Imagination

7.

Juste woke up slowly. The feel of the castle around him was the first thing to come to him, followed by the sound of the stream, and Aqua's quiet breathing. A moment later, the smell of his clothing and body hit him hard, and he bolted upright, nearly gagging at the horrible stench. He didn't know what kind of fluid that had been that had sprayed him earlier had been, and truthfully, he didn't want to. All he wanted was to get rid of the smell, which had seemingly worsened while he'd been asleep.

A quick glance at Aqua showed that was still asleep. It was very inappropriate for him to be bathing in the same room as a sleeping woman that was most certainly not his wife, but inside Castlevania, certain things just had to be done.

He quietly climbed to his feet, grimacing at how stiff and grimy his clothes felt, and stepped around the planter box to the stream on the right side of the room. He ducked down behind the trellis that stood behind it, and used the cover of the leafy plants to strip down before carefully stepping down into the water. He had to swallow a yelp as he went; it was frigid, and goosebumps broke out all over his skin as he lowered himself in. His teeth began to chatter as he hastily washed himself and his hair as best as he could, before doing the same with this clothing.

The stream's current washed the slime downstream, taking the stench with it, and he sighed in relief as he wrung his clothes out and draped them over the trellis before stepping out. He wrung his hair out, and finger combed it as best he could before getting dressed. Hopefully, Aqua wouldn't be adverse to drying him out again once she was awake.

Eventually, Aqua too woke after what must have been several hours. She didn't notice Juste anywhere, but she wasn't worried. He wouldn't have gone far on his own. She rolled to her feet slowly before stretching out her muscles. Another nice thing about these sanctuaries was that they soothed sore muscles, so the stretch was more habitual than necessary. She was grateful for another reason as well: she felt no aftereffects of draining her magic as she had earlier. Sometimes the magic exhaustion would knock her down for a couple days, even with ethers to recover. As she had mentioned to Juste the other day, she rarely passed that self-employed limit for a reason.

She thought back to the reason she'd used so much magic in the first place. If she was honest, she lost her temper. Its existence had infuriated her, and she allowed herself to overlook the amount of power she was draining. Rather than making use of her usual finesse, she went at it with brute force, more or less. It was foolish, and she really shouldn't do it again. But now she was well aware of the mental effects that Replicas could have on someone. For that was what those things were, she believed. Whether they were made by alchemy in this world or science in hers, she had little doubt they were basically the same. "A Replica..." she muttered aloud.

Juste shivered again and stepped out from behind the trellis, grateful that he was at least only wet instead of wet, slimy, and foul smelling. "Did you say something, Miss Aqua?"

She looked up at his reappearance and blinked at him. "You look a bit like a drowned rat. Here, let me help you." She approached him and cast her Aero-Fire combo to dry him off.

Juste sighed as he magic began drying his clothing. "I had to get that slimy... whatever it was off of me. I couldn't stand the smell any longer."

"Oh I completely understand. I would have done the same thing if I had been doused in it like you were," she remarked sympathetically.

The last of the water evaporated off of his clothingand hair, and he smiled faintly. "Thank you, Miss Aqua." He then moved to sit down on the grass near her and began to rummage around in his coat. "Thankfully, my coat can get drenched multiple times, and it won't affect the things in my pockets." He pulled out a meal pack and handed it to her before taking one for himself. "Now what were you saying earlier?"

"Oh, not really. I was just saying that those things we fought seemed like Replicas, if a bit crude ones," she answered, unwrapping the dinner and heating it herself. The way she'd said it implied the word was a proper noun. Catching Juste's questioning look, she elaborated. "Back in the worlds I'm from, a scientist from a group called Organization XIII managed to create an artificial person, almost exactly like those we fought, tanks and all. I don't really know much about it, as I never met one myself, but Vexen's Replicas were identical to their counterparts, an exact copy of their appearance and using the same abilities. One of my friends, Riku, had been the basis for a Replica, and that one had been told that if he could defeat his original, he would become the original. Of course that wasn't true, but he believed it so much that he did everything in his power to defeat the real Riku. I'm told Vexen had also made Replicas of himself to help him with his research. I believe that his real goal was to create a heart, but that research is futile. It can't be done."

Thinking about the Organization's presence at Castle Oblivion kindled a small fire of anger in Aqua's heart, even now. That they had trespassed in that place, that she had created in order to protect Ven... It still incensed her. She had thought the castle's innate defense of messing with one's memories would prevent anyone from getting anywhere within it, but she had been wrong. At least they had never managed to locate the Chamber of Waking before she could return with Sora to awaken Ven. She shuddered to think what could have happened if Xemnas had found him.

Juste frowned in thought as he absorbed her words, and he ignored her little shiver. "It sounds like creating a heart is just as impossible as creating a soul. Some believe that if soulmates meet and have a child together, then a new soul will be born from theirs and go to the child, but no one knows if that's true.

"Doppelgangers, the things we faced back there, are created using magic and alchemy. All the maker needs is a little bit of us – a single drop of blood can be used if the maker has enough magic to make up for it. They have no souls; only magic keeps them alive. Any emotion you might have seen from them was not their own. If they were born in hatred, then that is what they display to the world."

"I don't know much about the creation of Replicas, as I never really wanted to know, but I know they involve the application of science, and probably a stolen heart. Memories would be nonexistent for most Replicas other than a basic understanding of movement, the instinct that a baby has. Riku's Replica was an exception, because a girl named Namine was coerced into manipulating the memories of Riku and Sora, and she made a copy that the Replica was given. I don't know how Vexen managed to make an exact copy of Riku, perhaps he formed him based on Sora's memories. Vexen, well, Even now, has always managed to do feats of science that would be utterly impossible were anyone else to attempt it. But as far as I can tell, even though Replicas were created artificially, since they do have a heart of their own, emotion is genuine, and they are for all intents and purposes a functional human being. Then again, I don't know if their life span is affected. All of the ones we know about were destroyed some years ago now."

"It makes me glad that our doppelgangers have no soul – it makes destroying them much easier. Such a being with a soul would not be able to help its evil ways if it was created for an evil purpose. I've heard that it is possible to create one with a soul, but I don't know of anyone who has succeeded in such an endeavor." Juste took a bite of his food and thought for a second.

"I am curious who created the doppelgangers that we faced. Death said that Dracula was here, but that he was not in control. If it wasn't Dracula that created them, who else would have the power to create and animate two doppelgangers at the same time?"

