Stuck In A World With A Twit and A Git

Issues

2007-06-17T19:08:00.000-05:00

I forgot how much I hate sand and extreme heat. Remind me never to go to Tatootine.

In the last while the villains invited to the grand opening of Babylon Palace--except for a few--have been kept safely locked up within the floating palace above our heads here in Montreal due to a bit of accidental magic on my part (yes, people I had absolu-freakin'-lutely no idea what I was really doing--I was following my feelings). It was really idealistic of me to think that whatever I did would keep them locked up for good. And now it was on the move for some reason that I cannot fathom.

Well, considering all the major bs I managed to pull I thought I ought to do something about it.

So, of course, I ended up sneaking out of my own house to do just that.

And, of course, I get caught sneaking around the halls late at night. By Severus, He-Who-Can-Sniff-Out-Anybody-Out-of-Their-Beds-At-A-Late-Hour. I could hear snoring fromf my family. I suddenly heard William's cry in the nursery.

We stared at each other.

"I'll...go see what he wants," I said, at length.

"Of course," he replied, following me into the office that was transformed into baby William's nursery. He usually never cried at night and since he was older he did it less and less. I don't know whether or not to take this as a blessing or something else entirely. I admit, I felt bad for not being more active in the tyke's life. I may not have given birth to him, but I was his mother dammit. He should be about a year old now....I had been given him about this time...

"You know, I have no idea when his birthday is," I said to Severus after I managed to get William to go back to sleep. It seemed that he had soiled himself AND he was hungry. The having to feed him part I didn't mind much. It was an excuse for me to hold him in my arms and he's still so small and beautiful and soft and all I want to do is to hold him all day and night long...The diaper part I could live without, but that's life for you.

"I'm sure you will think of something. You are a clever girl, Keily," Severus told me. He gestured for me to follow him out to the garden where we could talk. It was a cool night; there was a lovely breeze that came and caught my hair, lifting it up gently.

"So, Miss Shinra....where exactly did you think you were going at this time of night?" he asked, looking down his lack-of-nose at me. He was using his professor's tone; it was something I'd never heard in use before although I knew he never lacked things to teach those around him. He never had to, but I suppose years and years of shoving knowledge into the thick heads of others could be habit forming.

"Nowhere," I lied, not looking him straight in the eye. I stared at his forehead, giving the impression I was looking him in the eyes.

"Oh, yes...Nowhere." One did not need to be an expert Legilimens to know that I had lied. "I don't suppose this late night sojourn of yours happens to involve the lastest postings in Miss Starflight's blog, does it?" Mentally I cursed ever teaching him about technology and he sent me a glare--an honest to goodness glare--and I felt ashamed, looking down at the ground.

I blinked. Why in the nine hells was I acting like a guilty schoolgirl? Looking up I did not see even a glimmer of surprise and wondered what had brought on this sudden change of behaviour. Severus and I had always acted more of two comrades--sometimes even as a married couple in the eyes of the public. Never as...as....professor and student. He had never been my teacher and I had never been his to teach. Thinking this reminded me of all the Hermione and Snape fanfictions out there and about how they solved their age gap and differences through various reasons, mostly rather unfounded ones meant to further the plot than to actually make sense...

I didn't even know why this was going through my head, but perhaps it had been a prelude to what was to come. And it certainly had the worst timing in the entire world...

"Keily...there's something I've been meaning to speak to you about..." he began. I avoided his eyes, not wanting to look into them or for his to look into mine. "Look at me, Miss Shinra." I winced at his tone; something I had never done before. Slowly, I brought my eyes up to look at him, expecting a grim expression on his face. There was none. "I wish to talk about some misconceptions and...wish to sort them out."

My heart trembled, even though it was incomplete. It wished to break again. I knew this was coming eventually. But what lousy timing.

"Severus...I don't think this is the right time..." I began.

"It is now or never, Miss Shinra. I'm sorry, but I must make this clear where others in their romantic, rosy views of the world have muddled things up." Here he hesitated, which gave me a very, very small sense of hope. I should have known better than to have kept it around him. Even a milimeter off the ground, that was still too high a place to put my hopes in front of Severus at that point in time. "I care for you...I might even adore you...but I am sincere in saying that I do not...love you."

Just like that, he dropped the bomb. In just a few sentences my world felt like crashing down all around me again. Something jabbed at my heart, forcing it to try and break apart again. I held it firmly...closely...protectively.

I smiled at him casually.

"Oh, is that so?"

He paused a moment to think, but he nodded.

"Well, that's alright then."

Before he could even nod in agreement or yell in protest, I had sprinted off. I didn't stop until I bumped into a certain someone...someone I hadn't expected to see at all. This seriously was not my night.

"Oh, fuck on a stick. Not you, too."

"Language, Miss Shinra. I'm sure I don't appreciate the foul words coming out of your mouth assaulting my ears. You're about as bad as that pilot."

"Shut it you," I said, too upset to care that I had used his name and too angry to notice him standing there, alone--at all! It should have struck me as odd. But he was there and not being psychotic. I don't dare speak his name. Not for fear, but out of respect....and a ten year old agreement I barely remember making at the age of eleven when I thought such people weren't truly real. I only made this agreement with two other people. One was with Rufus Shinra; the other was with Vincent Valentine. And lastly...

"You're crying," he deadpanned.

"Oh, gee...is it that obvious?" He scowled at me.

"You know...I have killed people for less than stellar behaviour."

"But you wouldn't hurt me, right?"

"Not in a way that a Full Restore won't cure at any rate."

I let out a mirthless laugh and looked around me for the first time, realizing that I had ended up somewhere on Mount Royal, surrounded by trees and no witnesses. If he decided to kill me off here no one would know I had gone except for the trees and the squirrels. How fitting.

"What happened to you?" I asked without meaning to.

He narrowed his eyes at me and reached out to wipe away a tear. I couldn't feel his hands; they were covered in leather, old and careworn. His touch was cold at best, with no warmth in his actions. He did it, because he was obliged. He shouldn't, because he lost that obligation a long time ago. I don't need a father anymore.

"What happened to you?" he returned, the inflection in his tone signalling a bit of amusement. "From what I hear...you're in love and already have a son..." He paused. "You're a mother." The statement wasn't lost on either of us who have either known a bad mother or never knew them at all. I changed the subject, however.

"What the hell are you doing here?" I asked, hearing him growling about my language before he spoke.

"People have been appearing here where they shouldn't be...I thought I would pay a visit before I continued....my duties elsewhere." We both knew what he meant. But I said nothing about it. Best not to talk about such things at all, if it were possible. "I honestly didn't expect to see you again...you haven't changed much in appearance. I recognized you easily and followed..."

"Really? I see one habit of yours hasn't changed much." He smirked.

"How could I not follow you around? It was part of our agreement and you had a knack for getting into all sorts of trouble!" His amused expression was schooled into sobriety as he looked up at the sky through the thin canopy, seeing Babylon Palace hovering in the distance. "Word on the vine says you did that. It's tacky."

"I wasn't exactly in my right mind..."

"So I heard." He suddenly took my hand and began to drag my down the mountain. I didn't protest, oddly enough.

"Where are we going?"

"'We' are going nowhere. I am taking you 'home' if it is still your home after all of these years and then I am off...Can't have that blasted puppet find me after all."

"Ah..."

Silence.

"Then, can you please take me to Lord Vader and his troops' location?" He looked at me.

"What? Why?"

"I have something I need to do...and I don't want to go home right now..."

He simply sighed and ran a hand through his hair before nodding in agreement. He always knew better than to argue with me. Then again, he assumed that I always knew what was best for myself just as he did when he had been that young. I cannot say that I had ever been raised as a weapon in a laboratory, but I always did try to make the right choice.

"Hey...dad?"

He didn't realize I had call him such a personal name. He merely grunted as he led the way down.

"Ten years is a long time to wait."

"It wasn't as if you remembered until Kadaj and his gang dropped into your life." He paused, looking around before spreading a magnificent wing. "You'd better explain yourself to me before we head off, though...."

"Yes, dad."

"It's General, to you."

The Unofficial Vice-President Shinra

2007-04-14T15:32:00.000-05:00

Whoever let the Twins meet any of the Terror Trio should be shot. I mean it. I'm going to kill Fred and George! (Kadaj and Loz, don't think you're getting off scott free, because as your new unofficial mom...I am grounding you until further notice...and that means...I am NOT taking you guys racing for a while!)

Let me start with how this happened to be. Last weekend some members of the Order had been sent to check up on Babylon Palace and to see if whatever the hell I did was still up and keeping whoever was inside...well...inside. Nobody told me that they had sent the Terror Twins on recon, though. So, it was to my surprise that on Sunday morning I find Fred and George on my doorstep. It was a routine enough meeting...they told me exactly the same thing I heard last time: abso-frickin'-lutely nothing.

And then I had to run off to do some chores arund the house (having more than just the usual two or three at one time tends to make it messier and merits much more cleaning). The Twins decided that they were quite bored and wished to do something and had somehow gotten their hooks into Kadaj and Loz into helping them out. I do believe that their reasoning was 'to exact possible revenge' for what I did with the little song I did some while ago. Those four plotted all the morning and some of the afternoon away and I didn't realize anything was going on until they were coming out of the bathroom together giggling.

I was with Nexu, Reno (poor darling) and Rude in the study, having a bit of afternoon tea when we witnessed this.

"Um...I'm not sure, but I don't think that's normal, yo..." Reno said, brows furrowing.

I nodded along with Nexu and Rude. Something was very much up, there was no doubt about it when the Weasley Twins were concerned...and if they roped any of the Silver Haired Men? Oh, boy! Shaking my head, I decided that a shower was in order before dinner was to start.

All was normal as one would imagine a shower. Lather, rince, repeat and all that. A thing I must tell you all is that I tend to avoid mirrors or just hardly look at them. Don't really know why, really. Or perhaps I just have a relaxed view on myself. Who knows? But this one point is something rather important later on.

Another random personal point is that I have a rather predictable wardrobe. If you made a bet about what colors you'd find in my closet, you'd most likely win because I carry (mostly) three colors: black, white and red. Although I should have switched to wearing all black (I usually do when I feel particularly bad or depressed), but I wore black and white for tonight, possibly to signal that my mood was getting better. And since it was a little nippy up here, I threw on a button up white sweater over the sleeveless black turtleneck I put on with my white trousers. I kept it opened right down to the last button, because I felt warm enough in the front. Dressed, I ran downstairs.

I was met with relative quiet. Kadaj was, oddly enough, quite friendly with me and even gave me a kiss on the cheek as he passed me by, looking quite happy about something. Loz looked a bit weepy when I saw him in the kitchen, pouring a glass of cream soda for me. He handed it over to me, muttering a quick apology before running off who knows where. I stared at the glass and sniffed it experiementally, wondering if his older brother had asked him to put something into it.

Of course, I got nothing, so I went to the one lady who could figure it out for me (I would have asked Severus to do it, but he had gone to pick up William from the Burrow).

"Hey, Nexu, can you do me a favor?"

"What is it?"

"Can you sniff this for me?"

"....Smells like cream soda."

"Nothing else?"

"Why do you ask?"

"Because Loz looked like he was ready to bawl when he gave me this...thought maybe Kadaj was still sore with me and got him to stick poison into my drink..."

"I don't think Kadaj would poison you...I think he'd probably stab you if he still had his sword with him, but..."

"Yeah, you're right...plus I don't think he would poison his unofficial mom...hahaha...."

"...Unofficial mum? When did that happen?"

"Oh, I haven't told him yet, but I kind of feel like being his new unofficial mom..same goes for Loz and Yazoo if they can accept that...maybe it can get their minds off of Jenova a bit..."

"...Keily...I've been meaning to ask....what's your relationship to Rufus?"

"Rufie? Oh...well...about ten years ago..."

"Oh, my effin' god, yo! What's up with your hair?!" Reno asked, looking at me, laughing. Rude wisely kept his mouth shut, although I could very well see the smirk on his face.

I furrowed my brows at them, wondering what was so amusing. My hair felt perfectly normal, if such a statement can be made. Pulling some to the front--I brushed, then tied it back to stay out of my face--I found that my hair was....very much....strawberry blonde.

I stared for a good ten seconds as many scenes from earlier in the day began to click into place like a puzzle.

"KADAJ! LOZ! FRED! GEORGE! I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!"

So there you have it. Kadaj and Loz are grounded and the Twins have been temporarily banned from my house. Normally, I would have laughed at such a trick, but I have a thing against being artificially blonde. And when I had calmed down and laughed a little about it, the twins thought I looked good as a blond and refused to give me the antidote to change my hair back (they used a slow working potion that would change my hair color so that I would only realize it when it was too late). And now I must deal with ridiculous nicknames from Reno....mostly those involving 'Vice-President' and 'boss'.

Hmmm....I think it might be time to invest in colored clothing now...black and white doesn't seem to be a good color scheme right now....Stupid Remnants...stupid Twins...stupid Reno!

The Prince Speaks: Quick Update

2007-03-27T21:06:00.000-05:00

In an effort to lift Keily's spirits, everyone present pitched in to help her make dinner for us all. She was weak, sore and still injured, but she had to get up and do something, because she did not feel that she could just sit down and let other people do any work for her. So we worked together for a night of nothing, but Italian cuisine.

The young woman had disappeared halfway through the boiling of the linguini, so that left myself to stand and keep watch of it. The Nobodies were having a time preparing a Cesar salad; Larxene chopping up the lettuce into manageable pieces, Axel frying up some actual pieces of bacon and Xigbar had accompanied Demyx out to buy some dressing. We had invited Nexu's group for a stay at the house, which meant that we had to augment the amount of food we were preparing. They hadn't arrived yet when I heard the peals of laughter and music coming from upstairs where Keily's room was.

And then, as Nexu and her group was welcome into the house by Axel, the song started to play, which, for very obvious reasons...enraged our new guests like nothing else. They chased Keily around the second floor of the house, their footsteps easily heard below as well as Keily's rather loud singing. The original was annoying enough as it was, but with Keily's slight change in version, well...

