the silver-haired man, “I…j-just don’t understand it……she’s…normally n-not so angry….such a sweet little…angel….who loves to follow orders….just…let her go…” slowly, the morpheme was beginning to wear off.
“ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING TO ME!?”
“Ah…so she managed to fight the morpheme as well. Hmm…” the man thought a moment. Then snapped his fingers.
Behind him, an orb of darkness appeared and twisted into a large portal. Out of it stepped a large hooded figure, who’s face was completely hidden and his large arms were propped up behind his back.
“Number three, take the lady to one of the cells…I’ve decided to wait a little while longer on her.”
“Mmm…yes sir. Of course.” The figured walked over to Elena. Laumair had a hard time keeping his calm as the table was taken from him. He flicked his hair and crossed his arms, then turned away from all the others trying to hide his sweat-covered face.
“W-What? What’s going on!?” Elena asked staring at the figure.
“Relax.” the figure said, then raised his large arm and struck her across the face, knocking her out.
“HEY!” shouted Reno, “Striking a lady! What kind of man are you!? You never hit a lady! Where‘s your pride….man…”
The figure turned to him and said nothing. But a cold, empty feeling rushed inside of Reno, and he shut up, staring. The stranger with Elena then walked back into the portal, which swiveled then dispersed as they disappeared.
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CHAPTER NINE
The silver-haired man clapped his hands together, “Back to business shall we?”
“I don’t get it…w-what are you planning to do, Ansem?”
“Ansem?! No no NO! I am not Ansem! Ansem is a FOOL! An incompetent, frightened little fool not willing to finish this amazing research just because of some petty little theory he gained. But NO! I am not that miscreant! I am better! I am smarter! I am Xehanort! KU KU KU KU KU!”
“A little conceded…eh?”
The man stomped over to Reno and stuck his face within’ an inch of his captive’s, then smiled, “Such a cheeky boy. For that, I shall let your friend go first! You get to watch.” he moved away from Reno then ordered Laumair to join him. “The extractor.”
“Of course, sir.” Laumair reached up on a nearby shelf and pulled down a small device with a pointed top and a strange symbol on it that looked to be two symbols merged in one. Half of the dark symbol that had been on the creatures Reno had seen in town. And the other half was half of a silver symbol similar to the other, but longer. Laumair walked over to Rude and aimed the top of the device at Rude’s chest., then pulled back a small switch that was located on the device’s side. A black ray shot into his chest and squirmed. Rude’s eye’s shot open, and he screamed out in pain.
“NO! WHAT’RE YOU DOING TO HIM!?” Reno shouted, struggling against the straps.
The black ray thickened in density, it looped up and twisted, then pulled out of it’s victim’s chest bringing with it a glowing heart. As soon as the heart was fully out of his chest, the darkness wrapped around it and swallowed it. Rude’s eyes darkened, and his body went limp.
The room was quiet with anticipation.
Rude’s body jolted, then shattered in hundreds of orbs of light that sparkled and disappeared.
“USE IT! HURRY!” Xehanort shouted to Laumair who popped open a small compartment on the device and pressed a button that had been inside. From the device, white orbs of all sizes shot out in every direction then froze. Hovering near the door in the air was a large heartless. “The heartless…where’s the nobodie?”
Laumair noticed something small poking up out of the ground, “Is that it, sir?” Xehanort looked over at the object, which was a small silver spike sticking up out of the ground.
“Heh…his heart wasn’t strong enough…just as I expected.” He turned to Reno, “You’re friend’s heart was pathetic.”
Reno clenched his teeth. The orbs faded and behind Xehanort the small spike flew up into the air, into a thin, whip-like weapon. Soon followed by a second. The whips wavered for a second, then stiffened and began frantically swinging ahead towards Laumair who jumped back, “Sir! Please stop it!”
Tiny violet diamonds shop out of nowhere at the nobodie, and from a darkened portal like before, another cloaked figure stepped out, “Dude, totally not cool. Attacking your master.” The whips withdrew, then from the ground popped up a strange nobodie with a large upper body.
“Xigbar, enough.” Xehanort said, watching the nobodie waver in it’s spot a little, “Well, well…he may have been weak, but his nobodie is a species I’ve never laid eyes on before. This will prove interesting research for a little while. Xigbar!”
“’Sup?”
“Teach it who it’s masters are, but don‘t kill it. Laumair, you take care of our other guest.”
“Yes sir, but one thing. Should I just let the shadow go?” he asked motioning towards the crazed shadow that had become disoriented from the orbs.
“Sure, whatever, it’s of no use to us.”
Xigbar closed in on the newly born nobody, while Laumair brought the machine over to Reno.
“GET THAT THING AWAY FROM ME!” Reno retorted, but he was completely helpless to stop it. The black ray slowly began to burrow inside of his chest. He felt a flash of cold rush through his body, as if his blood had slowly begun to turn to ice. He felt the marks from the side of his face slither under his eyes as his goggles shattered and fell to the floor.
“Finally! Another worthy one!” Reno heard Xehanort say just as his eyes began to lose focus. He began to remember things from his past. Walking through a beautiful flower patch in a broken-down church, fighting against spiky boy and his friends, getting drunk at the Turks bar with his best bud Rude. Then his vision became dark and his head dropped.
Xehanort and Laumair watched as Reno collapsed on the table, a flash of light burst from his body, enveloping everything in white. When the light began to fade and their eyes began to re-adjust, they noticed the man on the table was no longer the Turk they had brought in, but a similar man with longer flowing red hair, and dark blue marks under his eyes. This new man slowly rose his head with a devilish look and grinned.
“The name’s Axel. Got it memorized?”
Xehanort’s face twisted with pleasure. He balled his fists then threw his head back laughing maniacally. His laugh seemed to reach outside of Hallow Bastion where Leon and the others looked up for a moment. Sadness filled the room as they looked at each other, knowing that they had just condemned two men to the darkness…