"What about the magic they use? That can't be naturally the dopplegangers, so wouldn't that also come from the creator? If that's the case, then they have to have immense power to keep both of them active at the same time. I have a lot of magic, and if it was using my abilities, one person alone would struggle to keep up with that. And they had to be animating yours as well. Regardless their affinity for our different types of magic, I can't imagine that could be in any way easy. Creating and keeping them both active as they fought against us had to be exhausting. It's too bad we won't be able to reach them in time to utilize any possible weakness due to it."

"Sadly no. Those that know how to create them all report that keeping them animated is a terrible drain, and most can barely maintain one, though it does get easier with repeated use. Though that is probably why they are so rare. Only Leon and Trevor have encountered them before, though that mere fact worries me a great deal. As far as I know, only Dracula would be able to animate two doppelgangers at once, yet he does not appear to be fully in charge of the premises. Death said he was here, but that the castle wasn't answering to him. And if the castle is not answering him, there goes a large source of power for him. He still, of course, is a powerful vampire without it, but the castle provides at least half of his power, through its joint connection with the Crimson Stone and the chaotic realm."

"That's what I thought." Aqua continued poking through her food. "So, Death. What exactly is he? He can't actually be the concept of death in a material form, surely."

"Death..." Juste laughed quietly. "To be truly honest, no one fully understands Death. He obviously isn't needed for one to die and pass on, as he is dormant when Dracula is not around. Perhaps he is not truly Death himself but just a spirit bound to the Crimson Stone that has taken on that appearance. Perhaps he is Death personified, but he is subjugated to Dracula's will when Dracula is around but it a neutral being otherwise. We do not know, and none of us are too keen on asking him either. If he is an evil being, he will die for good along with Dracula when the Crimson Stone is destroyed. If he is a spirit bound to the stone, then he will be set free." He paused to pull a couple bottles of water out of his pocket and to toss one to Aqua before he continued.

"He certainly does seem to have some control of the souls of the dead and dying, as Leon witnessed him taking Walter's soul and placing it in the Crimson Stone. And to our horror, all the lesser vampires that the Belmonts destroyed after Walter's defeat were also funneled to the Crimson Stone via Death, so by the time Trevor faced him, Dracula was nearly a god himself. He commonly changes forms during the battle, taking on a more demonic appearance with new attacks, and striking him around where the Crimson Stone hangs around his neck in the only way to hurt him. Hits anywhere else are completely ignored.

"When he is defeated, his body is destroyed, Death goes dormant, at least as far as we know, and the Crimson Stone passes out of this world, beyond our reach. From that secure place, it begins gathering power and sending it to this world to resurrect the castle, and then Dracula, which starts the entire cycle over again. Sadly, we have been unable to find a way to destroy the Crimson Stone, despite centuries of searching."

"Why does the Crimson Stone resurrect him? Why doesn't it remain behind when Dracula is destroyed, and pass on to someone else?"

"The Crimson Stone seems to have some form of limited sentience to it, as did the Ebony Stone before its destruction. From what we can tell and from what our research has shown us, the stone has bound itself to Dracula's very soul, and the only way to break that bond would be to destroy the stone, destroy Dracula's soul, or somehow sever the connection..." Juste trailed off as a thought occurred to him, but he shook his head and continued with the explanation. "Since it is bonded to him in such a way, it keeps feeding power to his connected soul until he is able to resurrect, returning him to nearly full power every time. Like I said before, this process can be sped up by a sacrifice of some kind."

"Okay, so Death said the castle wasn't responding to Dracula, so while the enemy is most likely not him if we trust Death's information, we can assume that whoever managed to raise it is powerful if they can do that. This is further confirmed by the fact that they managed two very powerful dopplegangers at the same time. In other words, I'd say it's a safe bet that the one behind all of this is going to be an absolute pain to take down," Aqua concluded, finishing the last of her meal and burning the trash as Juste had. She drained her water bottle and tucked it away with her empty potion bottles.

Juste stood up. "Agreed, though as I said earlier, it wouldn't surprise me at all if Dracula is behind this somehow, and Death was just left out of the loop for the moment. Mathias could scheme with the best of them and come out on top, so the sooner we get to the bottom of this, the better."

Aqua rolled gracefully onto her feet again, brushing stray grass from her clothes. "Well, time to move on once again." She and Juste exited the sanctuary.

It was an easy walk through the room where they had fought the Elite, though Juste was a little unnerved to see that the shattered tanks were gone. The room looked strangely.. neat, and he spotted little vines peeking here and there out of cracks in the stone walls.

"Strange," he muttered as he pushed open the door at the opposite side of the room. The door led into yet another short featureless hallway, and a door at the end of that, led into the castle's catacombs.

He wrinkled his nose in disgust at the stench of rotting corpses, but over that he detected something that smelled faintly like perfume, and he walked forward to see that small crawling vines were growing over the coffins that were propped up against the walls, and across the bodies lying in their niches. Many of them had small, delicate flowers of various colors, which appeared to be the source of the perfume he was smelling.

"Looks like the Alura Unes have gone a bit out of control down here." he commented.

"I thought plant life didn't grow this much within the castle," Aqua commented, confused.

Juste grimaced. "Not normally no, but aside from the Unes that we encountered earlier there are the Alura Unes. Imagine a large flower, as tall as you, and in the center of that flower is a beautiful naked woman. Rather like the sirens of legend their beauty lures men to them, and once they are close enough the Aluras attack by sending sharp stalks up from the floor and flinging spikes at them. Their stalks defend them well from attack, so I dread encountering them. Even if you resist their lure, which is easy to do once you're aware of it, destroying them is still so difficult.

"Sometimes, as you can see, their presence is marked by vines, weeds, and flowers, so I expect to see at least a few down here."

"How do they affect women?" she asked curiously. Obviously, women who were attracted to other women would likely be affected, but how would they respond to women that were heteronormative? She supposed there wasn't much chance to find out, since it appeared that it was mostly men that investigated and fought in the castle here, so they may not know at all. "Or what about men who aren't attracted to women?"

Juste whipped his head around to stare at her. "Let us not speak of homosexuality please, Miss Aqua. I'd rather not think of that abomination." He gave her a hard stare for a second, and then he turned back to their surroundings. "I doubt their lure will affect you at all, especially since you know about them, but we will see." He began to walk forward. "Let's go. Keep an eye out for red skeletons down here; they often spawn from the coffins."