Several things broke, lots of swar words were tossed and Keily actually seemed to be having a very good time, despite her self-pity and loathing about everything she had done. Something must have uplifted her spirits and it was only after she tripped on a chair did the chasing stop and I was able to ask her where she had learned such a atrocious song.

"I learned it ten years ago! At least...I think it was ten years ago...might've been less than that...But an old friend sent me a message and reminded me of the song and I couldn't help, but switch in a few words of my own-hahahaha..."

Kadaj, growled from where he was being restrained by Reno? He said some very ungainly things at Keily and the girl only stuck her tongue out back at him.

"Only a Shinra..."

"That's right, only a Shinra, Kadaj," she said, possibly hinting at who had exactly sent her such an idea.

Well, at least we're heading towards a more normal direction, but I can't help, but wonder what might be going on up here in Babylon Palace.

-----------------------------

The following was typed up by Keily after Severus relinquished the laptop to her. Be advised that it is not wise to sing this song in front of Kadaj or any of the Remnants. A note is that when Keily sang this song, the word 'witch' was pronounced with a different beginning consonant.

Well, Kadaj's mom a witch.
She's a big fat witch.
She's the biggest witch in the whole wide world.
She's a stupid witch, if there ever was a witch.
She's a witch to all the boys and girls.

On Monday she' a witch.
One Tuesday she's a witch and on Wednsday to Saturday, she's a witch.
Then on Sunday just to be different, she's a super king kamehameha wi-atch!

Have you ever the Remnant Kadaj's mom?
She's the biggest witch in the whole wide world!
She's a mean old witch and she has stupid hair.
She's a witch, witch, witch, witch, witch, witch, witch!
Witch, witch, witch, witch, witch, witch, witch, witch, she's a stupid witch!
Kadaj's mom's a witch and she's a dirty witch!

Talk to kids around the world and it might go a little bit something like this!

*insert incomprehensible singing here*

Have you ever the Remnant Kadaj's mom?
She's the biggest witch in the whole wide world!She's a mean old witch and she has stupid hair.
She's a witch, witch, witch, witch, witch, witch, witch!
Witch, witch, witch, witch, witch, witch, witch, witch, she's a stupid witch!
Kadaj's mom's a witch and she's a dirty witch!

I really mean it!
Kadaj's mom!
She's a real fat fricking witch!
Real fat frickin' witch!
Kadaj's mom yeah!

The Prince Speaks: An Untriumphant Return

2007-03-26T00:29:00.000-05:00

It was some time after the arrival of the Turks as well as the three silver haired men along with Nexu to Montreal on late Saturday/early Sunday did Babylon Palace finally begin to shift. As our guests were settling in I spied the large structure in all of its glory start moving towards the east. For the while, I had thought nothing of it and then straight to the worst possible scenario: Keily lost and whoever was still left inside had won and were most likely try to get away. When the large fortress started descending sharply and erratically, I felt a small surge of hope. Perhaps this was a sign of victory and not loss?

But all was not so well as Babylon Palace seemed to stabilize itself just in time before it hit water.

And then they appeared right in front of the doorstep, looking no worse for the wear, as if they hadn't been in any battles recently, though I knew they were probably exhausted. Xigbar and Demyx had appeared first, through a portal of darkness. Larxene came tumblig out after, immediately turning around to scream and yell, throwing a few of her knives into the portal behind her. There was a dangerous roar and soon Axel emerged, the portal closing shut behind him. Well, Tabby will be happy to know these four are alright.

And in his arms...

"Can someone take her? My arms feel like they're going to fall off."

Battered and bruised; dressed in black clothing with a white trenchcoat stained with blood instead of the pristine white armor she had worn at the arena, there laid Keily, unconscious.

I quickly ushered them inside, asking them what had happened.

"Well," Demyx began, letting himself lounge upon one of the couches of the living room as Axel placed Keily gently down on one of the longer ones. "We were on our merry way to the core; gutting bad guys, taking names...that sort of thing like we had for the last...I don't know...72 or so hours when this..." He shuddered. "HUGE honkin' three headed dog came by. I...er....supervised...Xigbar came with me and so did Larxene...Axel and Keily took care of it pretty good, but Kei's not a Nobody and that means she doesn't quite have enough stamina or health and stuff and...well..."

The blond man rubbed the back of his neck. "She got beaten up pretty badly...and what with the small amounts of time we got to rest and all...not to mention our lack of healing abilities...she had to be real careful and all...But we made it to the core! And she used her influence to drain it of a bunch of enteched souls and sent them back to where they came from--so we'll probably be seeing a couple of guys get back up again, but..." He winced. "Kei...er...she...she didn't finish the job. Cerberus came back and well..." He gave me a rather petulant glare. "She's only human you know...can only do so much before she got hurt pretty bad..."

The Nobody got up and went ove to Keily's unconscious form and placed a hand on her forehead. "We got her to a medical facility in Babylon Palace...patched her up a bit...then we got attacked again and we knew we had to get out, so..."

He said no more.

I do not know what to think, but to try and call Vader and anyone else to tip them off of what had transpired recently. It is all I can do at the moment. The palace is still locked up tightly so that no one may leave (exempting these five, but I think it's due to Keily's influence that let them escape at all), so an assault upon the palace would leave many of Palpatine's allies and followers quite dead.

But it might also endanger the enteched souls still remaining within the palace core.

At the moment, I am in Keily's room, typing away at her computer, awaiting the replies I will most likely be receiving within the next 24 hours or so. The Nobodies are recuperating and the Turks are dealing with the Silver Trio as well as their hostess, Nexu. Keily hasn't woken up yet, but after such a long nightmare of losing her heart, then serving under Palpatine, fighting all those familiar faces and then a mad marathon run to help liberate the lost souls of comrades, facing whatever horros awaited her, I wouldn't want to as well.

I returned her hope to her, marvel at its brilliance when it disappeared back into her body. Kadaj had yet to relinquish his unknown piece and Vexn still had his. How many more did I have yet to find? Keily couldn't possibly be whole...not from what I could remember...

Now, I pose a question for you all.

'What do we do now?'

The Prince Speaks: Hell and Back Part 2

2007-03-23T19:26:00.000-05:00

Before I continue with the last part of this tale, I would like to extend my gratitude to everyone, as well as my condolences.

As such, thank you Kenya for sending me this shard the moment you received it. I'm sure she would greatly appreciate the gesture. I only wish it were safe enough for me to venture back to Babylon Palace...

-----------------------

As I recall, I promised to reveal more of what happened that day. I watched as Kyxiel challenged the white knight to a fight, stopping him from going on any further. I did not hear what she had to say, but heard well enough about what Palpatine and Voldemort had to say on the matter. Let the little Nobody fight. Let her challenge thier champion. At that moment, the arena changed. It shook terribly and cracked until there were merely little islands floating on...

In the hush that came over the crowd, I distinctly heard Kyxiel swear to every single deity she knew in any language she possessed.

She was standing on a rock, keeping afloat on lava. This fight promised not to be a pleasant one with a good amount of infringement. Perhaps Palpatine wanted to shake up Lord Vader...maybe he wanted some real sport to witness. Either way, the fight began, with various close calls ranging from almost falling into the lava or getting a limb chopped off. Kyxiel and the Knight were evenly matched when it came to laser swordplay (the white knight pulled a blue lightsaber out to block Kyxiel's oncoming red lightsaber).

The field changed again.

Water began to flood in from the walls out of nowhere--the walls had been completely seamless--steam rising into the air and blocking our view momentarily. When the mist cleared I saw that there was ice everywhere--the ground had been frozen. What had been an unsteady playing field of hot, boiling lava, was now an uneven terrain of ice and snow where Kyxiel and the Knight continued with their fight. Getting bored a little, Voldemort ordered for another fighter to be added to the melee. A lot of protest from the crowd could be heard (not to mention a lot of colorful insults). Out of spite, he changed his mind and allowed a whole slew of them to arrive onto the slippery arena, converging on the two fighters from all sides.

Not to let a comrade fight alone, some from the crowd began heading down as fast as they could, others joining in soon after. Here, I would like to retain some form of vagueness, as I barely recalled the fight myself--perhaps I'd rather not remember at all. Here was where parent fought child, lover against lover, brothers and sisters, friends of old and new...all in the arena fighting ones whom they loved or knew...

I joined them down below, rushing my way to Kyxiel's side. Somehow, she and her opponent had a wide berth all to themselves as the chaos and violence around them escalated. I passed by a myriad of familiar faces and had to fight to keep looking ahead, lest something held me back. I shot spell after spell as I followed to keep up with Kyxiel and the Knight; they were in a fight far too fast and vicious for me to keep up with. I lost them for a while, bombarded with bodies as I was suddenly. I wanted to wretch at the horrible stench of some of the bodies, but continued to press on after shoving them off, getting back up to find Kyxiel.

I heard the whirring of lightsabers and thought that it could have been her, but saw Lord Vader cut someone down--I won't say who.

I finally caught sight of her chasing a mass of white armor down through one of the opened gates and followed suite, glad that these eyes of Voldemort's could adjust to the dark very quickly. As we were getting farther and farther away from the roar of the arena battle, I could hear with better clarity, the conversation being held by Kyxiel and the white knight. Or should I say...

"Dammit Keily! Snap out of it already!"

Kyxiel charged forward and knocked her opponent's helmet off showing that it indeed was Keily underneath the armor. Although I admit to expecting to see her as a shell of her former self...perhaps gaunt, withdrawn and possibly mad (look at some of Voldemort's returning followers and you'll understand what I mean). But she looked quite healthy, though somewhat thinner than the last time I saw her.

"There is nothing for me to snap out of, Nobody," Keily replied, arching an upward swing that would have left a very wide slash in Kyxiel's torso had she not backpedaled a few steps.

"Come on, can't you see he's using you? The way he's used everyone else?! Don't you understand that that bastard doesn't care? That once he's gotten everything he wants he'll just get rid of you when the next best thing comes walking along?!"

Keily did not hesitate, however, but I could understand why. This was merely a body with no soul or heart. Not dead, not exactly living. But how did that explain her mastery over something not even the main characters of Kingdom Hearts had ever seen? Perhaps, then...she still possessed one shard within her body. But what emotion would let her obey everything that Palpatine or Voldemort said?

I wasn't allowed further contemplation on the matter as the wall to my right broke in and a scream tore the air. A blonde woman with a pair of rather bizarre bangs had been driven through the stone wall. I recognized the Organization coat (I've met enough members to know their 'uniform') and deduced that this was the infamous only female of the group of Nobodies. Getting up, she snarled, lightning crackling around her arms as she charged back through the hole she had come from.

I turned my gaze back upon Kyxiel and Keily, but found that I had lost them again. Before I could even try to chase after them again, I was, inevitably, pulled into a fight of my own.

I never really had the displeasure of facing the Emperor head-on. I might have seen him from afar or on a television screen, but never on a combat level. But there I was, trying to keep well out of the way of four rather irate Nobodies (two of them I recall being Demyx and Axel, the other I learned to be Larxene and Xigbar) as they engaged Palpatine head-on, throwing hexes and protection spells left and right. I felt distinctly uncomfortable, somehow, fighting with this man. Although he had committed several atrocities in his entire life throughout the known Worlds, I felt that it wasn't my right to fight him. Maybe it's because it would seem that the 'honor' had fallen upon the shoulders of Kenya and Vader and mostly of anyone somehow related to the Skywalkers intimately...

Palpatine was a very powerful man. He could toss around the Nobodies like they were nothing (pun not intended for those who take offense at Nobody jokes). Xigbar used his powers to shift around the dimension of space itself to keep his comrades safe from being thrown too far or into some pit that would appear out of nowhere. Either the Palace was highly sentient, or the Palace wasn't exactly stable...neither were very good prospects for us as these unfortunate things kept happening to us and only us.

Lightning was shot everywhere thanks to Larxene and Palpatine; fire was flung, huge walls of water--it was a mad fight. I was a man who could duel, but an actual fight would often escape me. I am a Slytherin and as such, such physical things usually allude me (it did not help that the body I was currently residing in was not at its physical peak).

Our battle moved around. I saw snippets of other fights; bouts of shouting from who knew where and whom; limbs being torn and thrown--utter madness. The scene went from marble white, to darkness, to a bright arena with other fighters, and a labyrinth with shifting and sliding walls. One could only imagine what sort of result one could get when six people enter a tricky labyrinth.

First, we lost Larxene. Then Demyx. Xigbar went off on his own to seek out his fellows because he knew that taking down the Emperor was not something someone does alone. Axel was left with me and I lost him, too...onto to be found alone with Palpatine. Well, not quite...

He looked at me smugly as a figure in white stepped from around a corner and I felt my heart froze. Keily looked at me levelly, a deactivated lightsaber on hand. Another was clipped to her belt and I know whose it was. My heart wrenched. Had Kyxiel been defeated? I didn't know. What I did know was that I was outnumbered and outmatched. Even if Keily had not shown up I wouldn't have stood a chance against the Emperor.

"Well, well...this is certainly an interesting, twist of events...isn't it my dear daughter?" the man asked, looking to the young woman at his side. She nodded obediently and I grasped my wand, wondering if I could fight for my life and end hers.

If I damn well have to, the frightening thought came to mind. I would deal with the consequences, as damning as they were. I had been wanted for the murder of Albus...what would be one more loved one dying at my hands matter for me in the long wrong? She would be seen as a casualty in a war...

I didn't like the thought one bit.

"Tell me," Palpatine began, "what does it feel like...to be facing down one who once tried to rescue your life, Snape?"

I said nothing. He chuckled.

"Have I hit a nerve? I apologize." He wasn't at all sorry. And I certainly wouldn't be sorry if I found my hands around his neck. "You're dark, Snape...did you ever think you could just leave it all behind? Her saving grace could not help you...except bring you to an early grave." He turned to Keily then, looking at her in what I figured to be mock tenderness.

"Keily, my darling child...I need you to do something for me..." He looked in my direction. "This Dark Lord seeks to take all your loved ones away...it wouldn't do to let him live, would it?" She shook her head. He smiled. "Don't you think he deserves to be punished for his sins?"

