Kingdom Hearts - Blades of Three Realms

[[XIII] Roxas]

Roxas watched in concern as Crystal would fidget occasionally in her sleep, but also with pronounced interest as tendrils of light began to extend from the Oathkeeper slowly building what appeared to be something akin to a Corridor of Light. He really wished he could do more to help and then, quite by accident, he noticed that placing his own hand onto the Oathkeeper seemed to speed up the construction of the dimly shining corridor.

"I see, so more connections makes the resonance stronger," Roxas remarked with some amazement. "I guess that kinda makes sense."  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Axel had been about to grill Riku on more details on what the hell happened to have Shiro kidnapped -AGAIN- when Riku mentioned Xion and like a Doomtrain summon, had been hit hard enough in his mind to send it reeling, as his own memories started to return of the black haired blue-eyed girl that was the third of the trio of friends of himself, Roxas, and Xion "X-X-Xion..?" he sid shakily, thusly letting go of the sea-salt ice cream bars he had bought to drop to the ground in sheer shock before completely forgetting about said ice cream and suddenly switching gears from shock to almost giddiness in having a friend he remembered finally "oh man..!! Xion! i can't believe i forgot about her! jeez what a lousy friend i am..." he said, slumping a bit, before looking right to the keyblader "let's go to Radiant garden then, the ice cream can wait." he said, quickly opening up a Corridor of Darkness and disappearing into it making a bee-line for Radiant Garden and the tavern.

Roveth meanwhile had walked in on Shiro's room seeing his hikari awake and squirming under a currently irate looking chocobo sitting on him trying to keep him down with kwehs and warks at his partner, until finally a firm peck on the head got Shiro to lay back down in futility with a pained groan "dammit Shiroi Senko... it's not nice to hold your partner hostage!" of course Roveth chuckled a bit and sat down at a nearby chair before looking serious "so how're you feeling aibou?" Shiro just looked over to Roveth with a tired sigh "like a hot burning coal and a hostage trapped in a hospital room. are we back at the tavern?" Roveth nodded and continued on "yeah, we managed to beat that creepy clown back, though he still got away from us. not to mention doing whatever he did to you." shiro gave off a hum a bit, before looking at his hand, with a frown on his face as his mind spiked in pain, his prana flaring slightly ~I am Thou, and Thou Art I... the time has come.. return to the land of dreams and come to the Velvet room!~ Shiro of course gripped his head a bit as the voice intoned commands, as he groaned a bit with Roveth frowning in worry "i'll be fine Hitori no Boku... just.. need some aspirins before i go back to sleep." Roveth nodded, and headed downstairs to get some, while Shiro returned his glaring contest with his chocobo partner ".... this isn't the last we'll argue about my moving about, Shiroi Senko..." the bird just warked with a beaky smirk in challenge.  

[[XIII] Roxas]

Roxas watched with growing urgency as the Corridor of Light finally seemed to stabilize and he could then see Crystal and Xion battling off the Nightmares by peering through it. He would then hear Crystal calling through the corridor, "Roxas, grab her!" as Crystal took the opportunity to give Xion a swift shove straight through the corridor. Roxas did as he was told, catching hold of Xion as she was displaced from the corridor and it very quickly collapsed behind her. The Oathkeeper that she had been wielding promptly vanished once she exited the dreamscape given that the real one was still with Crystal's sleeping form over on the bed.

"Sheesh, remind me never to turn my back on her," Xion grumbled awkwardly as she slowly recovered and started getting acclimated to her new surroundings.

"Xion, it's really you!" Roxas was both relieved and overwhelmed himself by this whole strange reunion. Still, when Xion started wiggling to get back on her feet he let go of her so she could have some space to herself to get properly situated. "You're really back!"

"As impossible as it sounds... I guess I really am," Xion glanced over to the other girl still sleeping soundly, still clearly worried. "She'd better hurry and wake up soon. That was a cheap shot and she knows it."  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Axel of course blinked when he sensed the outpouring of light from the Tavern, and summoned his chakrams which he then jumped up and proceeded to attach to his feet and head off into the air with a blazing trail using them as skates heading for the tavern, looking both giddy and apprehensive both about seeing Xion and all.

