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[ Riku : Louis' Heart : Traitor's Test ]

"Those lives weren't lost because of us, Bobbi," Riku reassured her, his blue eyes hovering on her as she paced back and forth in contemplation. "We didn't intend for it, but Nicholas was 'sacrificed', just as requested--but half those people died anyway. We did what was necessary, intentionally or not, and still only saved some of them."

He continued to watch her, and the rest of them, keeping his own thoughts under wraps. Traitor did not answer him at all--but he did, at least, respond to Bobbi. If it wasn't clear already...

Riku chewed his lip, waiting. Then Bobbi spoke up again, and he was only barely able to resist smirking.

"He'd shout at Traitor for not being fair," he said. "Then he'd demand a fourth option. And if that didn't work, he'd probably sit down and do nothing. And if that didn't work..."

He'd start to attack the platform. He'd smash it and kick and punch it and scream. And then he'd try what he did with Saix... and then...

He looked out at the platforms. If it were himself in Nick's place, and Kairi in Rachel's... would Sora have what it takes to choose the Narnians?

"He'd probably stumble upon whatever Traitor's game is without even meaning to."

[Kyla: Louis’ Heart: Nightmare Tower]


Once again Esteem was there to help adding his light to hers as they rose up to meet the other falling from the sky. As wonderful as their combined creation began with each added person, that sight couldn’t last for long as they finally ended up in some chamber with the most grotesque creature, bug- thingy she’d ever seen. And that was saying something- thankfully... this, she could handle. Monster were...well...monsters! Blow ‘em to bits, it works!

Everything was very pointy over there, and there sat Louis, completely broken, like a puppet with no strings just staring blankly at the maw, ready to be consumed.

Not on their watch!

Kyla nodded in agreemento Joe’s instructions- seemed like a plan.
“Gotcha.” She hopped forward on the air, floating like she was stepping on visible blocks up and over the floor, safely when she had to cross over the needles. All she needed was one good look, and she’d remember how it looked. Gotta love photographic memory.

There!


She drew a shield and if nothing interfered, the bloom would start in an open position and close in around Loui’s shape on the floor, sealing him inside. She also made a point to imbue the shield. Just like as if she was protecting the occupant from giests, she filled it with an emotion, warm, protective, comforting. Something to act as a balm against the terrifying chaos of this tower- it was very possible the horrors of this place simple broke the shards mind.

[ Sayrike & Sora : Louis' Heart : Prisoner's Purgatory ]

"What's a panopticon?" Sora whispered to Sayrike shortly after Joe spoke up, but before Prisoner's own response and the events that came after. Axel's own occasional banter was noted, but the Nobody's last question was cut-off by Prisoner's reaction.

The young man frowned. "They'll try and fail," he said, not enthusiastic but simply to-the-point. "I'm gonna see if these shackles have a lock."

"Good call," Sayrike replied, watching the keyblader walk over with weapon in hand to start analyzing the length of chain. Meanwhile, she chewed on the image presented.

"These people weren't--aren't fair to you. The world has better people, more accepting places," she said, walking closer to the shard but keeping far enough away that if he lunged at her, she could summon a mirror to her front and jump back. "You can't be a prisoner to fear and judgment forever. That's not living. Can we take off the blindfold now?"

As each of the earthlings bantered back and forth and Riku stepped in with his words of wisdom, it would seem they were coming to a conclusion of their own. Back and forth thoughts bounced about turning instead to the thoughts and processes behind their ever-optimistic hero.

As Riku's thoughts came to a close, the lights did as well. With a loud boom all was cast into black and screams echoed from the darkness. They were stranded in that pitch black abyss. Louis' voice spoke, this time close, present, like a whisper in the ear.

"The choice is never easy," it was near Bobbi back to back, "Never definite, never precise."

"Neither logical, nor clear. No right or wrong answer," next to Dani this time, over her shoulder, "No value can be calculated."

"No guarantees or solid truths," Riku now, as though speaking fact to face looking him right in the eyes, "It's all a matter of perspective."

"We each have different values," now it was by James' side, "To each there is something or someone... moral or vow... more important worth risking something else for."

"But regardless that thing, person, moral or vow," now it stood by Dawn, "the point is we act on our hearts and do what we can, even if it means we must sacrifice or betray what we must to save it."