Her answer came longer this time and Palpatine's confidence ebbed away slowly as Keily turned her head and gazed at him with more emotion than I had ever witnessed in her eyes.

"Quite," she whispered, before activating the blue lightsaber in her hand. She utterly surprised the man beside her as she sliced his right hand off (perhaps karmic justice finally coming to get the old man) and shoved him roughly to the floor. She pointed the tip of her blade to his throat and stepped on his chest to help keep him down as he held his stump of an arm. He tried throwing her off using the Force, but it didn't seem to work.

"H-how?" he demanded angrily, almost cutting his throat wide open on the lightsaber.

"I gave you life once again...I pulled you through the very doors of Kingdom Hearts...the abyss known as Oblivion...I manipulated your very being...don't think that now I am partially whole that I cannot do as I please with you," she replied, voice still low; soft.

I stared, unable to believe what I was seeing or hearing.

I did find my voice.

"Keily?"

She looked up at me, expression unreadable for some moments, then it broke into a sad, sad smile. "Severus," she whispered, in that slightly accented way of hers. It was music to my ears.

"How is this possible?"

"All in due time, Severus," she told me, before looking back down at Palpatine, her features now showing indecision and...worry? Hesitance? "Right now...I must deal with...him."

"If you strike me down...you will be no better than I," Palpatine said, smug. He was probably playing upon Keily's morals, which I'm sure must have returned along with her mind. I couldn't help, but still wonder where Kyxiel had gone, though, in my heart, I knew exactly what had happened to the foul mouthed, passionate Nobody I had been living with for the last several months. "You will turn to the dark side."

"True enough," she conceded, but not letting up on the pressure on his chest nor with the lightsaber held to his neck. "It isn't my place to judge you, for I am no better than you at this point in time." She paused, considering something, but her red-brown eyes not leaving his face as he looked up at her. "So, I shall let those who can judge you for myself."

I backed up a bit as a wind suddenly picked up around us, swirling up dust and whatever else into the air. The entire building shook tremendously from an incredible force of...magic? The Force? Gods only knew what as the shape of a very large door began to emerge from out of nowhere. Keily deactivated her lightsaber as the white door appeared behind her, glowing incandescently. The rumbling had ceased once the door was firmly set into existence. The door began to creak open and she took her foot away from him.

"Let those who you have wronged judge you," were her quiet words as she stepped aside. "All hearts return to darkness...especially one such as yours."

A shimmering light broke through from inbetween the crack, displaying colors of all types, shifting into all colors, then back into white, snaking tendrils heading straight towards Palpatine. The door opened wide and the light turned into shadows--dark hands grasping at the powerless man who screamed in terror as voices called out from beyond, familiar voices filled with anguish and need for vengeance. I turned away as I was sure a gruesome and slow death was occurring. If the telltales signs of flesh being ripped apart, sounds of a person choking and gurgling on their own blood were of any indication.

I turned back in time to see the shadows recede back into the door, leaving nothing of Palpatine behind. Not even a blood stains where he would have died. They took everything of him. The door shook and closed itself, disappearing in a twinkling light.

Rather than be stunned with what had just happened, I turned to look at Keily--wanted to ask her if she was alright, but she was already walking away. Without knowing what I was doing, I ran forward and wrapped her in my arms. She stood very still, tensed up. And she was shaking, ever so slightly as I held her for one impulsive moment.

She broke away from me. Keily smiled at me, however, raising a hand to my cheek.

"Severus...now isn't the time...I have a lot to do....now that I'm back..." I both understood and didn't understand at all what she had meant by all this and really, I should have been in some sort of shock, but I suppose that I've gotten used to such things. We may have been rid of one dark being, but there were dozens more within these walls. "This is all my fault...So I will make things right."

"What will you do?" I asked.

He hesitated a moment before explaining about the core of Babylon Palace. It is what keeps the place alive and floating. It is the energy source for the unrealistic building. It was also where all the enteched have been put. Keily said that she knew how she was going to free all those lost souls and knew exactly what would be waiting for her, if she did.

"Traps...curses...not to mention every person who was working with Voldemort and Palpatine once they find out what's happened...I don't think my little performance would have gone unnoticed for some..."

Before I could tell her that it was dangerous and something she couldn't do alone, she hushed me with her fingers. Silence would have been too harsh a word for her, the way she looked at me and had her fingers gently pressed to my lips...those that had kissed her Nobody's not so long ago.

"It's something I have to do...really!" She said, when I gave her a very incredulous look. "Look...I promise to come out alright...just trust me."

I looked at her.

"I do."

She smiled brightly at me and moved to hug me when I heard a small, telltale tinkle. I spotted the pendant Yuuko had given to me around her neck. I felt around my own neckline and realized then that Kyxiel had took it and that's why Keily was normal now. Was she whole again? Doubtful. Keily even admitted it herself to Palpatine.

So Kyxiel really was gone. I felt a pang.

"Well...looks like I've got my work cut out for me, but on't worry...Everything will turn out for the best..."

--------------------

After that, I do not recall. I know for a fact that Keily must have sent us out, just because that--save a few--every villain that had sided with the Emperor was trapped in Babylon Palace. Whether or not she has dealt with them or simply just imprisoned them there, I do not rightly know. All I know is that Keily has been up there either fighting or hiding or whatever and I don't know what's become of her or the beings still residing within it.

Sometimes, explosions can be heard and the whispers of screams can be carried on the wind.

Somehow, I don't want to know.

But I suspect that once our comrades who have been enteched have returned to us that Keily must had successfully reached the core...

All we can do is wait for now...

The Prince Speaks: Hell and Back Part 1

2007-03-22T09:21:00.000-05:00

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."

--------------

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....

---------------------

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.

Kyxiel Report 7: Days of Our Lives

2007-03-19T09:42:00.000-05:00

"What are you doing?"

"Trying to pull a Xaldin."

"It's...interesting, Kyxiel."

"It's hard as hell is what it is...don't know how he does it. Probably has to do with the fact that he has a stable element to work with."

I've been in training since the invitations were issued out. Kind of slightly pointless really, because I pretty much went nowhere with it as A. I had no idea what I was doing; B. I was very frustrated; and C. I had no way of knowing if I was improving or just making a total moron of myself. Luckily for me, Axel and Demyx had decided to pay us a visit up north to see what the commotion was all about. I took them to see Babylon Palace in all of its floating glory.

Yes, I said 'floating glory'.

On the outside, the palace was actually the size of the castle in the World That Never Was (possibly a good ten times bigger now that I'm looking at it again), but with a lot more color than that place ever possessed and more....pristine? Tranquil? The place looked deceptively calm and peaceful with its white walls, hanging gardens and waterways falling into artificial waterfalls. It looked like someone had taken a piece of Naboo and pasted it into the airspace above Montreal.

Axel, who had been watching me, scratch his head and gave me a sort of confused look. It was sort of cute, in a way. "Why would you wanna do that?"

"Because I am a Nobody and I have no idea what 'element' I possess."

It had come up after Diz stopped by to drop off a bunch of old files he found in Radiant Garden which he thought would help us somehow. I went through them and found some of his old notes about Nobodies and their characteristics. Most notably, since there were only ever a couple of handful in existence, ever...Nobodies possessed some sort of power.

Now, Diz pretty much assumed that since I am Keily's Nobody that I would inherit her powe over Kingdom Hearts as well...If that were the truth, then why the Hell can't I pull off half the things she can? Oh, right. I don't have a bloody heart. So I began a training regime that would try and figure out what the hell I was.

I know that I was dubbed the Doorway, but in all honesty...what sort of idiotic name is that? I only accepted it because, at the time, I was freshly born and the first thing I clung onto was Diz, so I let him name me. I even let him get away with scrambling up a name for me. Only now do I realize the utter stupidity of it all.

Insults to the man who helped start it all aside, I was in a bit of a bind and it annoyed me to no end. I found that I could control the elements to a certain degree. I wouldn't exactly use them in a fight against a Dark Lord at full power, but they are pretty useful.

It was morning and I was out training. There was something very wrong with this picture.

"Why don't you try using fire instead?" Axel suggested.

"Or water. It's a lot more versatile," Demyx chimed in.

I didn't have the heart to tell them that I had tried and I failed miserably. Or maybe I just gave up too fast. I almost burned my coat trying to control fire and I ended up having to chip my legs out of two blocks of ice stuck to the ground.

"Maybe next time," I said, knowing I was making a promise I couldn't very well keep. They must have known, too, because they looked at me with disbelieving expressions. It was only a matter of time until Babylon Palace and whatever awaited within. Everyone was pitching in to help in whatever way they could. Severus was out heart shard hunting at the moment and we had dropped William off at Narcissa's for the time being. Cid was working on a set of communicators for everyone that could let us report onto our blog no matter where we are. I had found out that Harry and a few from the British Isle had been invited to the shindig as well, but it wasn't too surprising as Voldemort was going to be there and, well...

"You worried?" Axel asked. "About what's going to happen..."

Demyx looked at the ground, at a loss for exactly what to say. He looked up at me as I let the staffs I had bene using to practice control over wind drop to the icy ground. He opened his mouth to say something, but closed it again. It happened a few more times, making the poor guy look like a fish, until he just loked at Axel.

"Well...with all that's happening...we thought...maybe you would...like Roxas and Sora..."

I smiled sadly. Yes, like Roxas and Sora, only I would never get a body of my own. I would, in all likely cases, merge back with my Other so that we may be one whole person once again. It is something that I somehow find a sort of sad peace with, rather than actual terror, but I can understand what these two are most likely feeling.

All I can really say is that they are good friends and that I hope we can remain so and that when my Other comes back to her sense that she'll be nice to them.

I crouched to pick up the staffs and decided that a clean up was in order since I didn't want to try my hand at lightning just yet. Earth was a whole other thing, too...Demyx came to help me out.

"Well..." he began as he tried to take the load in my arms as well, but I kept refusing him stubbornly. As small and wiry as he was, he was probably just as strong as the next Organization member. "...no matter what happens, you'll always be one of us."

Axel seemed to take to the idea rather well as his eyes were alight, as if he had just lit something with his powers. "That's right...you're the new Nobody baby...Roxas isn't the youngest anymore." Just so you know, we don't count age by physical appearance. We count it in accordance to how long we've existed. So...by default I am the youngest and I am just a baby--hell, I'm younger than William by a couple of months! He wrapped an arm around my shoulders and gave me a noogie with his hand. "And since you've got an 'X' in your name...that makes you the honorary Organization baby."

I growled and swatted his hand away. "Who the hell're you calling a baby? At least I can hold my alcohol Mister Flaming Christmas Pants." He gaped at me.

"You promised you wouldn't mention that!"

I smirked evilly. "Oh, did I? I forgot," I said playfully.

"Oh, that's it Doorway...you're going down," he replied a mischievous glint in his eyes. He got into a relaxed sort of stance and I got into one of my own. We looked like two morons in a bad 70's kung-fu movie.

"Not if I take you down first, Flurry of Dancing Flames!"

I paused. "Damn that's a mouthful. Did you pick that yourself?"

"He did," Demyx said, shaking his head at us as we hadn't gotten out of our 'action poses' just yet. "His original name was actually longer than that, but I heard that he was pretty much given a character limit so he had to shorten to...well...that."

Axel snorted. "Certainly better than 'Doorway'."

"Shut-up. Diz gave me that name. I could have thoguth up a better nickname, I'm sure..."

"Make one up then."

I couldn't--at least, not without them sounding really cheesy.

"Shut-up Axel."

The rest of the day we pretty much just poked fun at each other and went for drinks. I probably should have been training for the big possible showdown, but I thought...hey. If these are going to be my last days on Earth I might as well enjoy them while I still can. I can only hope that my Other can appreciate the good memories instead of the bad ones when she comes back to us.

The Prince Speaks: Babylon Palace

2007-03-10T14:12:00.000-05:00

It was around late last night--way after Voldemort's visit--as I was watching the stars, waiting for Keily's hope--which had not appeared again after that one time--when I was approached by Lord Vader himself, comm unit on hand. He had told me that Kyxiel had called and was sounding incredibly distressed about something and refused to tell him what and wanted to take to me as soon as possible. She had even insulted the former Dark Lord of the Sith until he relented and went out in search of me. I took the offered comm, not knowing what I would hear from the other end.

"--and a sorry excuse for a pair of legs!"

I snorted and spoke into the comm. "As much as I enjoy hearing you insult various parts of Lord Vader body, Kyxiel, you are to be advised that you are speaking to me."

"Snape?" I almost winced at the volume she was using. What was wrong with the girl? "Snape! You can't believe what's happening up here--where are you? Are you still at Kenya's?"

"Yes, I am," I replied calmly. "What is it? What's wrong?"

"You remember the dark cloud in the sky that appeared a bit during or after Keily's heart broke?" she asked. I told her that I did indeed remember as it was a hard thing to forget and it was still hanging over our heads like an evil omen. "Well...it's gone now..."

My eyebrows--or the place where my eyebrows should be--shot up. The dark cloud was gone? Had it dissipated finally? I conveyed this question to the Nobody, but before I could hear an answer some owls began to swoop in from out of nowhere, bearing several envelopes in their claws. Some flew into the barn and the house, while one let its contents fall from their clutches into our hands before flying off to who knew where. I looked mine over, trying to discern if it was hexed or not, but found out it wasn't after taking my wand out and doing a few cursory scanning spells.

I opened the letter and was very alarmed by what I found on the parchment inside.

Snape,

You are cordially invited to attend a celebration marking the completion of my most humble of residences as well as my rebirth into this world. I am sure your schedule leaves you (as well as the rest of the Terran Resistance) with precious little free time, but I do hope that you are somehow able to attend, as a number of unique festivities have already been arranged. A courtesy shuttle has been provided for your convenience. It will arrive at 1 pm on the 20th of March at the destination of your choosing.

Sincerely,

Emperor Dantius Palpatine of Babylon Palace

I did the only reasonable thing I could at the moment--I swore colorfully under my breath. An out of character thing, to be sure, but I don't think the Starflights would appreciate my menacing the goats out of anger. I checked with Vader and found that he too received a similar invitation and so did several others when we went to check with them later on. Kyxiel's increased volume over the comm broke me out of my reverie and I finally answered her as she began to yell about my questionable heritage.