Roveth meanwhile had started to come back up stairs when he felt the outpouring of light, and flinched as he glanced towards crystal's room with a guarded frown "what in the worlds is going on...?" he muttered to himself, before sighing, and continuing his trek into Shiro's room to pass him the aspirins and all while looking more worried for crystal than Shiro, since shiro woke up, now this crazy thing happens? what next?  

[[XIII] Roxas]

There would of course be a great deal of giggling coming from the vicinity of Crystal's room at the tavern as the three teenagers wriggled awkwardly in their haphazard dog pile which, because Crystal had kicked up the blankets when she left the room earlier, had resulted in the three of them becoming particularly tangled together as Roxas and Xion both struggled to free themselves amidst their own fits of giggling. Naturally, their attempts to dislodge themselves from the bed would leave them all looking frazzled, with Roxas's hair somehow becoming even more disorderly than usual.

"Okay, how about on the count of three we all stop laughing so we can try to see if there's an easy way out of this," Crystal interjected through her own fits of giggling. "1... 2... 3..." Nope, not gonna work. All three of them only started laughing harder.


In the next room Squall would have been found grumbling and wondering what in the world was so funny in there.  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

once Axel had landed at the tavern he'd dismiss his chakrams, and head inside, quickly giving greetings to Tifa before heading upstairs, almost thinking about stopping by Shiro's room to check up on him ,but his memories of Xion had rung in his head loud enoguh for it to bypass that urge and he continued on towards the room filled with giggling teens, where he'd promptly open the door, and noticed the dogpile, smiling wider when he saw Xion, but then he schooled his face into his characteristic smirk "well well well... looks like Roxas is a little Player. nice job on bagging two girls you like." he said, leaning against the doorframe with mischief and amusement sparking in his eyes and all at the dogpile's predicament.

Roveth meanwhile just shook his head a bit and just sighed at the staredown Shiro was giving Shiroi senko before the boy fell back into slumber again due to the pain ebbing just enough to let him back under, where he'd find himself falling, falling, before landing on a roadside? of sorts, and a decently sized limo drove down the road towards him, stopping in front of him and opening up, Shiro, remembering what the voice said, climbed inside to find out what that was all about....  

[[XIII] Roxas]

The nearly constant giggling persisted until Axel arrived. The three teenagers didn't hear him come in, given Axel could be pretty stealthy and their laughter was both infectious and rather loud at the moment. But then they did hear what Axel had to say about their rather comical predicament and that managed to quiet the laughter somewhat as Roxas seemed to become aware of his position for the first time and his face started to burn with embarrassment. His blushing didn't go unnoticed by the two girls either, both of whom were still giggling, although somewhat more quietly than before.

"Axel, it's not like that and you know it!" Roxas protested, even though a part of him knew it would prove useless and he was only serving to give Axel more fuel with which to tease him by trying to deny it.

"It's good to see you again too Axel," Xion finally managed to regain some of her composure and had finally stopped giggling. This was matched by Crystal who had only really persisted as long as she had because of her close proximity to the other two.

Crystal used this opportunity to catch her breath and then realized she still hadn't asked about Shiro. "Okay, so we're all fine here... but what about Shiro?"

"Oh, right," Roxas recovered somewhat although his face was still visibly flushed from his earlier embarrassment and Axel was probably going to lavish teasing him about it at length later. "We put Shiro straight to bed when we brought you both back here and last I checked he was still sleeping under the watchful eye of Shiroi Senko. I think Roveth has been checking up on him too, but that's about all I know."

Riku had returned to the tavern by that time and also headed upstairs. He decided to give Axel a few more moments head start with his reunion with Xion and opted to poke his head into Shiro's room to see how everything was going in there.