She lifted her eyebrows at his response, lifting up her hands in a gesture of surrender, trying very hard not to be personally offended. "There are also people who simply aren't attracted to anyone, but whatever, I have no wish to get into an argument over this," she remarked. Sometimes religions just came across as pompously rigid in their treatment of certain topics. The Greeks had no qualms about homosexuality; it was a regularity for a man to have a male lover. Other cultures she'd learned about in her travels and her free time were the same. Of course, many others had a similar outlook to Juste's on homosexuality. The differences often left her wondering how such views, whether positive or negative, formed in the first place.

Their very next step brought several plant-type Heartless warping into the catacombs. Among them were a handful of weak Creeper Plants, but large Dire Plants and a single black-and-coral Poison Plant accompanied them.

"Watch out for the dark one!" Aqua warned Juste, quickly throwing up a shield in front of them both to repel the seed attacks from the various plants. "That's a Poison Plant, its projectiles will poison you if they hit your skin. It's not a terribly strong poison but it can cause black spots in your vision that make it hard to see so avoid them at all costs. And its stem is too hard to take damage, you have to aim for the petaled head!"

"These Heartless are growing rather tiresome." Juste grumbled as he uncoiled the Vampire Killer, though he didn't think he would need it. If they were dealing with a creature capable of poisoning them, then staying at a distance was best. With that thought, he immediately cast Holy Lightning, and saw the Heartless flinching and making pained sounds as they tried uselessly to get away from the spell.

All the plants were, unfortunately for them, unable to remove themselves from their location. Aqua dropped her barrier and then cast a quick Reflect, causing all the seeds near her to bounce back to their origin, causing widespread damage to the Heartless who'd shot at her.

Juste rolled to the side to get out of the way of a volley of seeds the plants spat at him, and as soon as he regained his feet, he followed up with a Guided Frost spell. Plants hate cold, so why not? He dodged again, but as he stood up, the Poison Plant caught him directly in the chest with one of its seeds. He yelped as it cut right through his shirt, missing his breastplate by nary an inch. The small wound hurt far worse than he'd expected, but that was nothing compared to the feeling of gut wrenching nausea that rolled over him them, followed quickly by a painful muscle spasm that rippled over his entire body. He pitched down to his knees and fumbled for one of the antidotes in his pocket. Hopefully it would work just as well on Heartless poison as it did for the poison inflicted by Dracula's minions.

Aqua leapt in front of him again to shield him while he was down, casting Reflect again because it was truly the most useful spell in her arsenal right now. She did her best to direct all the seeds towards the Poison Plant to take it down immediately. The other plants' seeds hurt a surprising amount, but only the poisoned ones were truly bad news.

His fingers finally found the long, narrow bottle, and he pulled it out, popped the cork, and downed it in a single gulp as he was wracked with another spasm. The liquid tingled as it ran down his throat, and he sighed in relief as the nausea quickly vanished. He got back to his feet.

"Thank you, Miss Aqua. Now let's finish this, shall we?"

She nodded and stepped aside, sending a slew of fireballs at the Heartless nearest to her. The Creeper Plants disappeared immediately, though the Dire Plants took another hit. She accepted the barrage of seeds as a necessary evil in taking these things out now.

Juste darted to the left as the Poison Plant launched more seeds at him, and he responded with Magic Missile. The plant recoiled, and he gave it no time to recover, launching Holy Flame at it as soon as the previous spell ended. The fireball slammed straight into it and bounced around, hitting it twice more. The Heartless then exploded into black wisps, and he absently noted the crystal heart that rose up from it as he turned to see if any of the other Heartless remained.

After Aqua's continued assault while he had finished off the irritating ringleader, none remained, only smoke and vanishing hearts. Juste relaxed and returned the whip to his belt.

"The Heartless are certainly making things more hectic in here." he commented as they continued on their way. "Dracula's monsters are very prevalent in here, as you've seen, but adding the Heartless just adds much more difficulty to an already difficult trek."

"This one in particular was irritating," Aqua grumbled, casting a light Cure on the both of them for the numerous seed wounds they couldn't block or Reflect. "I'm getting a little sick of these plant-type Heartless, and all things considered there haven't been very many of them."

"I would hope that we won't see anymore once we're done with the garden that he catacombs seem to be turning into, but since we encountered them in the waterway, a place where plants outside the Unes and their ilk are never seen, I have a feeling we'll be encountering them elsewhere in the castle."

"Sadly, that doesn't surprise me. To be honest, I'm actually surprised they're type-casting here. Usually the Heartless that appear are random, unlike Castlevania's usual setting. You don't see just cold types in the cold waterways, or plants in a garden. They're far more random than that. It's very odd for me to see them act like this. They're almost... coordinated, which even when someone is controlling them practically never happens."

Juste cracked the whip against a large bat that swooped down from the ceiling at them. "That is indeed strange then, and that makes me wonder if someone from your area is here, influencing things somehow. If Death hadn't have told us that Dracula was not in control of the castle, I would think that he had found a way to summon and control the Heartless somehow."

She hummed in agreement, and focused on the enemies along their route as they moved forward. The red skeletons along the way didn't worry her. After all, they discovered that her keyblade worked quite well against them. She heard the telltale sound of stone grinding and immediately summoned her weapon as she turned, throwing her blade at the foe with a spin the way she had seen Ven do it, then summoned it back after it hit, collapsing the skeleton easily.

Juste smiled as he saw her throw her weapon, which then returned to her hand. "Impressive." he cracked the Vampire Killer at a smaller Une weed that sprouted a few feet in front of him. He then raised his head and fired off an ice spell at a small green skinned gremlin that was flying through the air, leaving little balls of floating fire from the large spoon it carried in its hands.

"Those are Ukobacks." he explained as the creature's eyes bulged at the attack before it died in a puff of smoke with a small cry. "They aren't dangerous, but the fires they create can be annoying."

"Although should their fire fall on the plants, I don't suppose you'd really complain," she commented in a lighthearted tone. As another red skeleton pulled itself out of a coffin down the path, she mentally commented that it was really a shame the only effective ways of killing the creatures required her to be fairly close. Otherwise she could simply fire a spell off from back here with no difficulty. Unfortunately, while she could do the Keyblde Raid attacks that Ven was talented at, she was not nearly as good, and preferred that her keyblade remain at her side. She was honestly pleased the previous one had been so successful. Usually she had trouble with it returning to her hand, so she had to consciously summon it back.

As they continued through the catacombs, Juste spotted what appeared to be an une in the floor ahead of him, and he paused and gestured for Aqua to stop.

She tilted her head, though she obeyed. "What's up?"

He gestured to the little green bud poking out of a gap in the mortar between the cobblestones that made up the floor. "I can't tell for sure until it sprouts, but seeing our environment, there is a good possibility that that's an Alura Une up there."