I swear, Keily had never been this bad. I Kyxiel for being a Nobody.

"Calm down, Kyxiel...please. Just calmly tell me what you wanted me to know about the darkness."

"It's a friggin' palace...at least...I think it's a palace...I don't know...just get over to Montreal and have a look for yourself! This is my Other's work, I know it!"

Giving Vader an apologetic look as well as his comm back, I apparated out of there with a promise of returning to brief everyone.

--------------

"You've seen it, then?"

I looked up from my seat in the corner of the barn, seeing Keily's translucent form a bit of a ways from me. She took a seat at the foot of the bed of one of Luke's Tuskan students, looking over them with something akin to a mix of sadness and....maternal tenderness?

"Was that what you were worried about?" I asked, remembering the night she had appeared as well as the large structure I had seen whn I apparated to Montreal.

She nodded. "Yes, among other things," she replied, turning to look away from the padawan learner and towards me. She gestured towards the invitation in my hand--an invitation that many others (Vader, Kenya, Luke, Rose, Megatron to name a few) had received. Was it a trap? I didn't know. "I've seen him," she told me, eyes reflecting a haunted emotion. "I'm scared."

"How do we save them? Do you know?" I asked, wanting to know if Keily knew. If she kept them alive somehow, shouldn't she know how to rescue their souls as well? Kenya and Vader were banking on Garrett Skywalker, but if she knew of another way...I was disappointed with a shake of her head, but what did I expect? Not even dead men knew everything. I winced as I had inadvertedly hought of Keily as dead. She must have picked up on it somehow as she smiled kindly at me.

"I'm sorry," she said.

'I'm sorry.' It was all she could say--what we all manged to say these last few months. I've heard it more in that span of time then all of my years at Hogwarts, teaching dunderheads who didn't know wormwood from loosestrife. Somehow, hearing her say it made my blood blood and I had the inexplicable urge to hex something. But I kept myself in check, folding the sleeves of my robe as I always did when I crossed my arms.

"What do you think should be our course of action?" I asked, wanting her ideas on the situation. She just smiled at me.

"I'm Hope, not Reason," she told me, with her hands on her hips. "But...I would go to see what was really going on...possibly armed, too, if I can. No sense in refusing a dark lord's invitation you know...even one as blatant as this."

"And how about your heart? Yourself? How am I to bring you back together?" I asked, wondering what would the answer be.

I saw her begin to fade away again--was she getting weaker? I wasn't sure. But this meeting was much shorter than the last.

"Piecing back together a broken heart...is no easy business...for I am quite sure that the shards have embedded themselves deep within the hearts of certain individuals...who these individuals are...I cannot be certain...but they shall be easy enough to find."

"How?"

"Ask the Witch. Yuuko will give you a way, I'm sure. I am very certain that things will turn out alright. Trust me."

And she was gone again, before I could even say, "I do."

The Prince Speaks: A Ray of Hope

2007-03-04T20:35:00.000-05:00

It was in light of what turned up on Miss Starflight's doorstep that had made me leave Kyxiel and William's side (which much shouting between the Nobody and I that led to her injuring her right hand and my almost losing certain parts of the male human anatomy that shall be left unnamed) and head down to Idaho to check up on my fallen comrades in arms. I felt horribly responsible for what was going on, so I felt a modicum of decency was in order. Once I arrived, however, I made a note not to be seen nor heard (or in some cases, sensed) while I paid visits to the barn that was currently being used as both medical center and control room.

No amount of words could describe how terribly awful I felt at the sight that awaited me.

But you must be wondering...why name this blog entry 'a ray of hope'? I will not disappoint, but I did find it somewhat prudent to convey my sincerest apologies to everyone involved in this...tragedy? Travesty? I'm still at a loss of words...

It happened this very night when I decided to check up on my comrades and the medics had gone to take a break together. Some who stayed vigil by their friends' side had gone off, possibly to sleep or rest. I found it extremely odd that everyone just got up and left, but made no point in arguing over opportunity knocking at the door.

I had seen this scene of seemingly lifeless bodies lying comatose on beds many times before and could tell you with detail exactly who laid where, the tiniest freckle on skin and even where stray pieces of dirt would be found. I have seen many strange things in my life which do not limit to dark lords rising into power, blast end skrewts, a romance between a mermaid and a human and various other things...

I was not prepared to see what I had seen when I approached some of the beds containing some of Luke Skywalker's students.

I had witnessed this only a few times in my life, but mainly from those silly little movies Keily had insisted that I watched with her in order to know Vader and his group a little better, back in the day...The transparent form, illuminating a soft blue light around their ghostly bodies as they moved as they did when they were alive...

A smile was shone my way. "Hello, Severus. It certainly has been a while, hasn't it?"

I nodded numbly, too dumbstruck to say anything. I felt that anything I could have said would have been completely inadequate.

"So...you finally came...even though things are starting to fall apart?" A chuckle. "I'm sure it'll all work out in the end."

I wasn't sure what I was suppose to say to that.

"Do you know why you came?" An innocent inquiry, really, but not one I was comfortable with answering. I couldn't even show my face to those I had once fought alongside. "It's alright."

I watched them lay a gentle hand on one of the younger students, watched as they gently carressed the child's forehead in a painfully familiar gesture. The ghostly hand did nothing really--it couldn't even shift the iniest bit of hair. It brought reality back into mind and I found myself being able to speak once again.

"Why are you here?" I asked, before I could give the words tumbling out of my mouth permission to.

"This is my fault, too," was the breeze soft answer. "Not just yours...and I had to do everything in my power to help...even if it's something as small as keeping them alive with whatever power I have left."

I was surprised. "You're keeping them alive?"

Another smile. "Comes with being so well intuned with the Force...or magic...or Kingdom Hearts, or whatever have you." The smile turned into a sad one, then. "Severus...what they're doing is terrible."

I nodded. I had both heard and read about the entechment process and could only imagine what was happening on the other side of this eerily silent war. With Keily's unknown power, who knew what was happening truly and it frightened him to no end for not knowing.

"They've brought him back...but I realize that everyone probably knows it by now."

"Palpatine?" I asked.

"Yes," they said, "and many others...some of whom should have stayed dead...others ripped from their own worlds...and some who haven't even the chance to exist yet. They are building an army...an army fit to destroy the Worlds...only to remake them as their own..."

I was very confused by this and said so. They clarified themself.

"Why conquer a rebelling people when they have the power to remake?"

"But if they have this power already," I began, thinking about Keily again, "why not just simply forgo the war with us? Why not just go through with their plans? As you said, wouldn't it just be easier for them to do as they will and remake the worlds?"

A smile. "You cannot get something from nothing, as you well know, Severus. And what they want requires more energy than one person with half a heart can muster at a time."

That made sense. But if that were the truth, could it possibly mean that they were harnessing all of that energy for more than just battle purposes? And half a heart? As far as anyone was concerned, Keily had no heart at all. Whatever had been left of it was probably scattered to the winds...there was no way she could have gotten it back--let alone half. They had raised a lot of questions in this one chance meeting and had given less answers in return...

"How are you here? Have you...have you been here all this time?" I asked, looking them up and down. I reached for a hand and found that mine passed right through. But instead of feeling the coldness one would expect to feel from a ghost or the nothingness of an apparition of the Force, I felt a pleasant warmth fill my fingers for a few scant moments.

"I have my ways, but in truth, I am truly not really here," was the mysterious answer, followed by an almost musical laugh. They smiled sadly at me as a translucent hand came up to try to brush against my cheek in an affectionate manner. I felt that warmth again and longed to rest my head against it, but I knew that it could not be. "I've been keeping an eye on everyone here, for a while yet...just when I was needed most....It's the least I could do." The warm hand had laid itself upon my cheek, though it felt more like a heat had rested there instead of anything solid. It was soon removed and they began to walk away, fading away.

"Keily?"

She looked at me then, smiling that sad little smile of hers as she straightened out the white dress she had worn at the Ministry all those months ago. "Don't worry, Severus...I'm sure you'll figure out a way...someone will figure out a way," she told me reassuringly. "For now...I'll continue to watch over all of you..."

She paused for a moment, thinking about something.

"Severus...my..." She cringed a little. "My powers are terribly limited, you know. As long as I possessed no heart, I couldn't tap into it. Do you understand? I'm sure...Voldemort had found some shards of my heart and placed them into my body...emotions and memories which have probably been warped to suit his needs..." Another pause. I kept my eyes on her as I patiently waited for her to continue...this young woman who once had been alive, was still alive, yet who was also in a state of death at the same time. "I'm sure...he found my darker emotions somehow...those would be the easiest to manipulate. But...I think that if you found my better ones...those more suitable for...well, I wouldn't say light...but...if you did and put them back along with my other heart shards...that you could snap me out of whatever hold I'm under...."

She laughed.

"Well, that might backfire," she stated, looking at the ground. "And if that were ever to happen..." She shook her head.

I stared at her. I took in her entire, shining being. I studied her long black locks of hair which fell over her shoulders easily and how it hid her face as she looked at the ground, somewhat shamefaced. I noticed how her hands clenched her full white skirts in anxiety. I carefully filed everything she told me away at the back of my mind and I considered her, as she simply stood there and I barely said a word.

I had never been one ofr romantic reunions. Neither had she. But this moment wasn't as awkward as I often feared it would be when we did meet again--though I hadn't expected it to be so soon. I had hoped that there had been some part of the young woman that still harbored that old feeling of protectiveness for the worlds she cherished. I had seen it in young Kyxiel who shows growth everyday--a reflection of the woman who she once was and I had hoped would become again one day...

"Heart shards?" I asked. "How insanely bizarre that sounds. You could never do anything the easy or simple way, could you, Keily?"

She looked at me, perplexed. But soon, she smiled knowingly at me and shook her head.

"No, I always did have a taste for tragedy didn't I?" she said.

"But if the Dark Lord found negative pieces of heart...what are you exactly? You must be something positive if you are trying to protect the lives of those present."

She smiled again and closed her eyes. I was slightly startled to find her fading from me before my eyes and I instinctively shot out to latch onto her...but all I managed to grasp onto was something bright and warm. One could say...it was like a crystal, yet I knew I really wasn't holding anything at all. And it shone like a brilliant beacon in the night--like a star in the heavens. It twinkled in my hands before it disappeared to wherever it had come from.

And yet I could still hear her words as the others began to reappear one by one into the barn. I'm not sure if anyone else had heard--or felt--it, but...

"Like from Pandora's box where all the miseries of the world had sprung from...I am Hope."

The Prince Speaks: For All Intents and Purposes

2007-01-09T20:07:00.000-05:00

"Dopa-maskey...dopa-meekey...grancha goo!"

I looked up from from the map of the world we had laid out over the kitchen table of Keily's house. I could hear Kyxiel's displeasured yelling at what I could only guess as the blogs of possibly Kenya Starflight or Rose. I had the distinct feeling that somebody must have gotten attacked. The Nobody let loose a string of what I assumed to be several different curses in a language I was not familiar with. Draco, who was with me along with Lupin and Potter, gave me a quizzical look.

Sighing, I turned to the irate woman and asked her what was wrong.

"They got some of the medics staying at Rose's place...and some idiots just tried to take Luke again. This is stucking fupid!"

"Pardon?" I asked.

"'Stucking fupid.' I'm trying to curb my swearing in English by switching out letters..." she asnwered, rubbing her face with her hands. She looked tired. Extremely tired. More weary than I had ever seen anyone. Although she could cuss enough to make a hardened sailor blush bright red, the Nobody didn't have much energy for anything else, but to curse aloud. I didn't blame her. The cold she had had been a bad one that left her bedridden until a few days ago when she managed to write about the attack on her person. Order members would cycle every once in a while to make sure that she was alright and protected. Right now it was Lupin and Potter's turn to stay with us.

"Maybe you should go upstairs and rest." I suggested, going over to the computer desk to help her onto her feet. She got up reluctantly, looking for all the world that she wished she could just end all of existence and save everyone the trouble of going through another huge fight. And considering the stakes this time, it might be the fight to end all fights. She swayed a little and I caught her.

"I can't...I can't just lie down and wait for them to come again." she told me, an edge of steel in her voice. "I can't just sit and not do anything while I know she's close by."

"Close by?"

"Keily." She had on a sardonic smile and there was something in her eyes--eyes almost as red as mine. Keily always had very uniquely colored eyes. Like fine wine they were...a reddish-brown that shone a deep amber in the afternoon light and almost glowed crimson in the darkness. Kyxiel's eyes were no different, but they glinted red more than Keily's ever did...hinted at the darkness lying within. "I know she's close by...and if she's close, then Voldemort isn't far behind."

I assumed that since both were essential one and the same that they could tell when the other was nearby, so I did not question her claim on being able to sense her Other around. I would wonder how the two of them would merge back together--if they could. Keily was the body, Kyxiel was the soul...but what would be the use of them being together as one if they had no Heart? I remember what the witch Yuuko had said all that time ago...about how all three parts of Keily had to be separated....be incomplete.

"Kyxiel...Yuuko said that the door to Kingdom Hearts...would stay close if Keily was made to be incomplete....what changed this?" I asked of the Nobody.

"I don't know." she answered. "Although it would be something I'd like to figure out." She brought her hands up, looking at them almost despondantly. I watched her rub the tips of her fingers and wondered what was going through her mind t that moment in time. "Especially if she really was the one who brought Unicron back...what would happen, do you think? She might do it again...and again and again...and it just won't stop..." She shook her head in defeat, shrugging off my hands to go upstairs. Probably to get some rest. Or sulk. Or go see William. She had begun to see my son at an increasing frequency since a little bit before Miss Starflight's Christmas party. Maybe he was a balm to her ugly existence? I don't know. But I made my way back to the map to discuss what was to be done now that the forces of darkness were on the move again.

What exactly was Voldemort planning to do by ressurecting the Emperor? Had they something specific in mind? What about the thefts at Rose's? What did they have to do with the greater scheme of things? So many questions and so many hypothesi accompanying them. It was still too early to know what was going on with so little information.