"It looks like everything is quiet in here," Riku greeted Roveth. "I take it there hasn't been any trouble?"  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Axel -definitely- had the 'oh you are -so- getting teased later' look on his face for roxas indeed, while he hummed in thought and looked over his shoulder back out the doorway "don't look at me, only thing i heard was he was kidnapped but you guys managed to save him from Riku before he dropped the bomb about Xion.. speaking of..." he would then walk over to the dogpile, but instead of joining them maneuvered to where he'd extract Xion quite quickly from the pile, and hugged her "welcome back Xion! it's defintiely great to see you again, got it memorized?" he quipped on the last part, simply because it was Axel's favorite catchphrase.

Roveth had looked up from his thinking as riku spoke up, sighing "he just woke up recently actually, but the pains his body was going through made him need some aspirin and water, right now he's back asleep... you should've seen the glaring contest he was having with Shiroi Senko." he said, pointing to the chocobo literally nesting atop Shiro's body as if to keep it from leaving the chocobo's sight. he did lean back and sigh a bit lightly "i take it Crystal is at least better, from the concentration of light and the giggles i heard not too long ago?" he asked a bit, curious, but couldn't go check given that he was.. still not comfortable around concentrated light, hence why he would typically make only visits to say.. Castle Disney -very- brief.


Shiro meanwhile had looked around, seeing a small mini-bar to his left with various alcoholic beverages and glasses for them, to the right was more seats, all an odd blue color, and in front of him to his right was an older woman with silver hair and amber yellow eyes (much like Roveth's) with no sign to a hint of darkness in them, and in front of him... was an elderly(?) man with pointed ears and an equally long pointed nose and his hands steepled much like a few certain people we love to hate (cough Gendou cough cough) before he opened his slightly bloodshot and beady eyes, and smiled "welcome to the Velvet Room." he said calmly, much like a businessman introducing himself to his customers. shiro of course normally would freak out about this being in the depths of his soul, and effecting his Reality Marble, but then he mentally realized this didn't feel like a dive into the depths of either his heart or is soul... so where -is- this? "Ah... it seems we have a guest with an intriguing Destiny..." he then chuckled a little after, as Shiro immediately narrowed his eyes hearing that line. "like i need more intrigue about it.." he muttered as his comment went unmentioned for now. "My name is Igor... I am delighted to meet your aquaintance." Shiro then raised an eyebrow, but made no comment on how ironic he felt the name was given he knew other iterations of an 'igor'... either way, Shiro instead finally decided to ask the question burning in his mind "where are we, exactly?" Igor just continued smiling unflinchingly before answering "this place exists between Dream and Reality, Mind and Matter... it is a room where only those who are bound by a "Contract" may enter... it may be that such a fate awaits you in the near future.. or that you have been bound to one since birth?" Shiro had blinked, and blinked again, even as a 'blue butterfly' fluttered passed his vision a -slight- moment, but he then widened his eyes "the Keyblade...?" Igor gave off a light 'hmmm' in thought at the mention of such an ancient relic indeed, if this person knew of Keyblades.. then he may be under a contract as a wielder? interesting thought. "now then! why don't you introduce yourself?" shiro blinked, and just returned to his calmer state for the moment "Shiro..., pleasure to meet you, Igor." he said with a small smile and all, though he mentally did find it odd he didn't or couldn't say his last name, Igor nodded with a small hum "hmm... i see. it seems while you probably have a true last name... it has been lost in your memories, that is why you might not have immediately said it, instead of the one you've possibly been giving out to others in the real world." Shiro blinked, surprised at that bit, but he just filed that away for the moment before the conversation would continue.  

[[XIII] Roxas]

"So then, we should probably just let him sleep for now," Riku nodded with regards to Shiro. "But I do have some questions for Crystal and I should probably just ask her directly, but you were a part of Shiro before you became your own person so you've been around her for awhile now. Do you know anything at all about her? Up until recently I figured she was basically harmless, but now I'm beginning to wonder if there might be a few too many unknown variables connected to her."


"Thank you, Axel," Xion was in reasonably good spirits all things considered. It was still rather unclear how all this was even possible, but at least it was a happy occasion.

With Xion removed from the bed it became much easier for the other two teens to move freely and Crystal was already attempting to swing her legs over the side to get away so she could check up on Shiro.

