Kingdom Hearts - Blades of Three Realms

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Roveth had frowned a bit, he couldn't immediately sense Crystal in the area, but he did sense Riku as he stepped into the borough "huh.. that's weird. i don't sense Crystal... yet i can sense Riku. curious curious..." he said with a mumble, before turning and walking right into an inky black portal set against the nearby wall, proceeding to 'teleport' in his own way via a technique he picked up known as 'Shadow Step' and appeared out of the wall behind Riku conveniently as he said the line that mentioned Roveth himself killing Riku. "now Riku! what sort of outlandish and completely slanderous things are you saying about me to these two lovely women? and where's Crystal, since last i checked she went with you to go see Yen-Sid about something right?" he asked, giving an innocent and inquisitive gaze upon Riku in particular while also keeping in mind to acknowledge Yuffie and tifa's presence.


Axel meanwhile had finished getting some drinks for himself and xion, and roxas if he woke up, when he returned to see Roxas awake and glancing uncertainly to the King of heroes, and seeing that he didn't see Shiro anywhere as well as a convenient note... yeah, he did start thinking on it up until the point Zidane showed up and then Leon pretty much manhandled the conversation from there making the flame wielding keyblader looking -all- too amused at Roxas's predicament given he knew too well how bad a liar Roxas was, and oh look, he did spot the chocobo-head too! how convenient yet irritating for shiro probably, but once again Axel was more mentally lamenting over the fact he didn't have a camcorder to record this hilarity for Roveth and himself. "yeah, Roxas has his reasons alright in wanting to be stronger, and Shiro was here too, key word being -was-. got it memorized?" he said all too amused at Roxas in general before passing the drinks to Xion and Roxas "i tagged along because i was asked by Crystal to make sure Shiro doesn't get into too much trouble, but then he went and left with that Auron guy to who knows where, so i'm just making sure Roxas doesn't continue overdoing said training." he said, giving a pointed look to his best friend when he heard a groan, and glanced over to the bed nearby, where Gilgamesh was finally waking up and ruffling his hair "ugh! who knew her Noble Phantasm had that kind of a secret hidden behind its original lackluster power..." he muttered, before looking around, and sure enough, he'd spy a distinct lack of Shiro with a frown before getting up and switching back into his casual wears with a flourish of golden sparkles to let his armor regenerate in the gate, as his hair lowered itself back on his head "Che! seems that Faker's Faker ran off again before i could speak to him... blasted mongrel..." he narrowed his eyes at all the people in the room, though less so at Axel, Xion, and Roxas, silent staredown time.  

[[XIII] Roxas]

"Thanks Axel," Roxas and Xion graciously accepted the drinks he had brought for them.

"I see, so all of you are still traveling with Crystal and Shiro," Leon nodded in understanding to what Axel was saying. "And I'm guessing that guy Roveth too, since they said he was supposed to be Shiro's shadow or whatever it was they were calling him. In that case, I guess I should thank you for looking out for those kids. I'm sure I don't have to tell you how much they need it."

"Still, I don't think we've ever seen Shiro without Crystal or vice versa since those two met," Cloud pointed out.

"You've got a point," Leon agreed somewhat vaguely. "Crystal always traveled by herself before she met Shiro, but ever since she found him she wouldn't let him out of her sight. I guess she must have a lot of faith in you guys."

"Of course, if Shiro is with Auron, then you've got nothing to worry about," Cloud added. "He might not look it, but he's definitely one of the good guys."

"So who is this guy?" Leon gestured vaguely toward Gilgamesh whilst matching him stare for stare. "And what's he so mad about?"

"I think he's upset because Shiro left with Auron before he woke up after the two of them fought," Roxas suggested before taking another sip of his drink and trying not to think too much about the fact that they now had to contend with Gilgamesh being there without Shiro to distract him.

"That's what it sounds like," Xion agreed. That was definitely the nickname Gilgamesh had used to describe Shiro while the two were fighting so she couldn't think who else Gilgamesh might mean.

"Anyway, when Shiro introduced him to us he said this guy is the King of Heroes, Gilgamesh," Roxas continued. "For some reason that got Hercules pretty excited."

"Gilgamesh, the King of Heroes, no kidding?" Zidane finally spoke up again. He had gone silent because something kept nagging at him and he was trying to think what it could be while he let Leon and Cloud do the talking since they seemed reasonably better acquainted with this group anyway. He couldn't contain his surprise at the mention of Gilgamesh though. And then, finally, it him what had been gnawing at him since he had started speaking with Roxas and Xion. "Wait! Wait! Wait!" Zidane went wide eyed as he stared at Roxas in particular. He hadn't really been paying attention when the blonde had introduced himself, having been preoccupied with Xion being a girl and all, but now he remembered why that name seemed so familiar. "It's you! The one Crystal was searching for! You're that Roxas, aren't you?"

