Sell you a Bridge chapter 345

July 4th 2016 Quadratum, 1:00 PM EDT

Quadratum was, as we'd seen from the rooftop, creepy as hell. Empty city streets  were different without all the signs of destruction everywhere. You  would expect it to be less eerie, but somehow the lack of damage made it  much worse. It was like the people here had all vanished in the blink  of an eye without any chance to resist. Some of the cars were literally  in the middle of intersections, but completely untouched as all the  drivers seemed to have vanished at the same time, and the cars  just...stopped, where they were.

As much as I'd have liked  to figure out what caused this, the auras in the city made that unwise.  It wasn't just Mickey and Riku. There were other members of the  Organization here too, and we needed to fucking move. As we headed for  the nearest signature, I looked to Roxas, our resident expert in the  Organization, to shed some light. "Hey, Roxas, any clue who might be  around here? You heard of this place before?"

He shook his  head. "No. Never heard of it. Probably not something they tell the rank  and file. As for who might be here...I might. Most of the Organization  were from Hollow Bastion originally, disciples of Ansem the Wise. A  couple of them though, were from somewhere...else. Luxord was one of  those. The other was Demyx. If the Organization has any connection to  this place, it might be through them."

That tracked with  what I'd been seeing actually, now that I thought about it. Aura was a  complicated thing. Every aura had an endless amount of layers and  frequencies hidden inside it. Some were obvious and right out in the  open, some were so faint and vague they were only detectable if you knew  to look. The place a person came from was a part of their makeup and  definitely showed in their aura, being foundational to their growth.  Luxord's aura had a certain resonance with the aura I was seeing here,  though it was so faint I hadn't noticed it until Roxas pointed it out.

Presumably  Luxord wasn't from here, but his Somebody most likely was. It had  dampened that wavelength in his aura more than moving or leaving a place  normally was, and if not for my perfect recall and my now much deeper  understand of aura after that boom tube trip I never would have even  noticed it.

I groaned. "Of course. Well at least he  doesn't have fucking zombies alien mutants anymore. Namine, guessing you  don't know any details about this place either?" We needed as much info  as possible about Quadratum, but that didn't seem like it was in the  cards.

She just shook her head sadly. "Sorry. I  was...sheltered. Since I came into existence I spent most of my time  locked up or hiding. I know some secrets about Sora and about the  Organization through interacting with some of the members from time to  time, but I've never heard of any place like this. Honestly, the whole  city feels very strange to me. Places have memories, just like people,  but this place has forgotten most of the people who lived here."

That  was interesting. I could see the aura of the residents mixed into the  flow of the objects, since being able to tell an object's owner was part  of my skillset. This was clearly something different though, and having  another ace in the hole would be helpful if we needed a better lead  later in our search.

"Sure." Said Rana from one side.  "Because that definitely didn't make this already horror movie creepy  setting somehow ten times worse. Thanks for that Nami." The blonde  giggled, sticking out her tongue. Apparently those two had gotten to  know each other a bit when I wasn't around. I hadn't thought they were  so close, but I was all for Rana having new friends.

Zee  noticed too, and looked pleased. "Alright, no reason to be worried.  There are seven keyblade wielders, plus a guard captain and a royal  wizard here. We can handle ourselves. Just because the streets are empty  and echo with the distant sounds of faint movement...shit, this place  is terrible." She pouted at me. "Morgan why don't you ever bring me  anywhere nice? I liked Destiny Islands but everywhere else has been  pretty terrible."

To my surprise, Sora stopped dead and  his head snapped over to stare at Zee. "D-destiny Islands? You guys have  been to Destiny Islands?" The way he said that was almost...sad. Which  wasn't Sora at all. He didn't do sad. Although thinking about it, I'd  felt like there was something familiar about the kid for a while. I  didn't know him, my memory was too good to overlook that, but he seemed  similar to someone I'd seen in passing. Hearing the pain in his voice,  that finally clicked.

"You're the kid!" I said in  surprise. "The one from the pictures in that house. I didn't recognize  you because you're much older now, but I should have. That hair is  unmistakable. That would mean the other two are Riku and Kairi?" I  hadn't gotten a glance at Riku's aura, exactly, but like I'd noted with  Luxord I could somewhat tell where a person was from based on their  aura. I'd seen the aura of Destiny Islands. If you asked me to isolate  that signature in Sora's aura without knowing what it was then forget  it, but having seen the place in person would make it much easier.

Smiling  sadly, the kid nodded. "Yeah. If you found a picture of me back home  with two others it was almost definitely them. A redhead and a boy with  silver hair?" At my nod his sad smile turned wistful. "Yeah. I hope  they're both doing ok. I haven't seen them in a long time. Riku is here  at least, so we can find him soon. Kairi...who knows where she ended up.  We got separated when I destroyed Ansem's heartless. You're sure she  wasn't in Destiny Islands?"