"Don't you still need to rest?" Roxas was definitely was less effective at supervising Crystal than Shiroi Senko was at keeping Shiro in line.

"I don't plan on sleeping again for awhile," Crystal stated firmly. "My mindscape is a mess right now and my subconscious hates me so I think I'd rather be awake. Besides, this level of fatigue is nothing loading up on sugar won't fix." She hopped down off the bed, testing her balance a few times before determining she was coordinated enough to venture out on her own, and then slipped out through the door to see about checking up on Shiro,

"Should I be... trying to stop her?" Roxas wondered aloud. Right now he really just wanted to spend more time with Axel and Xion to make it more like old times, but he'd be lying if he claimed he wasn't slightly worried about whatever was going on with Crystal. And with Shiro too, but he had way less firsthand experience on that side of things.  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Roveth nodded lightly, getting up a bit lightly "not that much i'm afraid, Crystal kept focus more on the present and trying to help Shiro out when they met, moreso than mentioning things about the past... but.. and this is just from my observations when i was still a part of shiro.. she seemed to be using Shiro as an excuse for something." he then shrugged a bit lightly "but she never stated anything so Shiro left it be, being the kind light half he is." he lightly moved to follow Riku, curious as to how this interrogation of Crystal will go, as he quietly shut Shiro's room door behind him with a wave to shiroi Senko, who warked and merely munched on some Gyshal greens from Shiro's pockets while continuing to sit on his partner's body.


Axel meanwhile just chuckled and shook his head "i don't think you'd be able to stop her Roxas, though it is good that you'd try to, means you are her friend too." he said a bit, grinning lightly "but before you go try and pry her away from the sweet stuff.. i think i need to give you and Xion both the Birds and the bees talk huh?" he said in a teasing tone, just to show he was -not- going to let Roxas live that down anytime soon while setting Xion down after the hug.


Igor had smiled to Shiro as he brought up a hand from his steepling "Now, let's take a look into your future.. shall we?" shiro raised an eyebrow in curiosity as he sat in the car a bit while Igor brought his hand over the table, and with a small flash of light... a Tarot deck appeared upon the table. he then smiled a bit once more "Do you believe in fortune Telling?" igor had asked Shiro, who thought on it, before tilting his head "from time to time...depends on who is telling the fortune." Igor chuckled a bit, smiling as he waved his hand, causing the cards to scatter out forming the typical spread for a fortune telling (the 7 card spread, 3 top, 3 below, 1 center.) before explaining things "Each reading is done with the same cards.. yet the result is always different..." he then stopped a moment to chuckle "Life itself follows the same principles, doesn't it?" shiro just rolled his eyes "sometimes i wonder about that with my luck." Igor just chuckled, before making the bottom right most card flip over, revealing the Tower, in the Upright Position. "hmmm.. The Tower in the upright position represents the immediate future. it seems a terrible catastrophe is imminent." Shiro mentally groaned, though he hardened his eyes physically ".... well that just plain bites." Shiro commented, while igor just continued on "The card indicating the future beyond that is..." he then flipped over the left most bottom card, revealing the Moon, in the upright Position. "The Moon, in the upright position. this card represents 'hesitation', and 'Mystery'.... very interesting indeed." Shiro now looked on with a raised eyebrow, given that he had quite a few questions about things, this reading seemed to stump him even more, given there could've been any number of things that could happen to cause things. "it seems you will encounter a misfortune at your next destination, and a great Mystery will be imposed upon you." igor then waved his hand lightly with a smile "in the coming days, you will enter into.. or maybe remember the true nature of your Contract of some sort.. after which you will return here. the coming year is a turning point in your destiny... if the mystery goes unsolved, your future may be forever lost." Shiro narrowed his eyes again hearing that ~********! just great.. a mystery, and if i don't solve it i'm dead ******** meat.. just peachy.~ he thought to himself with a grimace on his face. "worry not, young Shiro, my duty is to provide assistance to our guests to ensure things do not happen in such a grim and depressing way." with that, he waved his hand, dismissing the Tarot cards from the table, before seeming to remember something if the look ofg an idea or light-bulb turning on happened. "ah! it seems i have neglected to introduce my assistant to you." he would then motion to the woman sitting on his left (Shiro's right.) "this is Margaret. she is a resident of this place, like myself." the woman would then speak up after adjusting the book on her lap "my name is Margaret. i am here to accompany you through your Journeys." Shiro nodded, smiling "pleasure to meet you Margaret." he said calmly, while looking back to Igor "we shall attend to the details another time. until then, farewell..." with that, Shiro would feel everything going white around him, just as he was leaving, he would see that blue butterfly again floating across his vision ,as well as a single spinning tarot Card, which from the glimpses of it.. showed 'The Fool.' on it, before everything went white.. and he returned to full wakefulness once more, sitting up only slightly to look around blearily "... ugh.. okay, what the hell were -in- those pain killers...?" he muttered to himself, while continuing to lay there with Shiroi Senko keeping an eye on Shiro and keeping his spot sitting on Shiro as well, but given how.. out of it he looked, it didn't look like he'd move much for now.  