"That's me, last I checked," Roxas blinked in confusion at the sudden and rather inexplicable enthusiasm from Zidane.

"You only just now realized that?" Leon sighed in exasperation.

"Give him a break, Leon, you know he can't keep his priorities straight where there are girls concerned," Cloud reminded him.

"Yeah, but this is huge!" Zidane was getting way too excited. "She actually found him!" He stared incredulously at both Cloud and Leon. "How come you guys never told me she found him? If you were worried I'd be jealous, don't be. I'm over it."

"Get over yourself, Zidane, it's not like that," Leon shook his head at him.

"You sure about that?" Cloud seemed strangely amused as he said this and it might have had to do with the fact that the track their conversation was taking was now causing Roxas to blush visibly. Roxas, for his part, was also remembering that they hadn't been back to Radiant Garden and so hadn't actually told anyone about that quite yet. "Monkey Boy might be right for once."

"Of course I'm sure," Leon glanced quizzically at Cloud. He then followed Cloud's gaze to Roxas who shrank visibly under his stare. "You've got to be kidding me..."

"About that..." Roxas tried to sound innocent which wasn't hard because in all honesty he was. He didn't have a chance to finish that statement as he found himself having to suddenly bolt from the cot he'd been resting on as Leon started shooting huge flaming projectiles at him from his gunblade and Roxas was left with no alternative but to run out of the barracks with Leon in hot pursuit chasing after him. "Gah!"

"Huh, I didn't think Leon would be so upset about Crystal finding herself a nice boyfriend," Zidane rubbed the back of his head.

"Yeah, well, it is Leon," Cloud shrugged. "I'm sure he'll come around once he gets this out of his system. Besides, it's not like he can really be surprised that Crystal has strong feelings for Roxas. It was pretty obvious."

"You don't have to tell me," Zidane nodded. "I've been out of the loop for a while now looking for Kuja and even I knew that."  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Roveth blinked a bit, taking in both Yuffie's information, and then Riku's blabbering about what went on, and of course in his head: Crystal is nowhere around, and Riku and her get ambushed by some Organization Coat wearing bugger? conclusion: Braig had kidnapped Crystal, given he was the only one fast enough from what he knew, outside of Roxas when he was in the organization, but beside the point, Roveth's innocent smile didn't even change or flinch, in fact, the only clue anyone would have of his mood change would be his eyes narrowing in the slightest bit as he proceeded to look at Riku with that disarming smile, but only to Riku's vision and senses would he see the vision of Roveth's malice and killing intent leaking out in droves, if the shadowy growths and the blood red eyes glaring at him were any indication, teeth included for some mouths. "I see. so in other words you let your guard down and in essence let Crystal get kidnapped." he said way too calmly for his own intent's purposes "i wonder what we shall do then... especially since who knows -what- will happen to you should Shiro get here and we have not found her, or what i would do if we don't find her." he said with that sickeningly sweet (to Riku) smile on his face.

Gilgamesh meanwhile had about to respond when Zidane had done his little tirade about how Roxas was the one Crystal was looking for, and then the spectacle of Leon chasing Roxas out of the barracks, making him -minorly- amused at the plebeians antics, however... "... oi, Primate." he said, glaring at Zidane "do try to keep your dirty paws off of people, and my treasures, as you seem to be the type to make off with what you can get your paws on." he said coldly, while looking to Axel with a bored look "tell your blonde haired friend when he returns from being chased by the Windy Lion that i will accompany your group until we meet up with that Faker's Faker again, as it seems to be the best method of finding him now." he said, before walking out of the room, heading to unfortunately go find Hades and let him out of Enkidu, since he probably needed to clean the chains of the disgusting filth off of it from Hades's body. Axel of course sweatdropped a bit lightly at Gilgamesh's words "oh joy." he said with pure sarcasm after Gilgamesh left, but shortly after he did snicker a bit in amusement "Windy Lion... good nickname for Leon there... though i still wish i had a camcorder so i could record Leon chasing Roxas.. priceless blackmail!"  

[[XIII] Roxas]

Zidane glanced at Cloud after Gilgamesh's comment about him. "Do I really look like such a common thief?"

"Zidane, you are a thief," Cloud answered with a dismissive sigh.

"Huh, good point," Zidane shrugged it off and decided to go check out what was happening outside as Leon continued to chase after Roxas.