"Okay? How can you tell it's any different than the others?"

"I can't, but this is the kind of place where they like to appear, so just be careful as we approach it. If it is, it'll immediately grow defending stalks that we'll have to get through and start throwing barbs at us, so be careful."

I don't see how this place is special compared to the rest of these catacombs, but... "All right, I'll take your word for it." She shifted her stance to be a bit more prepared.

They resumed walking towards the bud on the floor, and it sprouted into what appeared to be a normal Une, but as they stepped closer, taller leaves erupted, and Juste jumped back just as the... bright pink? flower emerged, followed shortly by the naked woman in the center of it.

Aqua too leapt back at the unfurling of large leaves but then stood frozen for a long moment, looking at the gorgeous woman in the center of the vibrant flower. She couldn't remember ever seeing a woman as lovely as this one, and it took her completely by surprise, despite Juste's warning. She was so beautiful... Aqua stepped closer thoughtlessly as the woman gestured at them.

Juste paused for the barest moment as the woman gestured them forward, but he quickly shook his head and filled his mind with thoughts of his Lydie. Lydie was the one he loved, the one he had married, the one he intended to spend the rest of his life with. A demon born of Dracula's castle could never even compare.

He grabbed for one of his remaining vials of holy water and hurled it as hard as he could at the Alura Une before it could bring up its defensive stalks. The creature mewled in pain as the spikes went up, followed quickly by a volley of bards that it launched at him.

Juste's attack snapped Aqua out of her unintended reverie, and she jumped into battle with him, shooting a Firaga at the flower and the woman rested within. She tried not to think about why she'd gotten so ensnared; it would only slow her actions. This was a monster to be taken down; it would show her no mercy, so neither could she.

More stalks went up, forming a green wall that they couldn't get over or through, but the creature's barbs passed somehow through easily, flying out in waves that forced them to duck and roll all about the room to avoid getting hit. The barbs were long, sharp, and they embedded themselves into the floor and walls wherever they hit. He didn't want to think of the damage they would do to a person.

The creature dropped some of its stalks then, and he launched a Firestorm spell at it. It mewled again, and it felt its magic tugging at him, begging him to stop the attack and come closer, but he shrugged it off and focused on dodging the next wave of barbs.

Aqua dodged the many waves of barbs with finesse, throwing up a barrier to block them only when absolutely necessary. The creature's plea hit her harder than Juste, it seemed, for she stumbled in her evasive maneuvers and was struck hard by a streaking barb in her leg. She was lucky her clothing was so resistant to damage, as the attack should have pierced her through, but instead it was deflected by her leggings, and simply felt as though she'd be shot instead of skewered. She still cried out, however, and hastily threw up her shield to protect her from further attacks while she cringed from the surprisingly powerful pain.

"Miss Aqua, keep your shield up!" Juste called from his position, and he ducked and rolled under the next wave of barbs to get behind her. "How long can you hold it?" he asked as the more barbs bounced off the shield. Stalks tried to erupt from the floor beneath their feet, but thankfully, they were deflected as well.

"Almost indefinitely, as long as there are still attacks to bounce off it," she replied, wincing as her leg twinged again but pushing the pain away because it wasn't enough to warrant healing.

"Good. Here's my plan: we stay right here behind your shield, while I deal all the damage. Your shield is stopping the stalks, so I have a clear shot and should be able to bring it down quickly."

"That would work great, except that you can't attack from inside the barrier. I have to bring it down to attack, even with a spell. So I doubt it'll let you."

"I can just step outside of it for a second. If that doesn't work, then we'll revisit the issue."

"That should be fine."

The next wave of barbs bounced off the barrier around them, and Juste took a quick backwards, just enough to get him clear of Aqua's magic. He didn't give the demon any time to attack him from below. He cast a Salamander spell, followed quickly by a Stardust spell. As the creature was reeling, he ducked back inside the barrier just as a stalk erupted from the floor where he'd been standing.

He waited until the next wave of barbs flew by, and then he stepped out to the right and cast another Salamander spell.

The creature shrieked, and it and its stalks erupted into flames, burned, withered away, and vanished.

Aqua released her barrier at last and rolled her shoulders to loosen them after needing to keep her arms outstretched for a long period of time. She rolled her neck too, and then commented, "Pretty sure you did the bulk of that battle. I feel a little useless."

"Don't." he told her as they continued forward. "Having you here made that so much easier. Alura Unes seem to take more hits before dying, but the difficulty is in getting close enough to touch them. Without you here, I would have had a much harder time."

"Don't tell me you can't shoot spells at range without me," she teased.

He chuckled at her teasing. "If I can hit them, then they can hit me."

"I suppose," she allowed, and they moved on through the catacombs.

The area they were in seemed to be smaller than earlier ones, and Juste was happy to see the glowing blue doors of a sanctuary at the end of the long corridor that they had been walking down.

"It is very strange," he said as they walked in, "normally the catacombs are the darkest, most depressing place in the castle, but they were oddly bright and cheery this time." He had barely used any magic, but he touched the statue anyway.

"Yes, it seemed rather easier than other areas have been," she agreed, following suit with the statue. "Perhaps so much power was expended elsewhere that less was available to use in this area?"

"Do you want to take a respite for a few minutes? Or continue on to the Elite?"

"I don't think it's necessary. Let's keep going."

Juste made a grand gesture with his hand as they walked back towards the door and back into the corridor. "Then let us away."

The door to the Elite's chambers was at the end of the corridor, and he paused outside of it to try and get a feel for what was in it.

She stopped with him and searched with her own abilities to see if she could sense anything. She couldn't feel any darkness, so that was a plus, but she hadn't noticed that with the doppelgangers either, so that might not mean much. "I can't sense anything specific. What about you?"

"I feel faint hints of magic similar to the ones on the doppelgangers, but not near as strong or powerful. I can also just faintly a musty scent, like old clothing that's been stored away for years."

"I suppose we'll just have to see then," she said, and took the prerogative to push the door open. They stepped through, and found themselves in a larger chamber matching the rest of the catacombs. The room was empty save for a door on the opposite side, and a large stone coffin standing upright in the center.

The door of the coffin opened suddenly, the stone slab crashing onto the ground, and a mummy stumbled out. Aqua took one look at the dusty, dry state of the creature and lit it on fire, remembering well how easily old paper and fabrics catch flame. She still hadn't forgiven Lea for unintentionally burning a shelf of old manuscripts she'd found when they were clearing an old castle of a Heartless infestation.

