Sell you a Bridge chapter 332 (Patreon)

July 2nd 2016 Traverse Town, 4:00 PM EDT

When  I got back to the old house, I pulled my girls and the others aside for  a chat, filling them in on what happened. "Time manipulation is a pain.  I have other moves to use obviously, but it seemed stupid to bust out  my trump cards so early." None of the Organization had seen me use my  Domain. Hell, I wasn't sure Neron knew how it worked, I'd only used it  for a second during that fight, and its effects were odd and hard to pin  down.

I had a sneaking suspicion that the worst was yet  to come, and my instincts told me to hold off on springing that last  trap. Not to mention Luxord had been covering for the Devastator, so if  I'd used my Domain and then got jumped from behind I'd have been  screwed. I couldn't get reliant on that power. Gojo rarely used his from  what I'd seen, and since he was the one who taught me how it worked I  was going to follow his lead. Domain Expansion would be for emergencies. Luxord definitely didn't qualify.

Zee nodded  thoughtfully. "I might be able to help. Aerith has been showing me some  time magic. I doubt I could just brute force it and overpower someone  like that, but I should be able to use the bond to teach it to you  pretty quickly." Zee wasn't just brilliant and naturally gifted, back in  the dungeon she'd dumped almost every point into intelligence. Combined  with already being a prodigy, her sheer mystical brilliance was  staggering. As evidenced by her managing to study the void grimoire and  get actual results.

Roxas spoke up. "Luxord is no amateur.  You need to be careful. He has other tricks too. Trust me, don't get  sucked into his rhythm. He was never the strongest member of the  Organization, but he was one of the toughest to deal with. He's a master  of misdirection and subterfuge, as well a brilliant strategist. You  could crush him in a head on fight, considering you took our Lexeaus,  but he won't fight you head on. It's not his style."

We  all looked at him. This was the first time he'd really shared much. We  knew he'd reclaimed his memories with Namine's help. I still wasn't sure  exactly what Roxas was, or for that matter what Namine was. They'd  never shared much about what was going on, and I was pretty sure it was  time to end that. "Ok." I said firmly. "We respected your privacy for as  long as possible, but we need to know what you know. Which is  apparently quite a bit. Start with the basics. How can you sense Sora?"

Roxas  sighed, glancing at Namine. The blonde girl's aura was streaked with  worry and fear, but she nodded slowly. "Alright." He said stonily. "But  its complicated. I'll have to start at the beginning. You know what a  heartless is, right?" He hadn't been with us in hollow bastion, so I  didn't blame him for not knowing about our experiences there. I just  nodded. "Well, when a person is turned into a heartless, the darkness in  their heart is extracted, and the person dies. You can't live without a  heart. But ask yourself, what happens to what's left?"

At  my confused look, Namine spoke up. "A heart isn't physical, not in the  sense that heartless are made. It's an ideal, an ineffable part of what a  person it. It's closer to a soul than actual life force. So when you  rip out a heart, the body doesn't die. The blood keeps pumping, the  limbs still move, even the brain works. But it's not a person anymore.  It's a shell. A husk. A Nobody."

The look of sadness Roxas  shot her made me wince. He felt SO MUCH about that statement, his aura  was practically a bonfire. Sadness, pity, anger, sympathy. He shook it  all off, focusing back on us. "Organization Thirteeen is an organization  made up of Nobodies. The kings of Nobodies. We're the Nobodies left  over from some of the most powerful and brilliant people who have ever  lived."

"Wait...we?" I said in surprise. "So if I'm  following this, you can sense Sora because you're his Nobody?" Roxas  nodded. "But...how the hell does that work? He's still alive and walking  around. How can you be the vacated body left behind when he became a  heartless? Plus you can't look exactly the same or Cid and Leon would  have recognized you faster, so if you're his body how can you look  different?"

He just shrugged. "It's better not to ask with  Sora. He tends to break the rules from what I've figured out. Namine  and I are...unique. We're Nobodies whose Somebodies have reunited with  their hearts. It shouldn't technically be possible, but it is. Probably  because of the keyblades. They tend to muck around with things like  causality. Anyway yes, I am a Nobody, and so is Namine. Sora is my  Somebody, like I mentioned, and Namine's Somebody is Kairi. The two of  them are really close, which is why I connected with Namine so quickly  when we met."

I had other questions about that. Like why  he had no memories, or why Namine had given them back, but based on  their auras neither wanted to talk about that. "Ok, so Organization  Thirteen. You know more about them. I don't need a dossier on all of  them right now, but knowing more about Luxord would help. Also any  information on who the boss is would be nice. I have a feeling I'll be  fighting him sooner rather than later. Assuming he's tougher than the  other?"

Roxes nodded emphatically. "Yes. Xemnas, they call  him the Superior. He's...strong. One of the strongest people I've ever  met honestly. You're tough based on our fight, but even you would have  trouble with Xemnas. He's in a whole different league. I'm just glad he  isn't here. We have enough to deal with."

