Fan Fiction ❯ Black Orchid ❯ Dreams of the Lost ( Chapter 26 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Yatta! : Finally, one of my cool worlds! If you get confused when I talk about the two prisoners and start confusing the two, it's okay; I was trying for that. Anyways, next chapter is my first songfic chapter, and I hope it's cool. If you email me, i can send you the song i'll use (Though it'll be in two parts...). I highly doubt you'll have the song, and it's impossible to find to download. Anyways, next chap, I also get to finally reveal my mysterious turn about. Yeah! Now, enjoy! and tell me about it in your reviews! And a Montblanc plushie to anyone who can name the two prisoners before i post again!
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"What's that up ahead?" asked Orchid, pointing to a dark shape outside the gummi ship.
They all looked out the window to where she was pointing. There, floating in space, was what appeared to be a free floating complex. The building was mostly circular, with occasional other wings poking out in different directions. The stark stone walls, combined with the search lights that swept over the place and the eternal pallor of night that surrounded it, gave it the look of some sort of foreboding prison. Dim light poured out through rough rectangluar windows in the walls, almost all of them with bars over them. The whole thing was seated upon what looked like a floating chunk of dark, blackened ground.
"I think that's the floating fortress they were talking about, kupo," answered Montblanc.
"Looks more like a jail, or a prison," grumbled Arc. He suddenly leaned forwards towards the control panel as a little red light went off and cursed under his breath. "Damn. We got bogies behind us!"
Orchid quickly hopped into the copilot's seat as Arc started activating the thrusters and guns. Meanwhile, Montblanc strapped himself into one of the other chairs, prepared for a bumpy ride. Orchid took the controls of the guns as the Heartless ships chasing them closed in.
As Orchid fired at the attacking ships, Arc did his best to dodge and outrun them. They were quickly closing in on the huge prison and the land it was on.
"I'm taking us under!" shouted Arc over the sound of firing guns and explosions as he pushed forwards on the steering wheel. The gummi ship took a steep dive and headed under the whole prison, flattening out to fly along closely among the crumbling and jagged ground beneath. Many of the Heartless ships that followed crashed into the land, and those that didn't were quickly shot down by Orchid.
"Whew," sighed Orchid, leaning back in her chair as they slowed, all of the enemies defeated. They cruised slowly along under the new demi-world, waiting to come out the other side. Suddenly, something caught her eye. "What's that?"
The three of them looked out the round window of the cockpit, and stared at the pulsing mass. Enormously large, the pulsing sphere radiated energy as they passed near.
"I think... that's the world's heart, kupo..." said Montblanc quietly as they stared in awe at the gigantic thing.
"But... it looks all blackened..." responded Orchid. Sure enough, the whole pulsing orb was nearly half black, the other half being a roiling white which fought with the darkness. "This world's going to be swallowed by the darkness!"
"Not if we hurry, kupo!" said Montblanc.
Arc quickly upped the thruster power so they could get out from under the demi-world as soon as possible, but something was bugging him. He could have sworn that he saw the light side winning, and the darkness disappearing. If so, why did he still feel a sense of urgency to help? He shrugged it off as they pulled up and circled the complex, looking for a place to land.


He stirred fitfully in his cell. Something was wrong. This had been the first time he'd been truly awake since he got here. Sure, he'd been into that fuzzy state where he was almost aware of what was there, or in that state where he thought he was awake. But then, he'd either just drift off again, or waste his time digging up the past. Then, something had been looping his mind, forcing it to walk the same trodden paths of sorrow and regret, not letting him actually think. But now he could.
The first thing he did was look for guards. There were none. Strange, they had always been there before when he had opened his eyes. Before he could begin to ponder this, he began to drift off again. He tried to resist. He couldn't go back yet. As much as he liked to see the world of his dreams, he was awake now, and he knew those dreams weren't real. Only this, the harsh walls of his cell, the dim lights and the stale air was real. These shackles were real. His imprisonment was real. As his mind began to dwell on the general feeling of depression again, he became dimly aware that he was no longer being forced into unconsciousness again. As long as he didn't try to fully surface, he wouldn't be pushed down into dreams again. And so he waited, letting his uppermost thoughts continue to wander fuzzily. He knew someone would be coming soon. He didn't know how he knew, but he did. And so he waited.