[[XIII] Roxas]

"Eh?!" Roxas and Xion both looked up at Axel, expressions not unlike the many, many times a certain Sakura and Syaoran have been caught off guard in embarrassment, surprise, and confusion. It wasn't immediately clear to them why the idea of this talk was making them so uncomfortable, except of course based solely on the way Axel was saying it like it was supposed to make them uncomfortable for some reason.  

[[XIII] Roxas]

Roxas, along with Axel and Xion would have easily overheard the conversation taking place in the hallway with the two younger teens taking it as an opportunity to dodge the uncomfortable lecture Axel had threatened them with. But, of course, when they actually followed everyone down to the tavern and listened to Crystal's story it wasn't hard to understand, now, why the girl had lost it at the thought that she might be losing Shiro or anyone else she cared about to the darkness. She had already lost so much and had probably spent a considerable amount of time alone to avoid having to ever feel that way again.

And yet, when she warmed up to her new friends, she never let on as to how much she must have been hurting inside. Roxas didn't know how she did it. He was still pretty new to the whole feelings thing, after being misled for so long by Organization XIII, but he knew he wouldn't be capable of burying his own feelings so deep.

"But you're stronger now and you've gained the power to really help people so that's got to count for something, right?" Roxas really wanted to be able to cheer Crystal up after this because he could just tell that talking about the past like this was going to weigh heavily on her.

"Thanks Roxas, you're sweet," Crystal smiled, but she still definitely had an air of sadness to her that hadn't been there before. "But the truth is I'm really just a clever coward who ran away."

"You can't blame yourself for what happened," Xion interjected. "You were just a kid, right? There's no way you could have known everything that was going to happen or how to stop it. Plus, isn't it true that you've decided to stop running?"

"It's an easy thing to say, but I don't know how well I can really follow through on that," Crystal replied.

"You already rescued Shiro lots of times and saved Xion from the depths of forgotten memories. I think your heart has become stronger than you give yourself credit for," Roxas pointed out. "Strong enough even to create your own Keyblade."

"So that's what happened," Riku recalled the outpouring of light he had sensed when he had returned to Radiant Garden with Axel. Now it made a lot more sense. Having forged his own Way to Dawn, Riku knew about how much power could be given off when creating a new Keyblade. "But didn't you already have two Keyblades?"

"Um... well, I guess they are technically mine now, but I actually inherited them from a Master who said they saw my potential as a wielder," Crystal answered while scratching behind her ear. "And it took me a real long time to figure out how to use their powers properly."

"A princess with a heart of pure light with the potential to wield a Keyblade," Riku nodded. "Then I guess you really are just another victim in Master Xehanort's evil schemes. That's about right, isn't it your highness?" he finished with a smirk.

"Don't... you... even... dare..." Crystal glared at him. "This is why I haven't told anyone!"

This, of course, incurred the laughter of not only Riku himself, but also got Roxas and Xion chuckling again.