"Keily does have a rather unique power." Lupin noted. "Maybe they wish to remake the world...worlds...universe...whatever they wish into what they want it to be? That could be their ultimate goal." I nodded. It was a rather plausible idea. It would be something that those megalomaniacal men would try to do.

"Maybe they'd been planning this from the start?" Potter suggested.

"What are you getting at, boy?" I asked, secretly amused at how he bristled when I called him that. It must be hard for him to have to cope with his most hated person with his most hated enemy being almost one and the same now. It must be terrible for him to have to face me and talk to me civilly without the urge to sucker punch me in the face.

"Well, it's been rather obvious about what their intentions had been from the beginning...maybe they found out about Keily somehow and wrapped their plans around her abilities?"

"You know, had Keily been here, she'd be very insulted for your insinuation that she were a Sue."

Silence.

"Well, after they found out...suppose they rearranged their plan of attack?" Lupin cut in, putting on a cheerful smile. "After all...if I had someone who could just bring me back from the dead, I wouldn't need to worry about Horcruxes or the Force or whatnot...I would just make sure I'd come back and not make the same mistakes..."

"Which makes our opponent a rather dangerous one as it's one that can learn. Having died so many times, I doubt Palpatine will let himself lose this time round. He is a very shrewd man...on par with the Dark Lord."

It had been a very frightening thought the first time those two had joined forces. It had caused me to run for my life, rather than actually fight. Even at the very end, I chose to stay well out of it. And look where my running away had gotten me. Hm. I suppose I deserve this sort of thing happening...what with what I've done in the past. I find peace and then have it snatched away again.

I have never really loved. Something I will rarely ever admit to. But I do care. And I had cared for the young woman who played my host. To what ends continuing our acquaintance would have come to, I know not...But I sincerely wish that I could go back to simple days with her...making potions in her basement...hear her telling me off or skirting around me in an attempt to hide any feelings she had for me for fear of being persecuted (in more ways than one).

It's strange to think of her as gone and yet, not. Because her soul still remains...the strong spirit behind the gentle heart...

"Severus! Severus!!! Severus come quick!!!"

I dropped what I was doing, drawing my wand out as I rushed upstairs to see what was the matter--expecting an impromptu Death Eater attack. My heart had been racing, pounding in my ears when I slammed the door to William's nursery open.

My heart stopped at the sight before me.

Kyxiel was on the ground--sitting, not lying unconcious. Her arms were stretched out before her, fingers moving in a 'come here' gesture. Her eyes were aglow with something I couldn't possibly imagine being there as her lips were set in a gently smiling expression. Some feet away, little William was standing up--shakily.

"Is he--"

"Shh!"

IO stood at the doorway, dumbfounded as I watched my son take his first real steps towards the woman who could have been his mother. Watched as he moved one foot in front of the other awkwardly, his own arms outstretched. When he was within arm's reach of Kyxiel, he sped up and tumbled into the Nobody's arms with a happy squeal and a laugh. She laughed too, a sound so joyous and almost forgotten. It was Keily's laugh. Her mirth in all of its glory.

"Isn't it wonderful Severus?" she asked, looking at me as William squirmed in her arms. "William walked! He really walked!!"

Smiling myself, I went over to them and picked William up, telling him how proud I was. The child answered by waving an arm at Kyxiel, making grabbing motions.

"Mama." he mumbled.

Yes...I thought. She's still here...if only in spirit.

Kyxiel Report 6: This Universe Has Freakin' Father Issues

2007-01-07T16:19:00.000-05:00

No, seriously. I can name very few in my acquaintance that didn't have severe issues with fathers (or parental figures in general). Until recently I could safely say that Keily had no such troubles that she didn't bring upon herself (or I had wrought upon her unintentionally). Harry has father issues, Severus has father issues, Kenya has father issues and don't let me get started with Vader and Luke! Those two have enough parental issues to cover ten galaxies over.

The reason I say this is because I am nursing a bad cold from being outside for too long and getting severely beaten up on New Year's. New. Freakin'. Years'. You'd think that the scum of the universe would take a holiday, but I guess not.

Sometimes...I really wish I could get this whole thing over with and just blow everything up. But that's my homocidal tendencies bubbling up.

What happened exactly?

Keily handed my ass to me.

With Voldemort.

Long story short...

On New Year's Day, I decided to go out and have a walk around the city. It was incredibly warm out--a rather odd thing as it's the island of Montreal and it's usually unbearably cold this time of the year. As I was out I stumbled upon a group of men in black cloaks doing only goodness knew what to a man. I went out of my way to help him out, only to find that it was Voldemort in Severus' proper body. You could only guess what I said when I met up with him for the first time.

"Ah, great. I knew things were too peaceful." I muttered aloud, hoping that the dark lord heard every word I said. "What next? My other half's gonna proclaim herself as some villain henchlady like in some really bad fanfic?"

I should have kept my mouth shut.

"How terrible...do you hear that, Keily dear? Kyxiel thinks you're a villain. Are you going to stand for that?" Voldemort asked, using Severus' voice. He turned to face one of the black cloaked men and took one of their hands. Pushing a hood back, I stared at my reflection who had a blank look on her face.

She looked up at Voldemort, waiting for something. Then, at his nod, she turned to look at me. "No." she answered, emotionlessly. "I shall not."

"You know...she helped those terrible Resistance members kill Unicron...the same Unicron you worked so hard to bring into this world." he said into her ear.

"...Into this world..." she repeated softly under her breath. She did not look the least bit angry or upset. In fact, she was even worse than I am--and I'm a Nobody! She was a body with no soul (which I was) and no heart (which shattered with several parts scattered to the winds). It was kind of unnerving. But still...I was incredibly worried, despite myself. She brought Unicron here? How? Keily shouldn't be able to do such a feat--especially without a Heart! What was going on...?

"Keily, dear...shall we get rid of this meddler? I think the world would be a better place if we were to be rid of her...don't you think?" Voldemort asked, looking for all I could see like a devil trying to lead a wayward lamb astray. Keily looked up at him again and he nodded to her, a signal I took as approval for whatever my Other had in mind....which could not be good for my health.

She held out her hand to me. "Give me my heart back."

I was taken aback. What?

She insisted again. "Give it back, Nobody."

I shook my head. I had no heart within me--least of all--hers. It had been lost...broken. Burnt itself to a crisp with grief. I said nothing to her as I pondered all this and more. She must have taken it rather badly s she set her hand down at her side.

"Hmmm...looks like she won't give it back peaceably, my dear." Voldemort said offhandedly. "Well, no matter...we couldn't very well let her live, right?"

Keily looked at me and nodded. "Right...."

The next part happened in a blur. I knew that I fought back--fought back as hard as I could. It's me I'm fighting...right? There was no way I would hold back on myself! Of course, it was alittle hard...you try avoiding a lightsaber! Where the hell did she get it anyways?! It certainly wasn't Dooku's saber she was using...

"You helped them kill father...Severus told me that you let father die..." she said, in between trying to slice me in two. She almost succeeded as she surprised me with what she said. Did she just call Voldemort...Severus?!

"The hell you talking about?!" I yelled back. "Your old man is still alive and kicking! Andy never stops giving me hell because you had to go all noble and sacrifice yourself--ya big moron!"

She stopped abruptly and looked at me blankly.

"Andy?" she asked, sounding a little unsure.

I narrowed my eyes at her, tensing up in anticipation of an attack. Although I had my suspicions...

"Who's Andy?" she demanded looking quite perplexed. "Dantius Palpatine is my father."

That statement..was like a slap to the face. I had the sudden urge to scream in denial for five minutes straight, then proceed to throw myself in the nearby river (Keily's house is located near one). Luckily, I have common sense (and am not a Skywalker).

As I came to grips with this declaration (and a very twisted one it is--what the hell did Voldemort do?!), she got this sort of creepy little smile on her face.

"But not to worry...father will be coming back shortly...Yes...father's spirit shall return and all shall be well again."

About then I got knocked out.

When I came to, the real Severus was there with me--along with several Order members that the man had come to pay a visit when they found out that Voldemort was on the move again. They managed to save me before anything bad happened, but I was pretty bruised (and singed in places where the lightsaber nicked me) and I caught a cold from staying outside too long with alight jacket (it had been around 15 degrees when I first went outside).

And there you have it.

Looks like things ar starting up...again.

God, I wish I could just get everything over with and just BLOW UP this bloody universe.

Kyxiel Report 5: It's Christmas

2006-12-17T10:01:00.000-05:00

This is probably the most embarrassing time of the year for me. More so now that I think of myself as an individual, rather than being as a part of another person (which sort of makes me anxious whenever I do think about it). When I remember the events of last Christmas (events that Keily did not transcribe onto this blog) I have this terrible urge to bash my head against a table. It's no secret that Keily held a torch for Severus. Even when they first met and got off on the wrong foot. Well, last year she was already dating someone. Yes, I know what you're thinking....she was cheating on him! No, no...Keily is extremely faithful to that one person she finds special, even if that person isn't faithful with her. And, at the time, she had only just begun to get to properly know Severus for who he was and not what she thought he was. But that's not what I wanted to tell you...the reason she left out a holiday post was because of one particular embarrassing incident where she wanted to visit her boyfriend to give him a Christmas present, got lost, wound up getting saved by Severus and wound up putting the present into her closet never to be seen again--especially when she and her boyfriend broke-up. Until now. While cleaning out her closet (it's a frightful mess) I found the present and the memory kicked in and I began to plot…

“Are you ready?” Severus asked, wrapping William up warmly in his newly bought winter clothes. I watched him a while still only halfway done with my coat. I wouldn’t have felt the cold that acutely, but for his sake I dressed up for the occasion in seasonal colors and a warm jacket. He looked up, then turned to face me, looking rather peeved that I hadn’t budged an inch since the last time he had asked me if I was ready to go.

“You aren’t finished.” He stated. “The party will be starting soon.” He added, to urge me to hurry up.

I nodded. “Just one last thing.” I said. I reached into my coat pocket and produced a little box. I held it out to him. “Merry Christmas.”

He stood there, dumbfounded. His snake like red eyes (remember everyone, he’s STILL trapped inside Voldemort’s old body) narrowed at me in distrust in the way Keily and I only knew him to do. I picked up his hand, then deposited the present. Not exactly the most graceful or elegant way to give someone a present. Nor was it romantic, but…I suppose I was reminding him that Keily and I are the same, even if we aren’t. I quickly did up the rest of my things, picked up William (while he cooed into my ears, which somehow made me feel rather glad) and began to walk out the door.

Severus and I did not talk to each other during Kenya’s party. William was passed around a few times and he seemed to be enjoying himself. He also tried speaking word which made me smirk. I wonder how Vader would react to little William always calling him ‘Bay-ba’ until he got his consonants right? I suppose it was pretty cute. I watched Vader, Kenya and Severus interact and somehow, deep within me…I couldn’t help but…feel a little relieved.

And then I heard the bagpipes.

Now don’t get me wrong…Zack can play. I just don’t like bagpipes. At all. But I did have to leave so my ears could stop ringing so I could get up and do my song later. ‘Carol of the Bells’. It wasn’t a song I knew well…but I think I learnt it well enough, fast enough for the day.

Still…thought it was too cheerful sounding for me. Depressing aren't I?

But I suppose it did the job for everyone else.

Hark how the bells,
sweet silver bells,
all seem to say,
throw cares away

Christmas is here,
bringing good cheer,
to young and old,
meek and the bold

Oh how they pound,
raising the sound,
o'er hill and dale,
telling their tale

Gaily they ring
while people sing
songs of good cheer
Christmas is here

Merry, merry, merry, merry Christmas,
Merry, merry, merry, merry Christmas,
On on they send ,
on without end,
their joyful tone to every home
Dong Ding dong ding, dong Bong

Kyxiel's Con Report

2006-11-21T08:42:00.000-05:00

Well, as some of you know there was a convention in Ottawa, Ontario the past weekend called AC3. Some months ago Keily signed up for it...which meant that I had to show up or be prepared for one hell of an ear ache when Keily got her heart back. I won't bore everyone with the details. Instead, I shall name off the highlights.

-There was a pool. In a fit of righteous fangirl anger, Demyx was pushed into said pool by an annoyed KH2 fangirl who constantly had trouble with him in the Hollow Bastion level.

-There were many oldschool cosplayers. And when I mean oldschool....I mean Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask oldschool.

-Aerith was there, too. She had a VERY heavy basket full of flowers that needed to be weapons checked. We were all very amused.

-I had to dodge several crazy fangirls. In the end I was dog piled.

-I had to do a singing panel/workshop. It started off shaky, had an even shakier middle and had a spectacular ending. Apparently my singing left such an impression upon the people present that they asked me for an encore and autographs.

-At the j-pop/j-rock dance the Macarena began to play. I, dressed as Hatori Sohma, my friend, dressed up as a gothic lolita, another girl friend and Tuxedo Mask did the Macarena for a full six minutes. While ding so, we attracted people into doing the same in several different parts of the room.

-Roxas was there. He was constantly looking for Axel. A cute little ten year old promised him that he would go and help look for Axel.

-Namine was accompanying me the entire time. No one knew who she was...even Kairi didn't recognize her. Had she any emotions I think she would have been very disappointed...Had I not said oh, so unsubtly, "Hey, Namine, look...it's Kairi." Kairi's subsequent response was: "Oh, god. It's Namine! *glomp*"

-Sora was there, too. And so was Riku. Both of them kept missing each other at such incredibly pivotal moments to the point that even I was laughing my head off by the end of the weekend.

-I met Gir....a robot wearing a green dog suit. He said he saw a squirrel. I was amused.

-Keily won a fanfic contest award for Best Originality. It was for a KH2 fanfic called 'I'm Home'.

And, once again. I am tired. Very very, very, VERY tired. In all honesty...I think I'd rather be fighting a horde of evil dark lords than try and handle a hotel full of crazy, screaming fans.

*sigh*

And to think...Keily's already gotten us signed up for next year....