"Be that ourselves," his voice this time to the others a short distance away, but to Nick inches from his face, "Or our friends."

Ghosts appeared in the darkness like white drawings on a negative canvas.

Louis was standing in that darkness, drawing his Naginata from the void before stabbing it into the ground and taking a knee. The darkness around him writhed and coiled thousands of eyes baring down on him as he swore allegiance.

"A fourth choice was never there," this time it wasn't near anyone, rather a short distance away. Another image appeared from the darkness, this time of Louis and Nick. There, Louis had pinned the Avatar of Chaos beneath his knees with a blade halted just above his throat.

"Pull yourself together! Don't let Chaos take you! Don't make me kill you! "

Another image, the same two standing a few feet apart, they could hear this images like watching a black and white movie in 3 dimensions, "Let's make a promise: If... either of us ever lose ourselves to our Scion... we kill them. At least then we might be able to die ourselves before our scions make us into something else entirely. I'd rather die myself than a monster."

Another floating image drifted past, this time Louis standing next to Kyle- no, Ajora, "Allies are nice, but friends are better. What do you say?" he held out a hand as Ajora hesitated then took his hand. The shake was the last they saw before that image and all the others broke apart into shining smoke.

The smoke converged all at once into an image of Nick, possessed by Chaos juggling severed heads and wrecking havoc in Altantis. The image faded and reformed, Ajora possessed by the darkness, transforming into that abomination. Again, fade to black and a return of the light... Ajora on his knees before the group laying bare his transgressions and intentions.

"I betrayed them both," the voice was back to normal again, "Blinded by my long term goals and the greater good, I sacrificed them, left to suffer."

Another flash, they could see the main hall of the castle surround them in black and white and wispy texture as countless Louis fought viciously against one another, "Betrayed myself to see things through to the end."

"And now you... must make the hardest choice of all."

The light returned to the platform with another loud boom like the repetitive beating like a rhythmic drum of reverberating bass had simply paused in time as they saw everything transpire before them.

Nick was with them once more, standing among their number as though he'd never left.

And before them all, Louis in the flesh present and tangible, staring at them in half-lidded glazed eyes. He spoke with a monotone, emotionless enthusiasm the same as every trial before, "Before you stands a traitor, the cause of all this suffering and loss," the beat returned again, light illuminating the other two platforms, Rachel and the thousand innocent Narnians appearing at each side, "Before you are 1001 lives, lives that can be saved by taking one."

"But to take a life requires a sacrifice," Traitor's eyes twitched as if pained, an image of Louis on his knees clutching his own shoulders in pain and crying, the cobblestone flooring of their circular platform of judgement lighting up between the cracks and suddenly gaining color. A platform of awakening formed beneath their feet in stained glass. The young man on his knees screamed and cried, before suddenly- "Something that can never be recovered..."

The stained glass shattered along with all the darkness around them. Falling sheets of black glass rained harmlessly around the group of floating warriors of light. And there, revealed behind dispersing darkness that left behind a sickly white... shattered and broken, strapped to a massive golden rosary framed by a massive circle of glowing spikes like rays coming off a sun-

"Your Innocence."





"If you're not here to hurt me, and you're not going to kill me, then you're here to leave your scars," Victim looked down, hiding his face behind his untrimmed hair, stroking Nanaki's muzzle and over the top of his head, laughing sadly. When his hand passed over, miraculously, Nanaki's scars, had vanished into thin air, but as the boy raised his face, those scars instead adorned his own.

Kyle's attempt to siphon those wounds away to himself however were only momentarily successful. Moments after one wound moved from the hospitalized boy to the dragoon, those same wounds would vanish from the dragoon and reopen on the young man. He winced and groaned, but smiled weakly, "You... would try to free me of these? Even though... the other shards have given you so much anguish and strife... thank you... but there's little you can do for me."

The TV at that moment flickered, an image of Louis on the screen, somewhere in his early teens on his knees, clutching his chest as he coughed furiously. A boot came into frame, slamming into his hands and his chest, causing him to wheeze again. Meanwhile words fizzled through the speakers, "They have pains of their own... their home lives are terrible... their parents aren't there... they have troubled lives. You have to learn to accept them. You have to love them anyway. You can't fight back."