The mummy went up in unquenchable flames, and the two watched blandly as the monster burned to ash. A small metal bit dropped into the dust where it had once stood.

"Is that it? That was terribly anti climatic."

Juste stared at where the mummy had been, hand raised to attack, other hand resting on the Vampire Killer. A puff of smoke waffed up from the ashes. Then he felt his face break into a smile, then he chuckled, and the chuckle grew into a full laugh that echoed through the empty space.

Aqua quickly broke down into laughter as well. She found herself grateful for the encounter; laughter seemed fairly rare in this place, and it was good to release the stress of the impending doom with surprise and amusement. As she snorted once more to herself, she walked over the pile of ash to claim the crest piece. She tossed it to Juste, as he had the other pieces. "Here, easiest boss prize I've ever won," she quipped with a smile.

Juste's laugh dropped down to chuckles again as he stuffed the piece in a pocket. "Ah, if only all of the Elite were like this, but I'll take it where I can get it." He pulled out his pocket watch and looked at the time. "It's been only a few hours since we left the last sanctuary. Do we continue or go rest?"

"We haven't exactly expended much energy. We might as well continue. There seems to be a sanctuary placed outside each elite room, so if need be we can take a break before facing the next one," she suggested logically.

Juste nodded with a smile, and they continued through the door opposite the one they had come through. It led again to another short featureless hallway, and once they were through it, the smell of water rushed up to greet them.

"We're back in the waterway." he said as they walked down another short corridor, which ended with a ladder that went up a circular shaft.

"A ladder leading up into the waterways, where anything could be waiting right outside? Gentlemen first, I think," she joked, though she was actually slightly serious about it.

Juste couldn't help the smirk. "Of course, my lady." He began to climb up the ladder, which to his disgust, was a little slimy, and he grinned to himself at the sound Aqua made when she touched the rungs. The ladder went up for a good distance, and he could see light above him, but it was dim like the rest of the waterway.

Bleh, gross, Aqua thought unhappily as she followed Juste up the ladder. Now I'm equally glad I didn't go first. Once they arrived at the top, they climbed out of the hole to find themselves in a very large stone room. They stood on a raised, circular, stone platform that was surrounded by water. "I assume the creature this time is somewhere in the water?" Aqua inferred.

Juste turned his head just as a large fin broke the surface on the right and began to circle the platform. "So it would seem. Two Elites one right after the other. How... droll."

"Well, it's not like the previous one was any sort of challenge," she replied reasonably. She quickly recognized that the water could be disadvantageous to both them and the creature itself. Keeping an eye on the fin and the ripples in the water, she summoned her keyblade and cast Thundaga on the water. No matter where the elite goes, it can't avoid it, and the electricity will sting.

Juste laughed when the electricity from her spell flashed across the water, but that laugh ended abruptly when a massive fish, several times his height in length and with a trident-wielding Fishman on its back, leapt out of the water to get away from the spell. He yelped and jumped to the side as it landed right where he had been standing, and it shimmied across the platform and back into the water, whereupon it disappeared under the surface.

He looked over at Aqua, who was laughing. "Enjoy it while you can," he grumbled, "I'm sure your turn is coming."

He turned away from her as the fin broke the surface again, and the fish leapt out of the water a second time, though this time it jumped clear over the platform, while the rider jumped down to land between him and Aqua. Its trident created a small shockwave when it slammed into the platform, and before it could begin to swing the weapon around, Juste swung the Vampire Killer, catching it in the leg.

Aqua couldn't help giggling at the sight of the fish moving itself across the platform like that. As the skeletal rider hit the ground, she made a short jump to avoid the shockwave and closed in on it from the opposite side from Juste. She dashed in, coating her keyblade with fire, and slashed at it, landing a solid hit due to its distraction over the whip. It growled and whirled its trident in large broad strokes, forcing Aqua to leap back out of its range. Suddenly, she heard the sound of snapping jaws behind her and had to jump aside again as the giant shark-like fish shimmied its way across the platform again. She made sure to smack its tail soundly with her blade as it passed, leaving a long scratch on the cartilage.

She tried to return her attention to the skeleton, but it was no longer on the platform, as it had jumped onto its mount as it went by. The fish and rider circled the stone, and Aqua electrocuted the water again, this time aiming directly at the monsters. The lightning hit, and they shrieked with rage as the water amplified its effect.

Juste dodged to the right to get out of the way as the giant fish jumped back up on the platform. He raised his hand in the air and cast Holy Lightning, and both the fish and its rider screeched in pain and dove back into the water to get away from him.

The two surfaced again, ringing the platform while the rider lashed out at them with its weapon whenever either of them strayed too close. So Aqua cast a fire spell at it instead. The fireball crashed into the fish's side, and its rider was knocked off onto the stone floor as the fish flailed, a slight scent of roasted fish bone permeating the air. The rider leapt to its feet and rushed the nearest target, which was Juste. She was just about to dart in and assist when the fish splashed out of the water onto the edge of the dais and shot a large blue beam from its mouth, which it swept across the platform. Aqua jumped above it reflexively when it came near her twice (she was the object of its ire, after all), and she glared at it. "This fish is a pain," she muttered. Let Juste focus on the rider. She had a fish to fry.

Juste backflipped to avoid the swinging trident and swung out with the Vampire Killer. The whip cracked against the creature's feet, and it jumped back to avoid him. He followed it up with another lightning spell that arced across the distance between him and connected with the trident. The weapon proceeded to glow like a lightning bug, and the Fishman snarled in pain but swung at him again anyway.

The fish returned to the water, and Aqua shocked the pool once again, this time to intentionally force it onto the platform. As soon as it broke through the surface, she fired a Triple Firaga at it, and the missiles followed it as it arched over the platform. The magic splashed against its underbelly and the creature made a pained guttural sound. She cast a simple Gravity spell to force it to the ground, after which she dashed to it and struck it with her blade in the same spots her flame spells had hit. As soon as it was released from her gravity spell, the fish flailed, successfully knocking Aqua into the water with its tail as it frantically bounced towards the water itself.

Juste heard the splash, but he was too busy dodging the Fishman's swinging trident to investigate. He ducked under a swing, rolled away to avoid a stab, and countered with a fireball to the creature's face, followed by another attack with the Vampire Killer. His family's weapon caught the Fishman directly in the face, and it jumped away from him and returned to its mount's back.