"Nobody was." I said firmly.  "At least, not the one we visited. Come to think of it though, that  place was...odd. It was in the realm of darkness, but was much less  dangerous than it should have been. It might have been the Upside-Down  Man's presence there, but it also might not have been the real Destiny  Islands. Maybe some kind of copy? It would explain why he was there. I  doubt that creepy bastard hangs out in the real Destiny Islands. He even  mentioned going where he wanted in the dark realm. I just didn't equate  that with making a fake world."

That might nix my plan to  find Riku based on his aura signature, since it almost definitely  wouldn't be the same. Or maybe it was. I checked Sora's aura against the  one I remembered from Destiny Islands and sure enough, the signature  I'd seen in that place wasn't there. Oh well, the coats were dampening  things too much for that to be viable anyway. It DID give us a possible  lead for where Kairi was though. If she was on the real Destiny Islands  we could presumably track her down pretty easily.

I was so  distracted I didn't even remember Sora was hurting, but Rana did. My  daughter strolled up to the boy and put her arms around him, pulling him  into a tight hug. Sora, being a very huggy person, was happy to return  it, with no intentions other than gratitude to a friend. He squeezed her  back and they stood there like that for a minute, before I finally  cleared my throat. Lack of impure intentions or not, some teenage boy  clinging to my daughter for more than a few minutes was a hard no for  me.

Rana glared at me as Sora pulled away, and I just  shrugged apologetically, but I could tell from his aura the hug helped.  Donald and Goofy, also gave the kid quick hugs, though reluctantly on  Donald's part. Not out of lack of affection but more because he wasn't  the affectionate type. It took a bit, but we weren't in THAT much of a  hurry. Especially since we only had the one heading. The auras were so  vague I could barely tell. I froze and then my head snapped, my armor  rolling over my body and Tartarus coming to my hand as I snarled "Freeze", sending a burst of ectoplasm enhanced ice at the fifth floor of a nearby building.

The  spell hit, detonating into a massive block of encapsulating ice...with  nothing inside it. A series of sarcastic slow claps echoes across the  buildings. "Well wasn't that impressive." Rumbled a rough, amused voice.  "I thought I was being so sneaky too. You've got sharp senses kid." A  man stepped out onto the roof of one of the shorter building, the hood  of his cloak down to reveal a pale, scarred face with an eye patch over  one eye.

"Xigbar." Snarled Roxas. "Shit." I hadn't heard  the kid cuss much, so that didn't fill me with confidence. Still, if we  knew who he was that would make beating him easier. I was more worried  about how fucking stealthy he was. I'd only noticed him because I  decided to look. He had somehow clouded his presence even more than the  coat normally managed, and if I hadn't gotten lucky and looked around I  never would have noticed him sneaking up on us.

"Hey there  number thirteen." The ponytailed man said with an easy grin. "You look  pretty good for a dead guy, kiddo. And your Somebody is walking around  here with you to boot. You even have the little witch with you. What HAS  Vexen been getting upto. I swear we talked to him about not pursuing  projects that harm the interests of the organization." He shrugged. "Mad  Scientists am I right? Can't live with them, can't reattach their heads  if you cut them off."

Roxas looked genuinely scared of  this guy. "Xigbar. What are you doing here? "Despite asking, I could  tell he already knew, and his keyblade flashed into being in his hand.  He was obviously hoping the other man wasn't going to say he was here to  fight us, but wasn't stupid enough to actually expect us to be that  lucky.

Xigbar's grin widened. "Ask a stupid question,  tiger." He held out his hands and called forth some kind of weird purple  sword guns. "You know why I'm here. Boss man your new buddies out of  commission. They're getting awfully close to meddling with some things  that shouldn't be meddled with. On account of our old working  relationship, if you want to take your little honey bunny and bail, I'll  look the other way this once. Without the metal man there I doubt the  boss will bother chasing you down."

With an unimpressed  snort, Roxas raised his keyblade to a guard position. "If you think  that's even remotely possible you never knew me at all Xigbar. I don't  abandon my friends. Ever."

"Is that so." Drawled a  familiar and very angry voice. I winced. Shit. Right, they always moved  in pairs. A form stepped from the shadows of another rooftop, familiar  red hair cascading down his back. Axel. "Because I seem to remember that  being what you're best at Roxas." The blonde flinched at the  accusation, his face paling a bit. "You're pretty casual about orders  aren't you Xigbar, offering to let him go?"

The ponytailed  man shrugged. "It ain't easy coming back from the dead. I wanted to  give him the chance to take his side piece and leave peacefully on  account of our history. Seems like that isn't to be though." He cracked  his neck. "Oh well, I tried. Guess we do this the hard way. Now." He  said, his grin turning vicious as he raised his weird gun things. "Dance  for me monkeys." And the world dissolved in a sea of light blasts.