The Prince Speaks: Hell and Back Part 1

Considering that we were already within the same city as Babylon Palace there didn't seem much of a need for us to just sit by and wait for them to come for us. As it were, Kyxiel and I decided to go early and walk towards the top of Mount-Royal where the palace was currently floating over. Axel and Demyx would follow after us via gummi ship or shuttle, depending on their preference. I suppose a gummi ship would be more prudent, especially if they had to make a quick escape.

The Nobody at my side decided to take a longer route, however, as I discovered that we were headed towards Cote de Neige, a quarter of Montreal known for its...how do I put this? General depressing air? Compared to the rest of the city that part does seem depressing and drab where the downtown area was colorful and full of bustling life.

Worse yet, she seemed to be taking me to a graveyard.

"If you think we're reinacting the scene where the Dark Lord faces off with Potter, you're sadly mistaken," I told her, as we passed a few stone angels. She gave me a withering look, but continued walking along, the snow crunching lightly under her boots. "If you wanted to visit the Memorial, there is a better way of getting to it without having to go through a graveyard."

"This is something I have to do, alright? And we're not going to see the Memorial."

We wandered for a while with her trying to discern tombstone from tombstone, looking for something in particular. I did not feel too comfortable being surrounded by nothing, but the dead and wished to leave as soon as possible, but she seemed ardent in trying to find what she was looking for. She mentioned offhandedly about how hard it was everywhere to find the right ones, as if she was slowly forgetting everything. She admitted to Keily and her having photographic memory--when they 'remembered to load the camera', as she put it. But 'even photos fade with time', she told me with a pensive look on her face.

Eventually, she found exactly what she was looking for. It was actually two tombs next to each other. One was marked as 'Yukito Shirohane', while the other was marked as 'Eric Devereaux'. I watched as she brushed the snow and ice off of both of them gently, humming the song I came to recognize from the Phantom of the Opera as 'Wishing You Were Here Again'. More of the writing on the tombs was revealed and I found that these two people had died in the same year. 2000.

"You know, for all my ranting about everyone else, Keily and I have our issues, too," she said.

"I know," I replied, thinking of the time I spent with Keily and got to know of her...which was surprisingly little now that it had been brought to my attention. During our first initial contact we kept very much to ourselves, after the first few months we lived civilly with one another. We became more acquainted with one another just a little bit before the first time the Terran Resistance was called to arms. By that time I found myself fond of the young woman who housed Draco and I and very caring about her when she found it in herself to fight on my behalf. I was touched.

During the summer we grew somewhat closer due to circumstances beyond our control and she admitted to loving me.

At this point, I'm really not sure how I feel about her, surprisingly enough. I do care about her, no mistake about that. But I do wonder if everyone is making our relationship more quixotic than it truly is. And I realize that it pained me to think that way and I wonder once again, where my heart truly lies.

I touched a pendant given to me by Yuuko the day after I was basically told to go looking for the broken pieces of heart belonging to Keily. The witch already had quite a few of the pieces herself and placed them inside the crystal that he wore. Ten to be exact and some too sweet in their own right. Jealousy, anger, hatred, despair, sorrow, fear, lust; joy, affection and curiosity. I had scouted out a few others retrieved them (from the most unlikely of places and I have bene sworn never to reveal where they had come from), placing them with their brethren within the crystal. I found that I still had a few pieces missing. One from Tabby's, one from Nexu's and Hope at Kenya's, but I have no idea exactly where exactly she is residing at--or in, if she was taking residence within a body instead of an inanimate object like some of the ones I had found.

The pendant glowed softly under my fingertips, pretty much spelling out exactly how it felt about me. I could feel affection shining through the others and it quelled my doubts for a little while as certain memories came into play. Mainly of the ones where a bit of her 'truer' personlity would shine through the calmness, sarcasm and sunny smiles she had. The passionate side that Kyxiel represented so well at times...

"You know...we...always had problems when it comes to love...sometimes, we overcommit...others we're so afraid of committing we break it off at the soonest possible moment." Her gloved fingers traced along the lines of Yukito and then over Eric's name. "When we experienced love for the first time, it was like a dream come true, you know. We had a prince all of our own, who cared for us, supported us and wanted us to succeed."