Aqua heaved herself back onto the platform out of the water, swearing colorfully under her breath. She had spent maybe a little too much time around pirates recently. By the time she recovered, the fish had returned to the water as well, no doubt to soothe its burns. She noted that the rider had returned to the fish's back as well, and she quickly rolled away from the edge to avoid getting slashed by its trident.

Juste eyed the creature and its rider as it swam around the platform. "I've had enough of you." he said under his breath as he watched Aqua dodge the swinging trident.

"Miss Aqua," he said, which prompted her to turn her head slightly towards him as she also watched the giant fish swim around, "when it jumps up onto the platform next, cast your most powerful lightning magic at the trident." She nodded, and he turned to watch the large fish as it dove under the surface again. A trail of bubbles marked its passage, and he called his magic up as it seemed to pause. With a spray of water, it broke the surface and dove onto the platform.

"Now!" Juste yelled to Aqua, but he did not pause to see if she had done so. He had only a few seconds. Magic raced down his arm and out through his hand, and the same lightning that he had used to destroy the giant skeleton and his doppelganger arced down from above.

Aqua waited for his signal and shot a strong Thundaga spell focused precisely on the trident. However, when her magic met his, it combined in similar manner to when they had fought Legion, and their individual spells turned into one truly impressive lightning strike that temporarily blinded the both of them. It caught the Fishman's trident right on its center point, and for a second, the weapon glowed before the electricity traveled down the shaft and into the Fishman's hands and arms, and then down into the rest of its body, out through its feet, and into its mount. The two magic users received a brief image of their enemies' highlighted skeletons before both creatures exploded in a shower of bones, charred meat, and blood.

The humans were, unfortunately, covered in said blood and chunks of meat and guts. Aqua was a blank slate for a few moments as the events slowly sunk into her brain.

Juste reached up and plucked a chunk of charred meat out of his hair. "That was certainly effective." he said as he looked around at the mess. "We should have done that from the start."

Aqua finally snapped out of her temporary stupor and slowly, dreading what she might see, looked down at herself. She let out a disgusted shriek at the fleshy remnants splattered across her clothes, skin, and hair. She had been closest to the fish's belly when it was electrocuted, and so got the worst of the spread. She took a forced, deep breath in and out twice before she deigned to speak a word. And then the best she could form was a high-pitched, furious, "Gross! Augh! Not! Okay!"

Juste watched her with a slight smile, amused at her reaction. "Calm yourself, Miss Aqua. I'm sure that there is a sanctuary up ahead you can wash up at."

"Easy for you to say, this is normal for you!" she muttered in a low growl. "Heartless do not explode into flesh and blood when you kill them, neither do Unversed or Nobodies, they are so much cleaner, this is not in any way okay." The rest of her tirade became unintelligible for him to make out as she checked that the water in the surrounding pool was no longer electrified, and then she stomped to the edge and dropped straight into it to get the guts off of her as soon as absolutely possible. Smelling like the fish that once lived in these waters was much preferable at the moment to walking around covered in its entrails. She fully intended to bathe at the nearest opportunity as well, but for now, she had to at least get most of it off of her skin.

Juste turned away as she jumped into the water, and he cast his eyes over the platform and saw a glint in the middle near the shaft that they had come up through. He stepped around smoking bones and grilled meat and picked it up. It was yet another piece of the shield that they needed.

"Five down," he commented as he looked at it, "one more to go."

There was a rumbling sound to his right, and he looked in that direction as the platform began to shake. A stone walkway rose up out of the water, which allowed them access to the doorway on the far side of the room.

Behind him, he heard Aqua climbing out of the water, and he turned to look at her as he stuffed the piece into his pocket along with the others. "Shall we?"

"Gladly," she agreed, and they made their way out of the chamber. Aqua considered drying herself off, but since it appeared that they were going to be spending more time in the waterways, she realized it would be rather pointless. She supposed that at least she was already wet, so it wasn't going to be a shock getting wet once again.

As they exited the large chamber, Juste spotted the glowing blue doors of a sanctuary, and more importantly, the glowing green doors of a warp room. He could also hear the waterfall that they had seen earlier in the waterway, though it seemed to be above them. A glance up confirmed this as it showed him the large vertical shaft that stretched up quite a distance, with a stream of water pourding down to splash down in front of the sanctuary doors.

"Once we've dried off and rested a bit," he said, "we can go into that room there." He pointed to the warp room. "That is a warp room, and it's certainly connected to another one somewhere in the castle, which will allow us to travel there instantly. I think I saw one on the other side of that chasm that we encountered in the chapel earlier, but there was no way for us to reach it."

"Oh, you have such things here?" she confirmed with interest. "We have points that work similarly in worlds I've visited. I don't tend to use them as much since I can use my glider directly to enter the Lanes Between, but if you have a ship instead, they can teleport you directly outside the world into your ship," Aqua explained rapidly. They headed towards the sanctuary, where they replensihed their magic with the statue.

Juste wasn't sure what she had just been talking about, so he chose to simply ignore it. "Every area of the castle has one somewhere, so I'm sure there are others that we just haven't found yet. Hopefully, the one next door will take us to either the one area in the chapel we were unable to reach, or to the area above the entryway."

"Whichever it is, I hope it gets us significantly closer to our goal. This castle is exhausting, and I'm eager to be done with it." Yet she knew instinctively that while they were closer with 5 pieces of the crest gathered, they still had a ways to go. "I don't usually need to remain in the same place for quite this long," she admitted. "Most of the areas I've been haven't required a lengthy journey through a castle as maze-like as this one."

"Let me assure you I don't enjoy it here either. The last time I was in the castle I found out once I was out that I had been in here for six days. It's almost as though time has no meaning here, and it's very disorienting.

"At least though we have only one more Elite to deal with the finish the crest, and then we can see what's going on in that courtyard. Though, as I said before, I still suspect we'll have to deal with Dracula at one point."

"Yes, and doesn't that sound like a ball of fun?" she replied sarcastically. Before Juste could settle himself on the grass, Aqua stated, "I'm going to take a bath right away, is that going to bother you?" She didn't care about modesty after living among boys and training with weapons from an early age, but Juste's world had rather more problems with that. It was the courteous option to warn him before she started stripping at the back of the fountain, the lattice of the trellises providing cover or not.

"Not at all, m'lady" he said as he stepped towards the door. "I'll just go rinse myself off a bit in the waterfall outside. Just let me know when you're finished."