"You see, this tower is cursed. All who enter, lose their scars, their wounds, their cuts and their bruises. All those injuries are transferred instead to me, pushed onto me until the day I die."

The screen went black. But voices still came through the speakers, "I'm glad you came when you did. Had you waited till morning, he'd be dead. Still, it's a miracle he isn't blind in his right eye."

The boy sighed and looked deathly as he stared at Nanaki's renewed features, "So you have a choice. You can leave here, relieved of your injuries as I take them from you... or..."

At last the screen lit up again, this time from first person. The vision was frantic, flitting this way and that, jostling and slamming around. In view around the screen hovering and looking down through the television at them with distant glares doctors stood around the screen one holding a scalpel. They could hear heavy breathing, "You need to stay very still. We need to make an incision in your arm in order to open up a vein and insert the pick-line."

The camera focused on the blade as it lowered before a pair of hands cupped the screen and shifted it away from view. The blood curdling shriek of a child filled the room before it all cut out when the TV cracked and a small chip of glass rang on the floor.

"You can choose a different path."





"It's immortal, don't bother," the boy turned to them, looking across the room at their safe place far out of the reach of the horrific object that trapped the boy in that tortuous chamber, "You managed to escape your nightmares. Please..."

"Help me," the millipede shivered and shifted, the fire, while revealing the contents of the room once more, only caused it to coil and roll its body around faster, however it didn't seem effected or hurt in the slightest. Eventually it coiled around the boy and hovered behind him like a backdrop straight from a science fiction horror film. He was safe in the lotus, of so it would seem. Nightmare, finally looked at them, the whites of his eyes clear to see with terror engulfing his face, "If you've any mercy left in you. Please... I know no other way... I can't escape. I've tried so hard for so long."

There was a shift at their side, a ghostly image in the mirror on the wall of a boy stumbling from a bed, breathing heavily with tears running down his face, "I can't sleep. Every time I close my eyes I have those damn dreams."

The mirror cracked into several pieces as another phantasmal image appeared to the opposite side of the room, a picture frame on the wall came alive. On it, they could see themselves alongside countless others dead and scattered. Louis standing alone among them before falling to his knees, screaming in anguish.

The visions vanished into thin air and once more they were left alone with Nightmare, surrounded by a monstrous array of a countless legged insectoid abomination in a cave of thin blades all aimed at the young man at the center.

"I only know one way out. Only one thing that could ever free me."








Prisoner shook, terrified as the world around them grew darker by the second, not just an absence of light, but rather a complete shift in the atmosphere. As shadows cast by candles flickered back and forth, things caught in them were changed, books in gilded leather became rotten sacks of paper with bugs crawling in and out like anthills. Spiderwebs spanned spaces beneath the desk and chair. The only constant was Prisoner.

A leg of the table suddenly gave, a cloud of dust and mold taking flight as the book on the desk collided with the floor. Its pages fell open as though alive began flipping through pages swiftly, faded pictures growing clearer as the pages drew faster on and formed a sort of zoetrope.

On it, a woman appeared violently opening by snatching a book from a young man's hands. The previously static laden record player sprang to live with screams, "You're not allowed to read that! It's evil, you hear me?! EVIL. Never touch this book again or you'll be punished."

The pages went blank for a moment, then faded in a new scene. This time sound opened with a loud slap followed by Louis' voice, "I'm sorry! I didn't know they were going to play that movie. It's not like I watched it deliberately."

"I don't care. You broke the rules."

The boy on the floor of the library looked in Sayrike's direction, "No, they'll do terrible things to me... and to you. I can't. Please... you can't help me. You must not help me, it'll just make things worse."

There was a pause as there was a loud crack from the glass above them, a look of contemplation crossing Prisoner's face for a moment before he spoke again, "Unless... there is one other way. Please..."

[[Cue: On My Own by Yamada Yutaka & Katherine Liner]]

Upon the cross, bound by colorless chains, Bobbi's shard of Louis was suspended above them, muzzled, and muted only able to speak with his eyes as tears streamed down his face. Traitor, before them, pulled his collar apart to reveal his bare chest completely defenseless as a coiling black spell circle spread over his body and consequently, Innocence's.