She smiled sardonically. "Of course, all dreams must come to an end."

I nodded. Tragedy did have a habit of following these two everywhere they went. They were practically magnets for it.

"We've done pretty terrible things in the past...probably nowhere near as universally bad as Voldemort or Palpatine, but...children have a habit of being cruel. But you would know, wouldn't you?"

I frowned at this, knowing exactly to what she was referring and cursing the books that let the whole world know some of my more personal secrets. Despite this, I still asked what had happened. Kyxiel explained to me the significance of the month of March and April, of the music of the night, of drunken men and promises to never cry at a loved one's suffering and death. I was told of unmagical curses which could come true; of young betrayal behind the curtains...

Kyxiel and I had a good long talk, about various things, while standing in front of the graves of two people who helped shaped Keily to be the person she had been. Eric had been her first serious boyfriend; they met at a volunteer theatre group some time before auditions for a musical. The boy had had a bit of a deformation, which had initially scared Keily and made her shy around him, but once they got to working closely together, she managed to overlook this fact and got along very well with him. When they broke-up, it had been rather messy and showered with hate-filled words. Eric died in a house fire that took his mother with him.

Yukito had been a childhood friend who, according to his younger sister had had a crush on Keily for a little while and still did when she went out with Eric. He supported her through her rough time when the news traveled all the way to her house in the form of a letter from Erik's father. He was an older boy, one that Keily looked up to as an older brother and her rock to keep her sane in her time of grief. At the time, Yukito confessed to liking her, but, since she was young, had misunderstood his words and took it as a sign of deeper friendship, than as a possible sign of love. He, too, was lost, in a car crash between him and a drunk driver where the driver had gotten out with nothing more than bad whiplash.

"Why are you telling me all this?"

"Hey, I read the blogs, too, remember? And even if you don't write it out or say it out loud...I can tell what's in your heart," she told me with a chuckle. "Ironically, us Nobodies are good at interpreting what is in the heart, though we don't possess one...Funny isn't it?" Her shoulders sagged then and a soft, wistful look overcame her features.

"You know...she does really love you."

I didn't know what to say to that. I was still a little confused as to what I truly felt about the whole thing. I had to re-evaluate my actions...and hers. I heard her sigh next to me and tugged at my robe sleeve.

"Come on...lets go. I want to just get this over with."

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It was certainly very crowded in Babylon Palace. But then again, we were only in the entrance hall. The first hour of being in the palace, I couldn't help, but stare at the sheer opulence around us. The marble walls, the gilt designs, crystal lights and the hanging plants. Voldemort and Palpatine had either spared no expense, or they had forced someone into putting this place into existence.

My pendant glowed softly, indicating that there was another heart shard nearby, bit I doubted I had the time to investigate...at least, not just yet.

I met up with Lord Vader and Kenya, as well as Rose and her live-ins. Various others who had been invited were there as well, among them, notably, was one Harry Potter with his two friends, Granger and Weasley, looking about shiftily. I could tell that they were gripping their wands in their pockets, wary of any sudden attacks on their persons. I would have smiled at their paranoia, but I certainly wasn't one to talk. I was very suspicious of what our esteemed hosts had planned for us.

"This place is...not right..." I heard someone on my right say. I had no idea who it was at the time and I hadn't meant to eavesdrop, but... "...it is beautiful, but...somehow...I sense something...terribly..."

"...It feels like despair, only not...like anguish mixed with..." said a second person talking to the first.

"Maybe it's the...maybe Babylon Palace is where the enteched went...?"

"Who knows..."

After waiting a while with many talking to one another of what was to be expected, we were finally led through an interconnecting corridor with glass walls that let us see outside once everyone had more or less arrived on the scene. On the left was almost a jungle of tropical flowers from all over the world; on our right there was a waterfall falling into a deep pool where I was sure that I could see something swimming underneath the depths when I squinted to look. The corridor took us to a grand room with a high ceiling with a magnificent chandelier. Tables were set up, covering two thirds of the room in a semi-circle. The other third was a beautiful dance floor which led up to the steps going up to a throne. The throne was currently empty.