"I'll be quick, and yes I'll come get you when I'm done," she promised, then turned toward the fountain. She removed a small bottle from the pocket containing her tent and smiled at it, setting the bio-friendly soap next to pool while she cast a Fire spell in the water to bring the water up to a pleasing, hot temperature. Cleanliness need not be entirely uncomfortable. She kept the soap on her at all times so that should something of this sort occur on a world without modern buildings, such as a swamp land or marsh she had to investigate, she could wash herself clean without damaging the ecosystem of the wildlife around her.

She set to washing first herself, then her clothes, though they mostly just needed the fish scent beaten out of them, since they didn't stain at all from the aftermath of the fight. Overall she took perhaps ten minutes at a maximum, and then she put on her dripping clothes and sloshed out to collect Juste so she could dry the both of them at the same time.

By the time she was finished, he was shivering again, as the water from the falls had been freezing cold, colder even than the water he'd bathed in earlier had been. At least though he was once again relatively free of foul scents and slimy fluids. Still, her opening the door and telling him he could come back in was a welcome relief, and once inside the sanctuary, he frowned at her when he noted that, despite being soaking wet, she didn't appear to be chilled at all.

"Something the matter?" she questioned due to his expression, as she summoned Stormfall to dry them off in her usual way.

"How in Heaven's name are you not freezing, Miss Aqua? I know that that water is cold."

She looked at him as though he was missing the obvious. "I heated it first, of course."

"You can do that?" He stared at her in surprise. "That would have been wonderful to know earlier."

She suppressed a smile and raised an eyebrow. "You didn't ask."

He huffed and walked away, over to the statue, where he sat down and pulled some beef jerky out of his pocket.

"Oh, don't be like that," she said, rolling her eyes. "It's not like you told me when you were bathing. I would have offered to heat it for you if I'd known, but you washed while I was asleep. That's not my fault." She retrieved an apple from one of her own bigger-on-the-inside pockets. Apples were good fruits; they had a long lasting shelf life. She was glad she'd chosen to bring a few with her, as she hadn't been entirely sure how long she'd be there.

"It wouldn't have been appropriate." he said. "As it was, I was pushing the rules simply by bathing in the same room as you, even if you were asleep."

Aqua was sure that must have been quite uncomfortable for him, but she didn't have much patience for that mentality herself. She refrained from saying as much, however, choosing to chomp on her apple instead.

The room was silent as they each focused on their respective snack, and after a few minutes, Juste finished off his beef jerky. "Are you ready to go?"

She quickly consumed the last few bites of apple and burned the core with minor difficulty. Such juicy fruits did not take to flame easily. "Yeah, I'm good now." They exited the sanctuary and entered the warp room.

Juste felt the magic of the room whisper across his skin and stir his hair as they stepped through the doors. The room was square like the ones he had seen before, but that was where the similarity ended. Instead of multiple circular doors embedded in the wall, there were long lines of glowing runes inscribed into the floor, and all of the lines ran to the center of the room, where they wound around a small raised, circular platform. More runes were scratched into the ceiling, leading to a large disc embedded in the center of the stone ceiling. The glow of the runes filled the room with a soft light, and the entire place hummed from the magic levels.

He stepped onto the platform and looked back at Aqua. "To activate one of these," he explained, "step onto the platform and mentally command the room to send you on. You cannot always pick a destination with most of these, and we don't know where they lead anyway. Keep the mental command firm in your mind or the teleportation will fail and you'll just end up here again. Do you understand?" She nodded at him, and he gave her a faint smile. "Then I shall see you shortly."

He looked up at the rune etched in the disc above him and commanded it to send him to the next waypoint. The runes glowed brighter, and the magic in the room increased, ruffling his hair as he was lifted off the floor. He felt the power flickering across his skin, and the room vanished in a white light for a second. He then landed hard on his feet, and the glow vanished to reveal a room just like the one he had left. He stepped down off the platform, turned to look at it, and waited for Aqua to arrive.

Well this was different. She had never seen something like the warp room before. The warp points she was familiar with were more or less simple, glowing, green circles. This room was something quite different. She stepped onto the plate carefully and attempted to concentrate on it sending her elsewhere. It must have worked because next thing she knew, Juste stood nearby again. She gingerly hopped down from the platform and looked toward the door. "That was a bit different than what I'm used to, but it works."

Juste nodded at her. "I am grateful that Trevor encountered them during Dracula's 1479 rise, otherwise I would have had no idea what they were when I encountered them the last time I was in this castle. Like the rest of the structure, they seem to change in appearance, though Simon and Christopher never saw them at all. Neither did Leon, and Trevor did not see them on his first run in 1476. They make traversing this place so much easier and quicker. Now let's see where we are, shall we?"

He didn't wait for an answer as he walked across the floor and through the green doors. He stepped out into a well appointed hallway, like something one would see in a wealthy lord's manor house. Beautiful wood inlay floors gleamed with the candlelight from the gold chandeliers above, gilded frames held intricately done portraits, and tables with vases of beautiful flowers in full bloom lined the walls. He could see doors and staircases to upper levels, which meant that they would be climbing a great deal like they had been in the chapel. Just down the corridor, he could see maids in purple dresses and white aprons busily cleaning the floors. Not too far away, in a small alcove, he spotted an open hatchway in the floor. A quick glance down through it showed the castle entrance that they had passed through ages ago.

"Well, we know where we are in the castle now." he said as he spoke quietly to avoid attracting the maids' attention. "We're above the castle entrance, and that -" He pointed at the opening in the floor. "- is the opening in the ceiling of the entrance that I pointed out to you just before we encountered the zombies after we first came in.

"I have a feeling that we will see our last Elite that we need to deal with in this area somewhere." he said quietly as Aqua joined him, so not to attract the maids' attention. They looked human, but his senses were quick to inform him that they weren't.

She caught on to the reason for his soft voice easily. She felt that the women ahead were not right as well. "Whoa. What's with the big change in architecture?" she asked in a low voice, glancing at the new surroundings.

"We're in the living quarters – or what passes for them in this place. I seriously doubt Dracula would spend any time here, even if he lived long enough to leave his throne room. I suspect that, like the sanctuaries, it is a hold over from Walter's castle, since he truly lived in his castle, but there is no way to be sure." He began to walk forward as he put his hand on the Vampire Killer. "It's all upstairs from here. I'm sure this place will connect with the castle keep, which contains the throne room, at the top."

He walked down the hall, his booted heels echoing loudly in the space, and the first maid made note of him.

She curtsied prettily and said something that sounded like "Yo-ko-so," that he didn't understand and then made a flying kick at his head. He dodged it and lashed out with the whip. The tip caught the maid solidly in the chest, and she made a short scream and collapsed to the floor and vanished, leaving behind the cleaning rag she had been using to mark where she had stood.