In another cell, in a different part of the prison, another inmate stirred. He frowned, then suddenly began to smile. As satisfying as his dreams had been, it dawned on him that they were just that: dreams. This was real. The visions before weren't. He knew his chance would be coming soon. Then he could go and seek out his revenge. Until then, he could do nothing. So he waited.


"This place is creepy," shuddered Orchid as they walked through the hallways. The lighting was dim, and shadows lurked in every corner. The cement walls, floor, and ceiling were grimy with neglect. Occasionally, something would stir in the cells they passed, and they would hurry quickly past, but mostly only skeletal prisoners would remain. "Where is this anyways?"
"There was a sign outside that said '7th Heaven, kupo," supplied Montblanc.
"I didn't see that," said Orchid. "Did you, Arc?"
The man shook his head. Then he blinked. "I remember now... I think I've heard of this place."
"You have?" asked the other two eagerly.
"Yeah," said Arc. "7th Heaven, the Prison of Dreams, the Bastille of Hollow Bastion. It was supposed to be where dangerous criminals were kept, the ones too dangerous to keep in the prison in Hollow Bastion. It's supposed to be heavily guarded."
"Doesn't look that way," pointed out Orchid.
"Well, it doesn't matter," continued Arc. "Even without the guards, it's secure enough. They keep people imprisoned by trapping them in their dreams."
"What?" asked the other two.
"Yeah. By keeping the prisoners in a mostly unconscious state, trapped by their own longings, regrets, and desires, the prisoners are never awake enough to try to escape. But if the gaurds are gone, then the Dream Matrix, the machine that keeps them that way, might be failing too."
"Umm... so we're in a prison full of deadly convicts, right?" asked Orchid nervously.
"Yeah?" asked Arc, wondering where she was going with this.
"And the thingy that keeps them in their cells might be failing, right?" continued Orchid.
"And?"
"How is this safe? For us, I mean?"
"Kupopo... she's got a point," supported Montblanc.
"It isn't," answered Arc simply. "But if we're fighting the Heartless to save the worlds, can you really expect it to be safe?"
They continued on in silence, Orchid starting at the slightest noise, expecting some crazed murderer or some Heartless animated skeleton to leap out at her. Suddenly, they all stopped at the sound of a weakened voice.
"Help...me..."
They turned and stared into the dark cell. The shadows covered almost all of the prisoner; they could only see his legs and boots, and locks of spiky blonde hair that stuck out of the dark.
"Is that you?" asked Arc, staring in surprise at the man. There was an almost imperceptible nod in the gloom.
"Arc..." the voice whispered hoarsly.
"It is you," stated Arc simply. "So this is where you've been."
"Who is that, kupo?" questioned Montblanc.
"Yeah, who?" repeated Orchid.
"No time..." rasped the man inside. He sounded as if he was struggling to stay alive, or awake. "You've got to get me out of here...now..."
"How do we do this?" asked Arc quickly, cutting off any protest from the other two.
"Continue following the hall," said the man quickly. "It should take you to the central control room. There... there, you'll need to find and turn off the Dream Matrix. I'll find you after that."
"Got it," nodded Arc.
"Hurry... there isn't much time..." moaned the prisoner as he fell back into dreams. "They... they're coming..."
Arc quickly strode off down the hall, Orchid following quickly behind him, and Montblanc quickly running after them after hesitating to cast Cure on the unfortunate captive.
"Are we just going to obey some random criminal?" asked Orchid.
"Yes, and he's not a criminal," explained Arc, rushing down the corridors, ignoring the fitful grumbles of half-waking prisoners. "He's an old friend."
"Can we trust him, kupo?" asked Montblanc.
"Sora did, so I can't see why not."
They finally came to a door at the end of the hallway. There was a crooked sign bolted into the metal that declared "Officers only! No horn-freakz!" They weren't quite sure what the last part was about, but they decided that this was the control room they were looking for. Arc quickly kicked in the door and they all took fighting positions, not sure what to expect.
"Wedge! Go check out that noise!"
They looked around the corner. Piles of clutter, combined with shelves and filing cabinets had turned what had probably been an open and round room into a cramped space with its own entry hall, preventing those at the controls from seeing who entered. Arc snorted derisively at the unproffesional mess. Momentarily, a somewhat lankey man wearing a blue soldier's skintight fighting uniform came around the bend and into their sight. He wore a strange helmet that covered his eyes and they were surprised he could see until they noticed the helm had three red lenses in it where his eyes were. The man started in surprise when he saw the trio standing there.
"S-sergeant Biggs! Intr-truders!" he stammered, backing away and waving his sword at them nervously. He then turned around and ran off, probably to report to the man he had mentioned.
"Well, so much for the element of surprise," sighed Orchid as they walked down the maze of clutter and junk. They turned the corner and come out into the main area, which was only slightly less cluttered. A mattress sat in one corner, and garbage and scraps of paper were strewn about. The man they had seen earlier was busily trying to rouse a larger man, who was grumbling grumpily from his seat at the control panels. Several screens on the wall showed pictures of the inside of the prison, but most of them flickered uselessly with static.
"What the hell are you yellin' about, Wedge?" demanded the larger man, finally getting up. He too wore a soldier's uniform, though his was red, and he actually had some muscles for it to display. He wore a blockier helmet, which also covered his eyes, and had a large chain-gun-like machine strapped around one arm. "Who the hell are they?"
"They're the intruders I was t-talking about, sir!" answered Wedge shakily.
"You guys wanna shut down the Dream Matrix for us, or do we have to force you?" asked Arc tiredly, his fist grinding restlessly.
"Bring it on!" shouted Biggs.