Seeing that I  was still waiting for more information about Luxord he sighed. "Luxord,  the Gambler of Fate. Like you mentioned he specializes in time  manipulation. Slowing you down is just the beginning. Every one of those  cards is imbued with a time spell. They can catch and absorb attacks,  not to mention when you hit the one he's inside the time shift allows  him to slip out into another to avoid it. It's a shell game that never  ends. He'll wear you out then strike when you're exhausted."

That  wasn't a problem for me luckily. My armor was made of supernaturally  powerful metal, which meant no matter how exhausted I was he couldn't  break through. I was pretty sure the keyblade armor those spirits had  been wearing worked differently. The keyblade didn't fade when you ran  out of power, but I was pretty sure it would shift back from armor once  the energy source was gone. It had been the right call to stick with my  current armor and not try to change to keyblade armor.

Still  that didn't really solve the problem. "Do you know how to counter him?"  I suspected I could use my Deception powers to do it pretty easily, but  until the Devastator showed itself I couldn't commit that much power to  fighting a small fry like Luxord. Based on the relative sizes of their  aura, he was much weaker in terms of raw power than Lexeaus, and the  Devastator was much stronger. This whole thing felt more and more like a  rope a dope by the second.

Sadly, Roxas just shook his  head. "Not really.When I was with the Organization we mostly stayed out  of each others way except for our partners. We always worked in pairs,  whether Luxord has another Nobody with him or is working as duo with  this virus bad guy I have no clue, but keep it in mind." Which of course  added even more need to be careful. If there was another Organization  member around he could be waiting to sneak attack not just me but  possibly one of the girls or even Roxas and Namine themselves.

Rana,  who had been oddly quiet for her, finally piped up. "Who was your  partner." We all looked at her and she shrugged. "I mean, he's a member  of the team. I feel like we should show some interest in his past. If he  wants to share it I mean." She shot Roxas a reassuring smile. "No  pressure if not, but if you want to share we're happy to listen."

Being  the least empathetic person in the group despite my literal empathic  powers was slightly embarrassing, but not enough for me to try to fix  it. Drea was more the feelings person in our little party. Still, Rana  WAS part Drea, even if mine and Zee's contributions to our daughter were  usually more apparent. It was easier to see that in moments like this  than at any other time.

Smiling slightly, Roxas chuckled.  "Axel. My partner was Axel. I heard you ran into him and Lexeaus." His  fond smile wilted. "It's probably best I wasn't there. He would have  been much more motivated. He wasn't happy with me for leaving." She  opened her mouth again, but he held up a hand. "I appreciate the  concern, but I'm not up for talking about why I left. Suffice to say it  won't be relevant to anyone here."

Knowing when to drop  things was ALSO a trait my daughter got from Drea, because she moved on  easily. "Ok, well, mom, Aerith, any ideas for countering time magic?"

My  sorceress just shrugged, looking at her new teacher. Aerith frowned.  "Maybe. I don't have a way to counter slow so much as a way to make  yourself faster. A haste spell should be able to at least cancel out  that kind of effect, even if it can't overpower it. Haste is a tough  spell to learn though. I wasn't planning on teaching it to Zatanna for a  while yet. She might be able to learn it, given her talent, but it  would probably be tough for you without the foundation I've been giving  her."

That  wasn't much of a shock. I had a ton of power, but I wasn't some magical  prodigy like Zee was. I was assuming haste wasn't one of those easy  learn image spells either. Those seemed to be baby spells meant to  introduce people to beginner magical concepts. They could scale up, but I  was betting there were also plenty of higher tier more complex spells  above them.

Zee  looked a bit unhappy about the revelation, but eventually nodded.  "She's right. I've been learning the stop spell, and I bet given your  memory and power learning it would be easy enough, but image magic is  really suited to you. If hast is higher tier it would take you weeks to  learn it based on what I saw from you last time. But it's not as big of a  deal as it sounds." At our confused looks she smiled. "You're  forgetting about the bond."

I  blinked. She was right. "You mean you could learn it and then you'd be  able to cast it through the bond on me?" That would actually take care  of a bunch of problems, since Zee's pool of native mana was almost as  big as mine. Heavenly punishment elves were magically attuned, and Zee  was specifically built for spellcasting. Plus that would save my power  for when I needed it.

Looking  at Aerith, I felt her determination over the bond. Zee was always  determined to help me, but this was specifically something very suited  to her. As the group sorceress learning this spell to help me was one of  the best ways her talent could be useful in this fight. I hadn't really  sensed it before, because she buried it deep, but she'd been feeling  more and more useless. Now that she had a chance to shine, I could see  that fire blazing up in her. I had no doubt she'd have that spell  mastered in no time. Now all I needed to do was figure out how the fuck  to find those assholes again.