"What? 'Welcome'?" Aqua translated incredulously as she sidestepped the maid when she attacked Juste in front of her. "Isn't that rather hypocritical?" The sound from the short fight attracted another maid's attention, who also welcomed them before launching herself at Aqua. Aqua summoned her blade and slashed the maid in the same motion, and the girl disappeared like the other.

Juste looked at Aqua with an incredulous expression. "Welcome? Is that what that means? They're welcoming us before they try to kill us?"

"Yes indeed," she confirmed, a bemused look on her face. "'Youkoso' is a basic greeting in Japanese meaning 'welcome' or 'nice to meet you'. Seems a little ironic, really, but whatever..."

"You are a lady of many talents, Miss Aqua." Juste commented as they went down the hall towards the staircase at the other end. "Magic, weaponry, skills in battle, and now a strange language that, to my knowledge, no one has ever spoken before."

"I'm glad to impress," she replied with a smile.

A large ball of fire forming in the air in front of them forced him to stop, and a large winged creature with red skin and long horn materialized, hovering on large wings.

"Lesser demons," Juste said in warning. "They hit very hard and can dive very quickly, but they aren't too difficult to the destroy."

As the new enemy appeared, she quickly decided that ice would be effective against something that seems to be fire-based. "Blizzara!" she cast, sending a large chunk of ice very quickly at the demon.

Aqua's ice spell hit the creature directly in the face, and it turned its attention to her. Juste decided to use its distraction against it, and it completely ignored him as he cast Hydro Storm. The holy water rained down, and the demon seemed to freeze in midair, before he slowly vanished into a dark portal that appeared behind it.

"Not very difficult as I said," he added as they went up the steps, "but their tendency to appear right over your head is very annoying."

They climbed the first flight of stairs and continued down another hallway. As they neared the opposite end, they came upon a set of skeletons arranged in front of the door they needed to go through to proceed. Aqua glanced up when she noticed something in the corner of her eye, and found an eyeball floating around. "Exactly what is this?" she asked Juste, as she realized the skeletons were arranged in a rather familiar pattern.

Juste couldn't help the smile that appeared on his face as he looked at the ten skeletons, all neatly arranged in a triangle formation with the peeping eye floating around the hallway nearby.

"Leon had left notes about this," he said, "but I'd never thought I'd see it myself."

"They look like you could throw something at them and they'd all collapse, lined up like that," she commented, images of bowling in Disney Town flitting through her mind. The eye suddenly dove from the ceiling, causing fire to erupt from the ground nearby. Aqua leaped back instinctively.

Juste smirked when he saw that the peeping eyes was lined up perfectly with the skeletons. "Exactly." He cracked the whip at the downed eye, which sent it rolling across the floor to crash into the first skeleton, which in turn knocked down the two behind it, and the three behind them, and then finally the four behind them. All ten skeletons fell apart under the force, and the peeping eye righted itself and floated back into the air, looking a bit dizzy.

Four more skeletons, standing in a square formation, spawned then, and Juste turned to Aqua. "Would you care to take the next round, Miss Aqua?"

She watched the display with wide eyes, and shook her head slightly. "I cannot believe this is happening," she said with a tinge of awe in her voice. "This is a bit surreal." But she waited for the eye to drop down again, whereupon she bashed it straight into the new skeletons. Disney Town games really came in handy in the most unexpected places.

Juste laughed and applauded when she knocked all four skeletons down in one strike. The peeping eye righted itself again, and three more skeletons, standing in a diagonal line appeared. He walked over to where he wanted the peeping eye to go to lure it over, and when it dropped down, he sent it rolling over, sending the skeletons crashing to the floor in pieces. No more skeletons spawned, and he hit the peeping eye one last time, causing it to burn up from the tip of its long tail up.

Aqua shook her head one more time at the silliness of that whole event before they pressed on once more. They scaled the stairs of a few more floors, battling a few more maids and lesser demons on the way, along with a wave of minor Heartless, until they caught sight of the telltale doors of a sanctuary. "The last Elite must be through those other doors then," Aqua commented with a nod towards said doors.

"I would say so." Juste replied. "Shall we take a rest and have something to eat before we go in?"

"Sounds like a good idea. Always best to take on a potentially difficult battle energized," she answered, and they once again entered the sanctuary and rejuvenated their health and magic. Aqua took a seat and rolled her neck and shoulders idly.

Juste handed out the meal packs, and they ate quickly, faster than they normally did. Perhaps, Juste thought, they were both hoping to get the last piece of the crest and be done with this entire mess.

Not that he believed for a second that they would be. He was still absolutely certain that Dracula was behind everything in some way. They just had to find out how.

On Aqua's part, she couldn't shake the feeling that someone from her part of the universe was involved. How else could there have been Heartless here? Though admittedly they'd been much less densely packed in the castle than most of the worlds she visited, likely because this place had enough of its own monsters to throw at them.

After resting for a short time after their food was finished, the two pushed themselves up and they head to the Elite's doors. "I feel something dark, but it's sort of...dampened? Like it's not entirely full of darkness. It's hard to explain," Aqua attempted to describe before they entered.

"Not very powerful." Juste said in agreement. "Probably one of the weaker Elites."

She nodded, and they pushed open the doors. Aqua looked up, and stopped short at the sight of a familiar head of brown hair and hakama pants. Her voice rang out in the silence.

"Terra?"

******

A/N 3: And before ANY of you start carrying on about Juste being homophobic or some such, bear in mind that he is a devout Eastern Orthodox Christian from 18th century Europe, and such an attitude about homosexuality was the norm then. Lita_Snow and myself absolutely do not agree with him on this matter.

Title: Heirloom
Rating: G
Disclaimer: I only own Master Limahl.
Summary: How did No Name come into Xehanort's hands? Simple, he broke the rules for it.
A/N: So after watching Back Cover, Lita Snow and I were discussing how Xehanort came to possess No Name. I mentioned that his master must have thought him worthy enough that he passed it down to him, to which Lita responded by saying that she could easily see Xehanort sneaking out in the middle of the night to take a closer look, followed by it bonding with him when he touched it. We joked about it for a bit, passing random dialogue back and forth, and then I said "Okay, we have to write this." So here it is, with Eraqus and Master Limahl written by me, and Xehanort written by Lita.
A/N 2: When headcanons combine, fun stuff happens. Xehanort being descended from gods comes from mine (See my fic "Mythology" for more) and him being a neglected orphan comes from Lita's. Master Limahl came from the Burning Heart Saga.