They looked around at the control panels, completely at a loss of what to do.
"You know, if you hadn't knocked them out, we could have asked them," muttered Orchid.
"They were pissing me off!" shouted back Arc. He kicked the unconscious form of Biggs in frustration, elliciting a groan from the man.
"Kupo! I think I found it!" squeaked Montblanc. The other two waded through the junk that cluttered the room to him, and looked at the set of buttons he had found. The moogle had flipped open a yellow and black striped glass box to reveal a set of four red buttons. "But which one is it?"
"Well, this one says 'Lockdown'," helped Orchid, pointing at one.
"And this one says 'Detonate'," stated Arc, his eye twitching slightly. "Let's avoid touching that one."
"But... the other two don't have labels, kupo!" exclaimed Montblanc.
"You're right," said Orchid, blinking at the two remaining buttons.
"Hunh. Must've gotten scraped off over time," murmured Arc as he inspected them.
"What do we do?" asked the girl hopelessly.
"Well... one of them is probably the off button," reasoned Arc. "And the other can't be that bad, since we've already checked off the self-destruct and the lockdown buttons. So we press both."
"Okay..." agreed Orchid, though not very sure of his plan.
"On three," said Arc.
"One. Two. Kupo!"
Montblanc pressed both unmarked red buttons in unison. The whole building shuddered as they felt something come to a grinding halt, and a background humming that they hadn't even noticed before stopped. The eerie silence filled the air.
"Did we do it?"


The man smiled wickedly in his cell. He ran a gloved hand through his blonde hair as he watched the door to his cell slide open. Swinging his arms sharply, he broke out of the decrepit shackles that had once held him in his unconscious state. He walked over to a corner that had once been out of his reach, and picked up his sword. The fool guards had left it there, figuring he would never even leave the bench he had been chained by. He swung it through the air, grinning at the slicing sounds it made. Soon he would have his revenge.