Kyxiel Report 4: Tired

2006-11-12T15:08:00.000-05:00

Well, as usual it incredibly stinks to be the double of a person who couldn't complain to someone face-to-face, but I'll leave off of that for now. Things have begun to settle into some sort of normalcy here in Montreal (if one ignores the huge shadow of darkness still hovering above our heads from months ago). Snape has returned to Keily's house (I can't bring myself to say it's mine--even if it technically is) and is tending to his son as any father would. He's taking a break from working with the Order, which still hasn't made its final move against Voldemort...not yet at least.

"We're...trying to see if we could get Keily back..." he said.

"I'll bet." I told him, a little derisively, might I add.

"You're about as peachy as Bellatrix." he replied dryly.

"You know you love me." At this, he scowled and muttered something under his breath. I'm very sure he's cursing my existence right about now and wishing that my Other was around. Had I any emotions, I'd be hurt or more than just a bit annoyed. Either way, I smacked him upside his bald head on my way upstairs for good measure. He grinned as I heard him curse again.

I'm still rather weary after the fight against Unicron, but I say things could have gone worse. Much worse. I don't know what to think of it all, really. I don't know the deceased very well and my lack of a heart makes for a very large deficiency when it comes to emotions, but I suppose I do feel somewhat sorry for what has happened. But with all that was going on...I had to wonder.

There's a distinct chance that my Other was the cause of what was happening so far. Things that were happening shouldn't and people who were gone were coming back...good and evil. I know they've been happening before Keily's heart decided to make one hell of an explosion and causing a rift, but now these ressurections are becoming much more frequent and it's worrying me. Why?

It's upsetting the balance of all things. People just don't come back from the dead--and if they do, they usually come back as zombies or vampires--unless something in the universal balance has been screwed over.

Well, I can't mull on it forever or my brain might explode. For now, I'll rest and then I can unravel the series of mysteries surrounding Kenya, Rose and Keily's little band of friends.

Kyxiel Report 3: The Cybertron Front

2006-11-08T07:57:00.000-05:00

"Brrrr....it's cold!"

"It's a world meant for gigantic robots after all...I highly doubt they can tell how cold it is...considering they are made of metal...I suppose only extreme temperatures could be felt by their metalic frames..."

"And what about you?!"

"What about me?"

"You're human."

"Correction. I am a Nobody who remembers its human shape."

".............."

"...Besides, Canada gets a lot colder this time of year and Keily used to go swimming in frozen lakes."

"You're mental...she's mental...You're BOTH mental."

"I'll take that as a compliment, Mister Malfoy."

Oh, yes. Draco Malfoy came with me to Cybertron. A rather unpleasant surprise as I found him stowed away in of the Heartless containment units. I wondered how he managed to stay alive for so long. The trip to Cybertron was rather long for a Nobody ship (five minutes, an all time record). But he was there and I could do very little for him.

"Just stay out of trouble, Mister Malfoy. I wouldn't want your mother breathing down my neck because you did something stupid." I said to him with a long suffering sigh. But I gave him a small smile anyways. I don't know why. Perhaps it is a habit of my Other transfered to myself.

"Kyxiel!" someone called.

I turned away from the wizard to see Megatron coming my way. Maleficent was also with him. I walked up to meet them, giving him a casual wave of my hand.

"Well, met, Megatron."

"Ah, good. Someone who doesn't call me 'Megs'." he said, sounding a little relieved. I smirked.

"At least you don't have a breakfast cereal sounding nickname...'Kyx'? What am I? Keily?" I said, rolling my eyes. He gave me his version of a raised eyebrow.

"Do I have to answer that?" I glared and jokingly kicked him in the shin plate. He chuckled for a bit, then he became serious. "Kyxiel...we'd like to know something..."

I looked suspicious. What could they want to know? But then I remembered the comment I made the other day on Rose's blog and I understood what they wanted to know. They knew that I knew where the 'storm' had come from. Technically, everyone knew where the storm had come from, however, I think they've forgotten exactly where.

I sighed and began to explain.

"You do remember....a while ago that Keily's heart...kind of went 'Big Bang' on us, right? Shattered pieces...thrown and scattered all over the place...a dark storm of emotions hovering and growing over the island of Montreal?" Both of them nodded, Maleficent looking very worried indeed, while Megatron seemed highly interested. "I think...Because of that...Keily inadvertedly created some sort of rip...straight to Kingdom Hearts..." Maleficent looked shocked, but she did try to rationalize things.

"I know that Keily's heart knows the way to Kingdom Hearts...Is it really possible for it to rip open the resting and birth place of all hearts in the universe?" I shrugged. I wasn't 100% sure, but that seemed like the only possibility to me. Palpatine was definitely dead without any way of coming back. Although, I can guess that he had some indirect hand in all of this. Had he not threatened Kenya...had he not started the war between Earth and every other force in the galaxy...Keily and I would have still been one person...None of this trouble would have started.

"A heart is only as strong as it is fragile. The stronger the heart, the more likely it can be broken." I said.

"How so?" Megatron asked. I looked to the ground and thought out my next response.

"...The strength of one's heart can be measured by the conviction one possesses. And the very same conviction one holds in one's heart can be that one fatal weakness as well...understand?" I looked at the two of them as they shared a look. They stared at one another, then they turned to me and nodded. They understood.

"Keily...believed in something very strongly...didn't she?" Maleficent said. I nodded. Megatron took on a pondering expression.

"I wonder...what she believed in...that could rip open time and space itself..." I smirked.

"The very same thing that saved Harry Potter...it is the thing that helped Beren and Luthien...it is what broguht Vader and Kenya together. Keily believed in love. And nothing more than that."

"Is that what you believe, Kyxiel?" Megatron posed.

"...I believe in hope. For without hope, love cannot grow. But I am a soul bereft of a heart. Any hope I could have has already been given to many others. I can keep none for myself." I sighed, shaking my head. "So...we should figure out a way to get rid of that storm when this thing is over...Because I think it's grown by 50% since it first came all those months ago..."

Maleficent and Megatron nodded in agreement. I smiled.

Well, we better get ready for the next great battle.

Wish us luck.

Kyxiel Report 2: Home Is NOT Where the Heart Is

2006-10-02T20:38:00.000-05:00

Well, I really wonder how Keily could stand her family at time. Really, I do. That girl must have the patience of a saint whenever she deals with them to not want to go on a homocidal rampage because I sure as hell want to go on a homocidal rampage. But to keep up the charade that I am Keily, I had to pretend to be just like her--pretend everything is okay and smile.

Sometimes I really wonder if I'm really Keily's Nobody.

Anyways...a quick run through of why I wonder how Keily could possibly stand just living. Last month there was a shooting at her school. One person died and several others were killed. I had wanted to go in that day, but some sort of instinct kept me in the house that day (yes, Keily's parents didn't decide to throw her out of the house anymore, but on very strict and stiffling conditions). Had I gone I might have been injured or killed. It's this sort of memory...this incident at the school that curbs my hand...will most likely keep Keily's hand at bay whenever she brings it to mind.

Keily always hated being the butt of everyone's jokes, just because she was in adequate...in other words...dumb. It's not her fault she's never heard of a word before in a whole other language. And it's certainly not my fault for not knowing it myself.

I really hate Keily's family and I wish, very much, to take a sword and be done with it. However, my other wouldn't want that and I personally didn't want to have to explain to her why she was an orphan and without family. Morbid, I know, but I am pretty much Keily's Inner Darkness all wrapped up into one package.

I've been taking lessons in French with Keily's uncle these last few weeks and I absolutely dread them. I have a very basic sense of the language and I lack a very wide vocabulary and he doesn't undertsnad English sayings all that well, so he takes whatever I say at face value and then tries to tell me in his oh-so-subtle way that I am stupid for thinking such a thing. A man who works at a university he is, but a teacher he is not! He obviously doesn't understand how every person thinks differently...that they don't neccessarily have to deal with one thing the exact same way, though they do share some rudimentary things because it's been ingrained into their heads since ever.

Today's lesson was on the topic of road rage, but what the text wanted to tell us was that one must learn to be self-conscious and patient and tolerant.

He obviously followed it less than I did, because I certainly held myself back from totally kicking the table and walking away in a huff. Why do I say this? Because I didn't know one simple word and I asked for help on it. And do you know what he did?

He humiliated me.

I f--king hate Keily's family. Really, I do. Why? Because not only did HE humiliate me, but her parents got into it as well and when someone called on the phonje at the exact time, they even got that person in on humiliating me. I admitted I was dumb and that I was dyslexic (one of the few traits Keily and I shared), so he couldn't expect me to do everything perfectly right at a second's notice. And he made me feel even worse.

Yes, I know. Nobodies do not feel. However, we can mimic feelings very easily and were Keily there she would have felt rage...if not despair for disappointing her family again. All the kid ever wanted was the happiness of others and her family doesn't understand that. They think it a stupid, idealistic goal she could never achieve and that if she wanted them to be happy that she should get smart, graduate school, get a job and take care of them in their old age. Okay, maybe I went a bit overboard with the last sentence, but to Keily she had problems. Real problems that old school people like her family doesn't understand. Things like dyslexia, depression and simple wants do not get through to their minds. I can understand that they want their child to do well, but did they have to make her HATE them with every fibre of her being as much as she loved them? And believe me, I know this. I know all of Keily's heart's desires...it's one of the things you get good at noticing when you're a Nobody and have no heart. Ironic, eh?

I think Keily might have felt this through me because the dark clouds around us are getting worse. An aura of despair is seeping into the air...I've heard that her friends are even beginning to feel the effects.....

You know...I don't blame her for going nuts.

I just wish she'd see some sense again...

On the news of William, Snape and Draco....Draco went back with his mother and they're currently in hiding thanks to the Order. In Snape's case he's doing whatever he can to help the Order fight against Voldemort.

As for William...

I wonder what he's thinking. The kid's gotten really quiet. He won't laugh, giggle...talk. He's just a baby, but babies should make some sort of noise, right? I guess even he could tell something's wrong. He doesn't even make a sound when he cries...

Kyxiel Report 1: Heartbreak

2006-08-30T22:19:00.000-05:00

Have any of you ever seen a heart break? Really seen it? Yuuko had and she was more than willing to share (in other words, she wanted to give us grief for giving her grief). It's not a pretty sight. And I had been there to investigate the 'remains' of the shattered heart that could have opened the doors of Kingdom Hearts if it so pleased. 'But why did it break?' you must wonder. Well, a heart could break for many reasons. It can break from incredible duress brought on by grief, sorrow, hate, rejection...nearly anything really. A heart is as strong as it is fragile. Remember that folks.

How did Keily's break so easily? Well, I shall bring you back to the time all Hell broke loose in Montreal...well, maybe just a tiny bit before that. Snape finally decided that a family visit was in order as Keily had gone missing from home for quite some time now and her family would inevitably be wondering what had happened to her.

And they did--for the most part. Heh. Keily's an advocat for the truth--she hates lies, but often shies away from the truth, if only to spare others the ugliness of it all. And the truth of the matter at that point in time was that Keily's parents had given up on her. Just like that. Twenty-years of raising the child they kept and they wanted nothing to do with her anymore.

Did Keily ever tell you how incredibly screwed up her family really is? Well, most likely. But I know one thing she never wanted you guys to know--probably out of embarrassment--or maybe she just didn't want you guys to think she was a pity whore. The kid had an older brother...died naught, but three years ago--attached at the hip they used to be (not literally, of course)--twins, to boot. Their relationship had not been conventional. Although, from the outside it seemed to be just sibling rivalry, but the bruises and sprained wrists proved otherwise.

Nah, they never hated each other. Not an ounce. Keily had been a pretty sick kid when she was younger (a fact she also wants to avoid telling people in case she initiates a pity party) with heart problems as it was something hereditary in their family. Keily, her younger sister and father had the problem. Keily's brother dodged the bullet and had been born healthy, strong and beautiful.

Yet he had been the one given up.

You see folks, you might not think it possible, but it does happen from time to time. A young couple (and Keily's parents had been exceptionally young when they had the twins) with no cash, bad job prospects and having only just graduated high school can't really support a family--especially when the family was already too big and problematic for them to handle. But neither parent wanted to give up the twins, but did decide they would give up one for adoption--to have a chance at a better life, maybe. There had been many rows, but it had been decided that Keily should be kept, while her brother had been put up for adoption.

Now, I'm not trying to make you think that these folks were bad people. They had to do it or end up starving all together. They also knew no one would want to adopt a sickly child, so off her brother went. And they raised little Keily to be the girl you know today. Whatever that entails, of course.

But, in the end, as stated...they gave up on the kid.

Now, if that doesn't break a heart, then I don't know what does.

...........................

....Stay tuned for my next report, kiddies. Got any questions? I'll gladly answer them. My Other would have wanted it that way.

A Disturbance In the Force

2006-08-22T00:31:00.000-05:00

This is Kyxiel speaking. After wrestling with my conscience and with Master Diz about certain details and who got to use the computer next...I am finally able to give a message to you all. Something inexplicable has happened--well, it's easily explained, but from what I can tell it'll send you in for a loop or two trying to figure it out.

Master Diz's words are all good and sweet and all, as he wanted to let you guys down gently. Thing is, Diz didn't do what he did to protect Keily and the Worlds from the forces of Darkness. In truth, he did it to save the Worlds from HER. She has an exceptionally powerful heart which crosses time and many places with a unique ability to call upon the source of all--Kingdom Hearts, the Force--what have you--at will now that it's been awakened to its true potential. Add that to an already fragile mindset and an incredibly strong sense of justice...

In an evening during the weekend--Saturday, I'd say--a terrible storm made of purely dark emotions (many around at the time thought them to be love, grief, despair, regret and hatred) exploded in the heart of China Town in Montreal. The source of this had been Keily's heart. For an unknown reason, according to eye wtiness accounts, the heart suddenly turned pitch black, then to glass and then shattered within the globe keeping it enclosed. The shattered pieces began to burn and then burst forth out of the confines, sending most of Montreal into a huge emotional nightmare. No one is sure what had caused this to happen, but Mister Malfoy believes it had something to do with a visit that Miser Snape had made just a small while beforehand to Keily's home.