"CHOOSE YOUR FATE. You know what you have to do-"





The small hospital room was still, cold, and stagnant. The pale, unhealthy and wounded youth pulled the hospital gown down over his shoulders letting his head lull slightly to the side as he looked at them with a tired eye exaggerated with dark bags beneath them, more scars lying hidden beneath his collarbone and down his torso. There, his chest was exposed and vulnerable, a magic circle expanding from where his heart would rest out over his body embodying the curse placed upon him.

"CHOOSE YOUR FATE. You know what you have to do-"





The millipede crawled around writhing its body up into a striking position above the boy looking down with saliva dripping off its poisonous fangs onto the lotus. They had a clear view of him as he pulled his shirt down so they could see his chest, a black magic circle spreading out from his breast. His eyes were dead, staring right through them.

"CHOOSE YOUR FATE. You know what you have to do-"





Prisoner smiled lightly, an almost hopeful expression crossing his face readable even with the blindfold still wrapped over his eyes. He pulled his shirt down away from his collarbone and exposed a spell circle over his chest.

"CHOOSE YOUR FATE. You know what you have to do-"

{Bobbi .:. Louis's Heart .:. Tower of Traitor}

Bobbi sighed out a half-hearted laugh when Riku told her exactly what Sora would do... just in time for everything to go dark and screams echo throughout the tower. Immediately she was on guard, Taulmaril out, waiting for her eyes to adjust to the abrupt change in lighting. She whirled when the voice spoke behind her, lashing out with an elbow to clock Traitor in the head, but only connected with air. The first two times the voice changed location, she whirled to face it, but still couldn’t see anything. The third time, she stood where she was, eyes closed, listening intently for the sound of a footstep not belonging to one of her friends… and heard nothing.

With a snort, Bobbi opened her eyes in time to see the "ghosts" appear, watching with furrowed brow and restlessly churning mind. The lights returned, sending spots to dance before her eyes, and her heartbeat matched the beating of the drum.

"And now you... must make the hardest choice of all. Before you stands a traitor, the cause of all this suffering and loss. Before you are 1001 lives, lives that can be saved by taking one. But to take a life requires a sacrifice, something that can never be recovered…"

As the dazzle cleared from her eyes, Bobbi saw Traitor standing before them, no longer an ethereal voice or an image glimpsed out of the corner of the eye. She saw the illusion of Louis, the pain of the vision tugging at her own heart as their platform transformed into a Station. Probably not the Station of Awakening, but they were in Louis’s heart, so Bobbi wasn’t all that surprised to find the tower they were in represented one of the heart’s Stations. She barely had a moment to register the stained glass before Traitor’s next words stole Bobbi’s breath away, and the glass shattered into a million shards of color and light.

"Your Innocence."

"What?"

CHOOSE YOUR FATE. You know what you have to do—

"Kill me."

Bobbi flinched, as if the words were a blow to the gut. Her immediate reaction was to shout a denial, but she bit back the response. She closed her eyes for a moment, and was surprised when one hot tear scorched it’s way down her cheek. Thoughts shrieked in her head for the briefest of moments, mostly denial, partially anger, partially grief… Until eventually they settled into a kind of calm inevitability. She should have seen this coming. This was the Traitor’s Tower, after all. Naturally, vows would be broken here. That’s what Traitors did.

"I see," she whispered, one hand reaching up to wipe her tear away. She took a deep breath, held it until her lungs ached, and let it out in a long, slow sigh. Then, calm as you please, she set an arrow to Taulmaril’s bowstring and pulled it to full draw, aiming directly for Traitor’s heart. "I’ll do it," she said to the inevitable protests. She barely noticed the slight tremble in her voice. "I was prepared to kill Ajora. I’ve been prepared to kill Louis since we set off on this mission. I knew from the get-go it was a possibility, we all did. But I made a vow that I would save Louis—all of him, if I could. Plan for the worst and hope for the best, you know? Of course, killing Louis meant killing the shards of goodness we knew were still alive. I don’t want that. I never did. I still don’t. But I’m prepared to. I will take the burden. I will take the consequences. I won’t ask any of you, my precious friends to do this. But…" She hesitated, voice faltering for the first time. She swallowed back another wave of tears, and locked eyes with her shard. "First… Innocence? Is this okay?"