The next hour or so was a total blurr to me, but I highly doubt that it was very important. But due to the feeling of having eaten something, I suppose weall had something to eat together in the ballroom. I'm sure that there had been no dancing, for which I was very glad for. Things were already awkward as it was without something as contrived as a dance coming into play. We were ushered out of the room into another corridor, which led us to...

A colliseum...?

It was like any colliseum one could expect from the look of things. It was circular, had many stories filled with spectator seats overlooking the arena below. Over to one side, one may find a balcony where an emperor may sit and watch the proceedings. It was also where we could see two figures standing there in wait for us. One possessed my real body, while the other...

"Welcome to my humble abode. First, allow me to express my gratitude that of those invited who came to this event."

Quite a few murmured to each other and I heard Kyxiel grumble at my side, saying something about wanting to gag. I looked on unwaveringly at the impossibly younger looking Emperor Palpatine as he must have looked like befoe his position as Emperor...possibly even before being a senator. Unlike Voldemort's ressurrection which had given him a new body, Palpatine's seemed much more whole and human. Charming and young; deceiving. Despite his more honest looks, I am very certain little has changed in his heart.

"I'm sure that banquet was to your liking and regret not having been there to play host, but my associate and I--" I coffed at this. "--were quite busy still making last minute arrangements for the festivities for you all. Please enjoy the entertainment..." The man snapped his fingers and the structure rumbled a bit as some of the gates in the arena began to move open. So far, Palpatine had kept to his word...a celebration for this 'humble home' and his successful rebirth. I frowned. A reborn Palpatine, a Voldemort in a healthy, stolen body...both at full power and whatever or whoever else they had on hand.

I did not sit as some did and neither did Kyxiel as we watched the first part of the 'entertainment' provided.

I'm not sure mere words could convey the horror of what we witnessed in the arena during the first five minutes. And I am certain that I do not want to repeat for fear of dredging up bad memories for those it pertains to. But...we had heard news of grave robbing and had wondered what sort of devious plot was to be put into play. I soon realized as I watched people slaughter one another like in some grotesque play what those graves had been robbed for.

The bodies had no souls, that was to be sure. I'm not very cetain if they felt pain or not. But the violence was real enough. All I could do was pray for them and send my silent condolences for anyone who had to watch their loved ones fight it out in this sick show...

They all fell to one who was dressed in white armor, a full helmet masking their face. Was this their new servant? Or someone else they had dug up? I didn't know. What I did know that Kyxiel was visibly disturbed by all this and was itching to do something about it. But she held back and did not go as she watched the white knight take down one that Palpatine announced as 'Elita-1'. She muttered something under her breath, shaking her head a few times. She threw glances at me a couple of times before saying that she needed to get down there.

"Why?" I asked, suddenly fearing for her safety.

"Lets just say...I need some...'bonding' time with someone..." was her reply before she pulled me down for a quick and sloppy kiss. I gave her a very confused look and she gave me not a sheepish look of embarrassment, but one of resignation. Like this was the end. "Bye, Severus. It was real nice getting to know you." And then she jumped down to the area, calling forth a red lightsaber from her belt. At the time, I hadn't realized that she slipped the pendant holding Keily's heart shards off my neck.

She challenged the white knight, saying things that I couldn't very well hear. And then the fight started....

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There is more to this tale, but however...I am still rather weary vfrom surviving it all. But I am very happy that we all, more or less, made it out alive and in one piece. I do remember the fight between white knight and Kyxiel getting out of hand and the whole colliseum was like the battle on Geonosis or whatever that blasted planet was called again. I had never witnessed such a fight firsthand myself...

Babylon Palace still stands, though it is now bereft of its master who is long gone and never returning. How this has come to bought, I will tell you all in my own time. Voldemort is still on the loose, but I know that Potter will track him down one of these days. There are bound by destiny to face off sooner or later and I am sure that the boy is rather tired of having to chase around 'ghosts' all the time.

As for the white knight and Kyxiel. That shall remain for the next blog entry as well.

Good night everyone. Thank you and pleasant dreams.

P.S. You were lucky, Vader and Kenya that you were not in the same room as the Emperor, Kyxiel and I for he met an end that not even you would have wanted to witness.