According to Mrs Weasley the girl suddenly stood up as if possessed around the same time several timezones away and nothing could stop her from leaving the House of Black. Not even four grown wizards and witches, a House Elf and a few Hogwarts students.

And she hasn't been seen since...Until she was spotted standing hand in hand with Lord Voldemort in his stolen body during the last Death Eater raid somewhere in northern England.

Sorry to bring the bad news, kiddies. Call me if you need me. Looks like Keily's gone AWOL.

The Prince Speaks: The Doorway

2006-08-18T00:10:00.000-05:00

…

I don’t know what to say really…I’ve learnt a lot in the last few days…some of which I wish I never knew. But now I know and I suppose as Keily’s friends…I should tell you all that I have learned from Yuuko. I paid no price for the information…as Keily foresaw this and paid in advance for us…in case we ever went to find out the truth.

…

Did you know that despite looking so small on the inside…that Yuuko’s home was like a labyrinth? It seemed forever before she showed me the Treasure Room, a place where she kept all the items she received in return for her services. There had been many baubles, jewels and crowns, toys, clothing…whatever your heart could desire…there it was. There was even a very large display of what looked to be row upon row of inactive lightsabers. But the things in the Treasure Room had been mere trinkets compared to what I witnessed in a special portion of the room.

Enclosed in a large glass globe was a glorious, golden, shining ball of light so bright that I couldn’t even look directly at it. Though it was blinding, the light was warmth and vaguely familiar. I had made a comment about it and the witch smiled at me.

“I should hope so. This is Keily’s heart.”

I couldn’t believe it though. I’ve been shown photographs of what a heart should look like…literal, metaphorical or otherwise. But Keily’s heart was something else. At least twice the size of any heart the people of Organization XIII have shown me…and probably a hundred times as brilliant. I wish I could actually share the vision of this phenomena, but I can’t…And seeing it floating there, trapped behind glass, made me understand how Keily could have a Nobody of her own…while making me wonder where the darkness was lurking within this star in order to create one.

“Miss Shinra has a big heart…in more ways than one. It stretches through time and space itself…connecting to many hearts from many different worlds…” Yuuko said, approaching the heart and placing a hand upon the glass. “It’s very rare to find a heart…that could hold many universes within…keeping them together by a simple thread of fate…yet not be able to love itself as it does others. Do you understand what I am saying?”

I had to admit…I didn’t. I was never one for emotions—not until recently.

“Well, I suppose you don’t.” she said. “Let me tell you a story…one that Keily paid for me to tell you.”

“Many say that the heart begins and ends in Darkness, so, therefore, the fabled Kingdom Hearts is the Darkness itself. However, some time ago, Sora proved that it was also Light. Since that has happened, quite a few believe that Kingdom Hearts, the place where all hearts go to can alternate…or be both. Depending on who calls it forth—and so far, according to most sources…it’s been called twice. The funny thing is…in truth…it’s been closed for almost a hundred years…way before the time of Ansem the Wise—or Diz, as he calls himself now--and his assistants. And it almost destroyed everything. It is true…Kingdom Hearts has two sides…like a coin. But it does not carry Darkness or Light. Kingdom Hearts…is Creation and Oblivion.”

“But what does this have to do with your darling little Keily? Well, as it so happens…a hundred years ago, a discovery was made. A heart of special type will be born once every millennia or so…Kingdom Hearts’ sick joke. Where there is a key…there must be a lock, am I correct? Or a door to be more precise. Did you know that everyone in Organization XIII has an individual nickname? Xemnas, being the first, was called the Superior…Axel, the Flurry of Dancing Flames…Larxene, the Savage Nymph…Roxas…the Key of Destiny. Kyxiel, as some might have guessed…is Keily’s Nobody…born from the darkness that is her own, yet not her own. But that’s a story for another time. Do you know what Diz has taken to calling her?”

I shook my head, of course. How would I know how a stranger thought?

“He dubbed her, ‘the Doorway’. And do you know why? Well, it is theorized that a heart will return to Kingdom Hearts and know its way there once the heart’s owner’s life has ended. However, as I mentioned before, there is one heart born, separate from the rest…even different from the hearts of the seven princesses that can call forth the Door to Darkness. How is it different? The heart knows the way and can call forth the door at any time…Diz has been looking for such a heart for a very long time…”

She sighed.

“A hundred years ago, someone tried to open the door to Kingdom Hearts…only to bring down destruction and chaos upon the worlds—warping them into the states that they are in now. That is why we have other Worlds, though some places share the same attributes and names…Other universes were made as they were…it had been a terrible time. And then the door had been closed off in the hopes it would never open again. And it won’t…as long as the wrong people don’t get their hands on Keily when she’s a whole person.”

“That is why…I separated her heart from her body…and let her wandering soul become a Nobody. Kyxiel knows that the heart is here…waiting, but she won’t ever take it. For even if she carries Keily’s darker aspects…she won’t let the Worlds that her other self loved get destroyed. That child has the mind of a martyr, Mister Snape. Even if you had enough to pay me back for this heart, I won’t give it up so easily…It’ll be a long while before I can give it up.”

“What would I have to pay…to get her heart back?”

Yuuko thought about it for at least four seconds.

“So far, neither Palpatine nor Voldemort or any Dark Lord of note knows about Keily’s secret and I am sure that you will tell her friends as soon as you leave. Some of them will most likely be people in search of Kingdom Hearts as well…But I don’t worry too much about them. No…my worries are about the forces of Darkness suddenly converging on THIS Earth all of a sudden. Had she never met you…had her potential not been stirred…Keily’s heart wouldn’t have awakened…and remembered the way to Kingdom Hearts. The only way I could return Keily’s heart to you would be if you could rid of Voldemort and Palpatine from this world so that no agent of Darkness may know of Kingdom Hearts’ true power of Creation and Destruction…Oblivion.”

And there you have it. That’s the bloody reason why Keily’s heart was taken from her.

Why do I feel as there’s something else to all this? That there was more, but had been left unsaid? But that is alright with me. For I will get Keily back, no matter what it takes. First, I shall help Lord Vader in his time of need to help get Miss Starflight back. And then we shall move on to be rid of Voldemort…and that’ll be that…won’t it?

I just don’t know what to think right now. I know that I must do something before I rip my eyes out of my head.

But as I said…it will be alright.

Because hope visited us today when I returned from visiting Yuuko.

There was a little white dove perched on the windowsill with a piece of parchment in its mouth. It flew over to me, landing on my shoulder softly as it dropped the parchment in my hands. It cooed, I supposed, in an encouraging manner before flying away. The parchment was small and there hadn’t been that much of a message inside and it made my own heart swell, I think. It was marked for late June…probably a message she had wanted to send to me when she had gone to Mustafar to fight the Emperor and his forces…Just something odd and obscure and so vague that it could have only come from her hand…

What is being Lost, but Forgotten?
What is being Forgotten, but Lost?
I want to be with you always…hand in hand.
Lets finish this story together.

Update

2006-08-13T12:57:00.000-05:00

Thank you all for your support—it’s really appreciated. And on behalf of Severus and Keily I sincerely apologize the amount of trouble we’re causing (even if Keily were up and about and saying that I’m ‘not sincere at all’ and that I ‘should probably stop lying before I burn in hell for it’).

So far, no improvements in the Keily situation at all. Rinnalaiss and the elf lords stopped by immediately to see if they could do anything, but after a while she didn’t even so much as twitch. We waited a good few days to see if, possibly, that the athelas would kick in, but there are no visible improvements. We’re thinking of moving her to St Mungo’s to see if they could do anything, but I doubt that they could. At least Keily would be more comfortable there…

Severus has taken to secluding himself in one of the upstairs rooms, thinking about something or other. One would think that with his hard won freedom that he would get out more. Then again, with his current situation, I don’t blame him for hiding more than usual. He’s probably thinking about what Tabby told us on the blog. It’s all strange to me, though. How can a person live without a heart? I suppose it wouldn’t be a beating one that was removed. Still…I have to wonder…

As some of you may know, Keily’s been a sort of medium for quite a while now and only recently did she show signs of real magic—just before Severus and I got Keily her first wand. She once told us that before we met, she used to have rather accurate and vivid dreams of the future and that during her waking hours, she’d mistake them as memories and have déjà vu whenever they happened in front of her.

I wonder if she had seen any of the past few months coming. I wonder if she had seen her own end. That’d be kind of spooky, if you ask me…to know when you’re going to have your life stop and you have so much that you still want to do. But she never acted like it would…or maybe she did. She lived by that strange Muggle motto: “Live every day like it’s your last.”

It’s very upsetting to be thinking of her—of everything—like this—more than you could ever know. Many are starting to live like that now, I think. There are so many dangers out there—enemies at almost every turn. The minute we think one is gone, another pops up to take try to take us down. Although I hate to think it…Darkness is all around and it is thick and eternal as the Light is brilliant and ever present. It’s how things work. It’s how everything stays in check.

I don’t have much else to say…but I think the world just got a little darker with Keily gone.

~Draco

-----------------------

From the Hand of Severus Snape

To Rinnalaiss and the elf lords, Elrohir and Elladan: Thank you for your efforts.

To Tabby: I hope that a meeting can be arranged between myself and a few of the Organization members. There are a few things I’d like to discuss. Also, I think there would be a certain witch that we must extract some answers from.

To Kenya: Thank you, Miss Starflight. I can understand your animosity towards me and do not blame you for it. Were I in your place, I’d despise myself wholeheartedly. It would be greatly appreciated if you could take on young William from time to time, as Narcissa could use the occasional break.

To Vader: While incarcerated, Keily happened to relay a certain message to me. The only response I can give you is: You’re welcome. And Keily would have hexed me ten times till Tuesday had I not done it.

Strangers

2006-08-10T22:57:00.000-05:00

I don’t know how she could do it. Taking care of William while being worried over someone else’s well-being. I don’t know how she could just sit there, pretend everything’s alright and wait for Severus to come back. I find it nerve-wracking. I wonder if this was really how she felt under all of her brave words. I’ve taken to looking outside myself, wondering when she was going to come back.

We gave the ring to McGonagall as soon as we could. Severus had wanted to hang onto it for a little while. Not really much that I could say about it. The crown (that’s what it really was) had been given to Potter and his gang to deal with afterwards. I don’t know if they’ve destroyed it or not.

Everything’s slowly coming together at our side of the Wizarding War and we could only wish Kenya and Lord Vader luck with the next fight against the Emperor.

Neither Severus nor I feel right to go back to Keily’s home—not until we know what has happened to her, whether she lives still or if she’s lost to us for good. Yuuko’s note did not leave much to the imagination and has made those who have read it believe in Keily’s death. With her prolonged disappearance without any sightings, it has become very difficult not believe the woman’s words.

They came this morning. At the time, William and I were fooling around with Keily’s laptop, going through the music files one by one when a dark portal opened up and a bizarre looking man dressed in red stepped through. Severus had walked into the parlour himself, freezing as he witnessed this strange phenomena.

“This seems to be the correct place. Good work, my apprentice.” The man said, in a voice exactly like Count Dooku’s. Had Keily been around, I’m sure she would have asked who he was. I didn’t ask. I demanded to know who the hell he was and what he was doing in the Order headquarters.

“All in good time my boy.” He said calmly, hands behind his back. “Right now I’ve a delivery to make on behalf of the witch, Yuuko.” He looked to the opened portal. “Kyxiel.”

Another person (this one dressed in a black coat with the hood up) came through the portal carrying someone I had been waiting for.

“Dear Merlin.” Severus whispered.

I left William with the laptop to go forward and see for myself, Severus having gone into shock. Had I been him I would have, too. For there Keily was, looking for all the world as if she were merely sleeping. She barely moved. She didn’t move.

“Is she dead?” I asked, reaching forward. I snatched my hand away just as soon as I touched Keily’s skin. Dear god, she was so cold! Like ice! The person, Kyxiel, handed Keily over to me. As she did, I saw a glimpse of what was under the hood--messy black hair and glowing red eyes. I gulped as I struggled to hold Keily—I was never really that strong.

“Not quite dead, not quite alive, I’m afraid.” The man in red said. “And she isn’t undead either…But I do believe she’s lost something of great value. A most curious thing really…” He turned around and began to exit into the portal. “Come Kyxiel.”

Severus finally snapped out of his stupor at that point. “Wait! What do you mean that she lost something?” he demanded, rushing forward. “Did a dementor devour her soul?”

I watched the man smirk at Severus behind his strange wrappings.

“You’ll find out…one way or another…” was all he said. He turned to look at his apprentice who nodded at him. She started to follow the man into the portal, but stopped as William hit a key on the laptop keyboard with a hand. A music box tune began to play, making Kyxiel turn and listen to the playing music. She obviously knew the song, since she stood there for a little while, l listening to the melody. I knew the song as well. It was a song that Keily had used for the basis of one of her fanfictions, which she had called ‘Chain of Memories’. The man in red looked at her in confusion. “Kyxiel?”

Kyxiel started. “…This music…Master Diz…I feel as if…” she trailed off.

Diz became impatient with his apprentice. “Nobodies do not feel, Kyxiel. You should know that by now.” She said nothing, just going straight into the portal, enveloped by the darkness. Diz nodded to us in farewell and left.

…

Does anyone mind telling us what just happened?

~Draco

Draco's Dead End

2006-08-04T16:22:00.000-05:00

Hello, everyone. This is Draco Malfoy speaking for the very first time on Keily’s blog. Most of you must have been expecting her to write about the events at the Ministry earlier today—possibly even Severus could have been writing all of it. But no. I shall be writing it and we all have to live with that fact.

So lets begin at the beginning. Today was the day that Severus was to be executed. Keily had been acting strange these last few days since her trip to China Town. She looked very happy, cheerful and bright—like nothing was wrong with the world. She didn’t sigh, not even once. But one look at her face and I knew, that there was something bothering her. She didn’t tell me what it was, though I made a point to ask her about it.

But she would just smile, turning her ring (a new habit she was forming) while saying nothing at all. Sometimes she would bring my head down (I’m over half a foot taller than her now) and give me a kiss on the cheek, the way my mother used to do when I was younger--to say good-bye before I left for school. At the time, I thought that her monthlies had finally kicked in after being shut off for almost a year. I had thought that the stress of everything was finally coming down on her, making her seem madder than ever before…and not in the good sense either.