"First Leon goes off on him and now Gilgamesh intends to stick around," Xion got up while glancing to Axel. "Do you think Roxas is going to be okay?"

Roxas was alarmed, to say the least, when Leon suddenly demonstrated the firing capabilities of his gunblade which up until now Roxas had assumed was a regular sword and that the gun components were purely decorative, but clearly he was being proven very wrong about that. When shooting at him proved ineffective, Leon activated his Limit Break and started swinging the glowing energy blade so that it narrowly missed Roxas and the blonde started to run away from him even faster. Incidentally, once Zidane slipped outside to take a peek at what was going on with the big chase he easily caught up with Roxas and started running backwards alongside him while propping his arms behind his head in amusement.

"So, what are we running away for? It's only Leon," Zidane inquired. "You look like you can probably take him."

"Yeah, but he seems really mad right now," Roxas protested as he kept right on running. "And I really don't want to slow down to find out what he intends to do once he catches me!"

"Well, that's Leon for you," Zidane shrugged mildly. "There's a reason we all follow him, even if he doesn't like it. He feels genuinely responsible for looking out for the rest of us and that includes Crystal. You see, she didn't have anyone else when we first found her. I think maybe that's why he's a little bit overprotective."

"So how come you and Cloud don't seem to be bothered by this?" Roxas wondered aloud.

"Cloud has more than his share of women troubles, not that he'll ever admit to it, and as for me, I'm mainly just curious," Zidane replied. "Crystal always ignored my advances so it's got me wondering what exactly it is she sees in you that she'd let her guard down." He grinned and then pointed dramatically in the opposite direction causing an orb of light to shoot up into the sky. "What's That!?"

"Goddammit Zidane!" Leon yelled in annoyance as he was suddenly facing in the wrong direction, still running full tilt until he collided with one of the columns outside the Coliseum.

"There now, that should buy us some time," Zidane skidded to a halt as Leon started picking himself up to glare in his direction.

"You're really not afraid of him, are you?" Roxas also stopped for the moment since Leon was no longer chasing him.

"Are you kidding?" Zidane just kept smiling. "If it weren't for Leon, I'd be bored out of my mind."  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Gilgamesh sniffed in disdain as he saw the antics of Zidane, Leon, and Roxas, but just proceeded to unwrap Hades from enkidu, but instead of sending it back to the gate, he would shrink the chain down to an arm-wrapping length, and proceeded to take it and start cleaning it off with a cloth he pulled out of the gate idly, giving hades a cold stare that made the blue haired god pause at being able to blow Gilgamesh up, but given what he had witnessed, he had a few things to think about, namely finding a way to use that boy to off a few of the thorns in his side competitions in the Games, like the ones chasing/following Roxas around, and Hercules.. yes, can't forget him, so much he was thinking on it, he left without another word said or without much of his flourish, poofing (hehe, poof poof poof!) into a puff of black smoke and leaving it at that. Axel of course had found the goings on, and did actually cackle a bit seeing Leon chase Roxas even more, as well as the subsequent use of Zidane's capabilities and Leon going head first into a wall instead made the former Organization Assassin fall down in stitches giggling at all the hilarity, hell, he hoped Roveth was having fun somewhere trolling people, cause this is priceless!

when Roveth was about to start cackling at Riku's pratfalling, did he hear the conversation outside between two people, and of course, the mention of Data Replicas immediately made his mind go towards Xion a moment, before realizing they did mention a copy of number XIII got loose, which meant a copy of Roxas was the one who kidnapped Crystal, of course, further things were put together that it meant that Braig probably set loose Data-Roxas to ambush Riku and Crystal just made Riku fall over laughing his butt off at Riku, pointing at him and laughing, both at the fact that he didn't realize it was ROXAS, one of the few people who -could- get the drop on Riku, do so and kidnap Crystal, but also because of earlier pratfall. when Ienzo and Even came into the room Roveth listened in despite laughing, and now he was howling with laughter and crying crocodile tears while pointing between Riku and Aeleus, especially the latter due to the fact that he thinks he can catch ROXAS, one of the fastest organization members Roveth knew about? of course, it would take a good five to ten minutes before Roveth finally settled down, but when he did, he immediately took on a dead serious look on his face that'd make many people immediately look at him in attention and nervousness (Especially Riku, because he's seen Roveth like that before, and what'd he get that time? a punch to the gut.) as he spoke up, his killing intent starting to now manifest in the room for everyone, though it wouldn't affect Yuffie or Tifa at all as he spoke in a no nonsense tone of voice "i don't know who you three are, but i will assume you're completed versions of organization members so i will only say this once. you touch -ONE- bolt on this so called Data Replica system without my explicit approval to do so in an effort to dismantle it and i will be sure that your heads will part company with their bodies and no one will -ever- find the bodies, well, at least in one piece. do i make myself clear, Gentlemen?" he said way too calmly, showing even -he- has his 'cold killer' moments if he had to, of course, his eyes inverting to black scelera and blood red iris's and slit pupils probably don't help his case at all either in proving his point.  