She stared directly at Innocence, knowing he couldn’t speak, waiting for his nod or head shake. Yes, she was willing to take the shot. But she’d made a vow, a promise, an oath, sworn to protect the goodness and light that remained in Louis’s heart. She’d promised she would save him...

Gently, ever so gently, Shiva brought the memory of Bobbi’s beloved grandmother to the surface. Gramma had died of cancer, and Bobbi had no idea who first said the words, but she had to constantly remind herself that death was the best thing to happen. Life would have been nothing but pain if Gramma had stayed, and Bobbi had taken comfort in knowing that even though her beloved grandmother wasn’t with her anymore, at least she was free from the pain the cancer had brought her. Bobbi's eyes flicked briefly to the slight bulge beneath her glove, where the ring she had inherited after her grandmother's funeral was.

~:Sometimes, in order to save a life, you have to end it,:~ Shiva reminded her. It seemed so contradictory. Saving a life meant, well, saving it, right? But after her Gramma's funeral, or maybe even during it, Bobbi had realized that sometimes life wasn't always the best answer. Sometimes living was simply too painful, either physically or emotionally, or maybe even both. And if the pain couldn't be ended without also ending the life... Well, then it was up to the person in pain, wasn't it? Another tear burned it’s way down Bobbi’s cheek, and this time she didn’t bother to wipe it away. The words she’d heard from the ghostly illusions earlier echoed in her head—

"I’d rather die myself than a monster."

—mingled with similar words she had heard from Justice as they crossed the bridge—

"All I can say is, if it comes down to choosing between killing Louis and saving yourselves, I would rather you not hesitate. If at some point I do turn out to be just an oblivious tool, kill me. The me right now, would rather you do that."

She was prepared to do what was necessary.



But this isn't justice. It's mercy.

[ Amy : Narnia / Louis's Heart : Tower of Nightmare ]

The lotus protected this Louis shard from the millipede, for the time being. Joe looked at all of them before launching himself over there. The scenario reminded Amy of The Dark Island, from The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. It was an island where nightmares came true. It was fitting, seeing how they were in Narnia, and all, but she doubted the island was directly related–just similar.

"This is only part of Louis," Amy said to the group in general, but she was looking at Joe, "I doubt it has the ability to fight back. It's called Nightmare. That's what it is, that's what it does. We shouldn't be looking at this as if this one part of Louis makes up the whole. From what I can tell, this guy is just the part of Louis that embodies his nightmares. I see no problem with purging this part of him. He'll have plenty of time to form new nightmares when he's whole again. Let's kill this shard."

She wouldn't take any offensive action unless Joe said to, of course. She held off on shooting the millipede for the moment.

Joe : Louis' Heart : Prisoners Tower

Hearing Axel chime in, Joe stopped to think on what he had said. The fact that they hadn't been attacked yet was not what he had expected at all. He was hoping this would be another Liar situation: they come in, break through the tricks, beat down the shard and move the hell on.

But no, this one required a different approach. Joe knew a broken and beaten shell of a man when he saw one. The guy needed help, but this sort of thing was not his strong suit. He was more of a big picture guy and he knew it.

So with that in mind, he immediately set to work on the images and voices the were being projected at them. That was something he could mull over much more easily.

They were inside Louis' heart, inside the domain of someone who calls himself Prisoner. Ever since they came in, they were surrounded by the trappings of knowledge. Prisoner kept going on about voices and the longer they stayed, and they kept being shown images and voices of Louis' past.

It was an incomplete picture, but it was enough to go on.

"So if these memories are anything to go by, the man you split off from didn't get to explore his creativity very much, yes?" he said to Prisoner, ignoring the sound of shattering glass above him.

"Is that who 'they' are? All those people from his past who told him no and punished him when he stepped out of his little box? Specifics, please. I can assure you right now some of your lesser halves have already done 'terrible' things to at least half the people in this room right now, so you're better off just telling us so we can actually figure out what in the hell is going on and what we can do."

He paused for a minute and then continued "And if 'they' would like to unleash hell upon us? We're here, we're not going anywhere, and I can assure you several of my companions are very well versed in making nightmares regret their existence. We'll be fine."