[[XIII] Roxas]

While Axel found the spectacle amusing, Xion was hoping that everyone was going to be okay and also that Roxas and Leon could resolve their differences without too much more trouble. Of course, that seemed rather unlikely given that Zidane's antics had gotten Roxas to stop his running away long enough to clear his head and realize that Leon was probably only testing him the same way Shiro had before. So, while Leon was picking himself up out of the wall he had crashed into Roxas remained where he was and quietly materialized Oathkeeper and Oblivion into his hands.

"Right then, I've had enough running away," he addressed Leon directly, his tone serious. "If you really want a piece of me, then I'm ready for you."

"That's more like it," Leon's expression softened somewhat, although there was still a distinct edge to it. "It's not enough just to say you want to protect Crystal. Show me how you intend to do it because odds are if you can't beat me, then you don't stand a chance of protecting her. It might sound harsh, but that's reality."

And so the two began to clash, Roxas striking fiercely with swift blows from Oathkeeper and Oblivion while also weaving around Leon's strikes to avoid taking damage as much as possible while every now and again mixing things up by adding a Strike Raid into his rapid-fire combos. Leon was having a tough time just keeping up with him. Roxas fought very differently from Sora and while his attack style seemed reckless and overly aggressive it also left very few openings to attack him back. In fact, the only time an opening was likely to present itself was when Roxas inevitably slowed down to catch his breath, but those opportunities were few and far between. Roxas noticed it too because even while keeping up the pressure and utilizing his speed as much as he was against Leon right now he wasn't getting winded nearly as often as he used to. The training seemed to be paying off.

"Yeah, if it's alright with you guys, I think I'll sit the rest of this one out," Zidane casually slid off to the sidelines to stay out of the way as Roxas and Leon continued trying to clobber each other.  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Roveth would stare with a bit of a cold deadpan, as if letting Riku his chance to speak as he stretched a bit, the malice starting to recede for the most part but it was quite easy to tell that it was still raring to go should he be actively set off again, thankfully though Roveth didn't make any motions to murder everyone where they stood, well, he wouldn't murder Yuffie at all really so it was all well and good. "best way to restrict the sniping troll access to the system will be to move it, which is what i intended to do with the Data Replica system so that i can both study it, and make sure it doesn't get used by nefarious people or beady yellow-eyed trolls who are under that stain of existence Xehanort." he said quite calmly despite the bubbling rage within at the moment "but i do agree with Riku as well, the Replicas are NOT objects, they are human beings just like you and myself. so what if they're data? they still live, just like the Nobodies and just like every other living being, even the Heartless. anyway, why don't you three take Riku and myself to where the system is located and once we find Crystal and this Data Replica Roxas, i'll make sure that sniping troll doesn't get to use that technology anymore." he said while crossing his arms across his chest.

Gilgamesh meanwhile just watched the entertainment with a slightly bored look on his face, before continuing to clean the chain wrapped around his arm, clearly taking very good care of it, like it was an old friend or something of the sorts. either way, he was keeping to himself and watching the spectacle of Leon and Roxas clashing, while Axel had at least moved to a nearby wall himself to watch since he was not about to miss this, given how much of a hard time Roxas gave Axel even when hindered as he was by DiZ... yeah, that's going to be good that's for sure. though he wondered how the others were doing, Shiro in particular since they hadn't seen him since he decided to leave, note and all being left for them.  

[[XIII] Roxas]

Xion naturally watched from the sidelines with Axel and Zidane as Roxas fought with Leon. It didn't take long for it to become apparent that Roxas clearly had the upper-hand, at least until Cloud decided it was boring to just kick back and watch Leon get his a** handed to him and also decided to join in.

"Hey Leon, it looks like you might be getting too old for this," Cloud taunted as he started taking swings at Roxas himself only to have Roxas nimbly dodge out of the way before going into his own counterattack combo. "Maybe you need for me to give you a hand with him?"

"As if," Leon shot back as he charged up his blade again to lash out with even more power. "Besides, no one ever said that fighting these Keyblade wielders was supposed to be easy."

"That's a fair point," Cloud smirked mildly. "So, how about we make this a little more interesting for him?"

"What do you think, Roxas? You ready to take us both on?" Leon thought it was only fair to let Roxas decide whether or not he was even ready for this kind of a fight.

"Sure, if you guys think you can handle it," Roxas countered as he launched another Strike Raid at Leon with Oblivion.

"Don't get cocky just because it seemed like you were beating me," Leon warned him. "It's totally different when me and Cloud are both going all out."

"I wasn't expecting anything less," Roxas retorted as he reclaimed Oblivion and deflected several swings from Cloud as he came up behind him swinging wildly. "Even so, I need to be ready for anything, isn't that right?"

"I don't think I've ever seen Roxas so determined before," Xion commented while watching him go up against Cloud and Leon at the same time now.

"That's the power of love in action," Zidane nodded with a relaxed smile. "He seems like a good kid. Yep, I don't think we need to worry so much about Crystal anymore. It seems to me that she's found herself a solid match."  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Axel hummed a bit in agreement towards Zidane's comments, while Gilgamesh walked over to the small group watching over the fight "for a child to be able to handle two versus one.. he's not bad of a fighter." he commented, actually very -lightly- impressed of Roxas in general, while Axel chuckled a bit lightly "trust me Gilgamesh, when Roxas uses his limit breaks and starts going speed of light on you, it is -not- fun at all, take it from my personal experience. got it memorized?" he said, while Gilgamesh nodded with an eyebrow raised "i see... then he would make a great Lancer class servant, if he ever trained to wield a spear to a degree that he wields those odd swords." her mentioned with a hum, but he did keep an eye on Zidane, mostly in case the cheeky monkey tried to steal anything.


Roveth meanwhile had followed with Ienzo and the others to the Garden of assemblage, upon seeing a certain toad like Organization member, he actually started cackling a bit, but it didn't go as hard as his cackling was at Aeleus and Riku for earlier, that once Roveth stepped into Crystal's line of sight he would -definitely look way too amused despite the bubbling rage within him at the moment "oh-ho man... if i hadn't laughed so hard earlier at Riku's expense i think i might be back on the ground in stitches after seeing that, was that really Braig as a toad?" he would ask, though when he looked towards the Data replica Roxas he'd hum in thought, before raising an eyebrow "interesting... i can tell just from looking at this Roxas... something is definitely different, and i don't mean the whole organization coat thing, Crystal's probably noticed it too, but there's something that's not in this Roxas's heart compared to the original, and this is coming from a guy whose been around Roxas a lot despite my holeing up in the basement at Twilight Town..." Roveth would give off a smile, and patted the Data Roxas on the shoulder "nice one on knocking Riku out before he had a chance to realize what was going on." he said with a smile, before moving to the Data Replica system to start looking it over and pulled out his deck of machine monsters to be ready to summon at a moment's notice.  

[[XIII] Roxas]

Axel totally called it when Roxas went into one of his Limit Breaks and suddenly the fight became completely one-sided.

"s**t, where'd he go?" Leon immediately lost sight of Roxas, let alone any ability he might have had of keeping up with him at that point. The next thing he knew he was hit hard by a blast of Holy magic blasting into him before Roxas slammed into him with a spinning strike. Leon went down, rather indignantly, having already been pretty worn down from when he'd been fighting with the kid one-on-one before Cloud decided to join in.

Cloud was faster and managed to keep Roxas in his field of vision, but even that wasn't enough to help him catch up. He managed to deflect some of the light speed blows with his own blade, but Roxas just kept coming in hot with bright flourishes of light anytime he changed direction to strike from a new angle, frequently shooting off pillars of Holy magic from whatever direction he was charging from. Things only got more brutal once Roxas started to utilize his guard breaking combos, suddenly making Cloud's defensive efforts totally useless as Roxas managed to swat his sword aside while striking with his secondary weapon to inflict heavy damage. It only took a few minutes from when the ferocious onslaught began for Cloud to also be rendered out of commission in a daze after the severe pounding he had taken from Roxas.

"I don't think they were expecting that," Xion observed as Roxas dismissed Oathkeeper and Oblivion.

"Yeah, well, I'm still kinda tired from training earlier so I didn't want to let it drag on any more than I had to," Roxas admitted while rubbing the back of his head looking slightly embarrassed. "Maybe I overdid it a little."

"Nope, you were incredible out there!" Zidane immediately started gushing. "Say, you're still going to fight in the Games, right?"

"I think that was what me and Shiro were both planning to do once he gets back from wherever it is Auron has taken him," Roxas nodded vaguely.

"Great, I can't wait!" Zidane grinned widely. "We'll definitely have to face off during the tournament. I might not be as tough as Cloud and Leon, but I've got some pretty neat tricks up my sleeve if you know what I mean."