Thing is, Keily can be pretty annoying. But the way she annoys you, you can’t really get angry with her for it. It’s due to the fact that—before this whole War with everyone and their grannies business started—she was as loony as they came. She did the most incomprehensible things. Even by Gryffindor standards, she’d probably be considered too much. And I miss that.

All that Keily ever did afterwards was sigh, look towards the sky for something and be depressed. I hated it. It was like someone ripped her into two parts and took the good parts, leaving behind the leftovers that could barely keep themselves together. Then, I learned about her ‘other side’. It was incredibly aggressive. Headstrong, determined and completely filled with righteous rage. I’ve known her for a year. Keily’s the type of person who follows the winds of Fate—who would yield in favor of others—crushing herself so that the people around her could be happy. And never once have I ever seen or felt her know hate.

I guess, had she the right powers, she probably could have made a decent Jedi. But I have to say: after Mustafar, if Dooku had lived, she would have made an even better Sith. And she wouldn’t be one of those annoying villains who think they’re seductive little Force witches who laugh stupidly and croon to their masters. Nope. I’m proud to say that should Keily Shinra ever decide to become an agent of darkness (and possibly evil) she’d probably give Palpatine a run for his money. But that’s my not-so-humble opinion.

But it looks like she buried that aspect of herself again. For William’s sake and I don’t blame her. I wouldn’t want my son to see the darker side of myself either, especially one as scary as her’s had been on Mustafar.

She had decided, in the end, to leave William with the Weasleys (who will drop him off and then pick him up at Kenya’s) before we set off. Keily wanted to be there early, in case the Ministry pulled off some sort of foul-up. I could see it in the Daily Prophet headlines now. ‘Dark Lord executed half an hour early—angry mob storms the Ministry for the indignity of it all’. Or something like that. She also wanted to go to China Town again. At 8 in the morning. Nothing in China Town is open at 8 in the morning. But it was fine with me and she did have such a brave face on that I couldn’t say no.

In the meanwhile, I made my way to the nearest internet café so I could contact a few people. I had to go a bit further than I had originally planned, but I wasn’t kidding when I said that nothing in China Town is opened at 8 am. Once I paid for an hour’s worth of net time, I went straight to Kenya’s blog to leave a message. I had read that Kenya and Keily’s friends were quite willing to help with Severus’ escape, so now I made a time for us to meet so we could get him out.

-------------

“Mother of Merlin! Keily, where did that dress come from?” I asked when I returned from plotting with everyone else about Severus’ escape. I had worried that a smirk or a secretive smile might have crawled onto my face when I met up with the older woman, but any chance of that happening was washed away when I did meet up with her again.

Keily smiled and twirled around. “I made it last year. I’ve kept it a secret until now.” She told me. She explained, as we made to go to a secluded spot, that the dress had been meant for the annual Halloween Masquerade and she had intended to wear it this year, since she missed it last year in favor of trying to track us down when the both of went missing at the time. I have to say that I have no words to describe how she looks.

I can agree with her. She’s never been beautiful and she will never be. It’s impossible for her. And it’s a bit of a secret, but ‘pretty’ always comes to mind when I look at her—especially when she smiles and I mean really smiles. But don’t tell her I admitted that or she’ll never let me live it down. Lets hope she never reads this blog entry either. At the moment…

“Do you think white’s appropriate?” I asked. “Severus might get the wrong idea.”

“…I had…wanted to wear this for him on Halloween, truthfully.” She admitted, surprising me. Whenever Keily wears a costume, she wears it for the joy of it. Just as well as she does for the dropped jaws and shock value. “I wanted to invite him to the Masquerade—Oh, just as friends, though…I wouldn’t want anyone to get the wrong idea, too…”

I looked at her and saw that she was downcast for the first time in the last couple of days. I didn’t want to ruin the surprise for her (not to mention bring out Keily’s other side), but I couldn’t help the words that tumbled out of my mouthed after we had reached the alley across the street from the phone booth.

“I’m sure you’ll get the chance to.”

“Huh?” She looked at me funny.

“Nothing.” I said quickly.

She shrugged and entered the booth with me, entering the number. “Besides…I’m also wearing this, because, from where I come from, white is the colour of sterility and death.”

“Oh.”

So she gave up on Severus. So much for the power of love. Then again, looking back on days gone by I can understand that it would be too hard for them. And if I knew my own godfather well enough, he’d probably give up as well. Well, I am not going to have that. I am not going to lose my godfather and I am going to give Keily back her real smile. I am going to make damn well sure that those two stay together and that they’ll be happy, damn it.

So, as the booth went down into the Ministry and I checked my muggle style disguise (magical ones would have been easily detected) in a compact mirror from the small handbag that Keily decided to carry. Oh, I was still dressed as any normal wizard would be, but my hair had been cut short and temporarily dyed black the other day (eyebrows included). Keily also gave me a pair of contacts (these lenses that you stick in your eye—took us the good part of early this morning to get those buggers in) to make my eyes to match hers. With a creative use of make-up on Keily’s part (she was in a fine arts school for twelve years and learned quite a few tricks with make-up), she actually got me to look like I could be related to her.

After my initial check-up of my disguise, I finally decided to put my plan into action. I clamped my hands over my mouth and began to put on the biggest show I could possibly ever put on. She grabbed hold of me, wondering what was wrong. I told her that I couldn’t take it…I couldn’t bear to see Severus as he was. I faked being sick so when we got to the lobby, I was rushed to a bathroom instead of checked by security. Along the way, I ate a Puking Pastille—courtesy of Weasley Wizard Wheezes’ Twin owners. Eating it reminded me that I was working with Weasleys…Ugh.

Once in the privacy of a stall I puked my guts out. I took my bloody time of it and it really wasn’t very pleasant, but for the happiness of my family I’m ready to do just about anything. Even work with a bunch of Weasleys. At least I don’t have to deal with Weasel. The family itself, I can tolerate, but him. Sometimes I wonder if marrying pure is such a good idea. I’ve heard what it can do to families from Keily when she went on a haemophilia induced bleeding spree in January. I don’t want to die from a paper cut just because my father married his cousin or something, thanks.

I could hear Keily telling the guard that I was going to catch up with me soon enough. She had a meeting to attend. She led the man away as he wanted to escort her to the elevator at least. I hoped he wasn’t hitting on her, because I was going to hex him if he was!

Left alone, I quickly stuffed the antidote down my throat and cleaned myself up. The things I do for love. It was time to go and meet up with my ‘partners in crime’. Hey, I’m already a wanted man. I might as well have myself be wanted for something. I think busting out Severus from jail qualifies.

It was surprisingly easy getting through the Ministry to get to where we needed to. It only showed how cocky and arrogant the current Minister was. I can understand why Potter has such distaste for the man. You’d think that someone as paranoid as Scrigemour would have stationed more men for the execution of a man that could have been Voldemort. I snorted as I thought about yet another headline for the Prophet. ‘Scrigemour, True Chosen One!’ I wanted to start vomiting again.

There were guards—Aurors—standing guard at Severus’ cell (I had to fight from cringing when I saw him), but they were taken care of by the other Terrible Twins, Elrohir and Elladan who seemed to have come out of nowhere. Their speed and stealth were brilliant!

“Anyone else coming?” I asked as we searched the guards for their keys. Severus—who, I think had been sleeping at the time—abruptly demanded what we were doing. We ignored him though, thinking that he was just overwhelmed. He was scheduled to bite the big one soon enough.

“Rinnalaiss was supposed to join us.” Elrohir (or possibly Elladan?) answered.

“However, we decided that it would be best if she remained behind.” Elladan (or was it Elrohir?) added. “The lesser amount of people, the better. We can move much quicker and not draw as much attention. And our counterparts—“ He smirked at this. “—are busy creating the mother of all distractions. Oh. And thank you for the directions. This Ministry of yours was rather easy to find.”

“No problem. If I know besotted people, they’ll thank us for this later.” I said, finally able to smirk. Things were going as planned. I took the keys (finally) and let Severus out of the cell…and he didn’t seem too pleased about it. In fact, I almost didn’t dodge a wandless hex aimed at my head.

“Snape, calm down.” One of the elf lords said placatingly. Severus seethed.

“Calm down? Calm down? Do you have any idea what you three have done?”

“Rescued you?” I answered, sounding just a little unsure. What could he have been so angry about? But I didn’t have enough time to wander. Severus (continuous) shouts were beginning to draw attention from the rest of the department we were in. We had to get out of there before we were all stuck inside a jail cell. I nodded to the twins and one of them knocked out Severus in mid-rant. Sorry, godfather.

We had taken Rinnalaiss’ advice on what to do in order to get Severus out. We didn’t want to go through all of the trouble, so we used the most prominent ideas. Mainly the Weasley Twins making the biggest distraction in the history of Wizards around the world so we could sneak off with…uh…’Severine’ who’s currently passed out from going into labour.

Yup. We’re dressing up Severus Snape who is trapped inside Voldemort’s body…as a pregnant woman. Of course, I had a bit of charm work to do on him before we left. Elrohir (Elladan?) for one reason or another had a wig handy, so we stuck it to Severus’ bald head and began the task of transporting…er…’Severine’ to the elevator so we could escape, quite innocently, through the lobby.

“And what of Keily? You didn’t tell her about the plan…” Elladan said, frowning a little.

“I’m sure that once everyone realizes that he’s gone, she’ll leave right away. She’s sensible like that.” About as sensible as a fruitcake, but I trusted her common sense. I was sure that she was going to leave after we had left.

I should have realized that it would be quite difficult, considering that I had enlisted the Weasley Twins into creating the mother of all distractions to pave our way.

There was pandemonium everywhere in the lobby. Well, that’s one way of putting it. Another way would be that somebody had unleashed every single one of the Weasley Wizard Wheezes products upon the unsuspecting people inside the Ministry. Fireworks were flying overhead, multiplying no matter how many times someone tried to diminish them. Dungbombs were being dropped out of nowhere—people were puking, bleeding straight from the nose—people falling into waist deep swamps…

And it only got worse.

I don’t know if the Weasleys asked them or if they came on their own, but I think I was reliving the ends of my fifth year and sixth year all over again--in fast forward. Things were crashing down from the ceiling, pillars were being broken and I think blasters were being shot, too. Hopefully on stun. One wizard is bad enough, but I refuse to be responsible for the deaths of many people.

The elf lords and I, upon seeing all this, did our best to get out as quickly as possible. With all that was going on around us (dear lord, the Megatron’s troops came as well) no one really cared who or what we were as we ran like madmen to the emergency exits. I heard a nearby scream as a pillar that was hit (hey, you bloody Asgardian, we’re running here!) fell with a crash to the floor. But I steered myself away, only worried with what was important at the time.

I should have gone back.

-----------

It’s nighttime in London when we managed to get Severus back to the Order of the Phoenix’s headquarters. Just as it is still nighttime that I write this to you now. I thought that everyone should have the right to know as soon as possible, the end result of everything we did today.

Severus is still unconscious and being holed up inside the attic with Headmistress McGonagall looking after him with that werewolf, Lupin. Potter is off Horcrux hunting with Weasel and Granger for the next little while. The elf lords left for Rinnalaiss’ property for some well-earned rest. As for myself, I was smugly lying on a daybed inside the parlour in my mother’s ancestral home, waiting for when Keily returned from the Ministry.

I imagined her looking completely frazzled, annoying and put out. Not to mention angry. The size of the swamp was enough to cover half of the lobby and I’m quite sure that the dress that she had worked so hard on must have gotten dirty. Well, small price to pay to be reunited with someone you love, I suppose. I wonder if I could do the same for my father? Although, I know many here won’t agree to it, so maybe I shouldn’t think about it…

At about half past eight, I got fed up with waiting and decided to go and find her myself. It shouldn’t be taking her that long to get there. It would be the only place she could get to. I knew Keily to be directionally impaired, but once she knows a route, she won’t forget it that easily. Just as I was about to leave, I find myself suddenly being assaulted by an owl—a strange black one of a species I didn’t know existed. It pecked my head incessantly before dropping an envelope onto the floor and flying away just as fast as it came. What in the world had that been about?

Shaking my head, I saw that the letter was addressed to me, so I cut open the strange looking seal on the back. Like a star falling magnificently from the sky, Keily’s ring fell from the folded parchment. I stared at it for a long while, dreading what the ring without its owner could mean. My hand shook terribly and I was scared of reading the letter in case it informed me of something horrible. But eventually, I had to and subsequently, so did Severus.

I don’t think I’ve ever heard or seen him cry before.

-----------------------------

Yuuko's Letter

Gomenasai

2006-08-03T20:01:00.000-05:00

Just a song I want to share with you all. You can hear the song at the following link: Gomenasai* by TATU.

And for those of you who don't want to go and hear it, you may read the lyrics.

What I thought wasn't mine
In the light
Was one of a kind,
A precious pearl
When I wanted to cry
I couldn't cause I
Wasn't allowed

Gomennasai for everything
Gomennasai, I know I let you down
Gomennasai till the end
I never needed a friend
Like I do now

What I thought wasn't all
So innocent
Was a delicate doll
Of porcelain

When I wanted to call you
And ask you for help
I stopped myself

Gomennasai for everything
Gomennasai, I know I let you down
Gomennasai till the end
I never needed a friend
Like I do now

What I thought was a dream
A mirage
Was as real as it seemed
A privilege
When I wanted to tell you
I made a mistake
I walked away

Gomennasai, for everything
Gomennasai, Gomennasai,
I never needed a friend,
Like I do now
Gomennasai, I let you down
Gomennasai, Gomennasai, Gomennasai,
Gomennasai till the end
I never needed a friend
Like I do now

------------------------------------

*gomenasai = I'm sorry/Please forgive me

------------------------------------

BTW, Severus' execution is scheduled for tomorrow, 12pm Eastern time. In London Time...well...

Nothing, But a Dream

2006-08-03T12:53:00.000-05:00

I've been having this dream for a little while now and it's bothering me. No one really has to read this...I just...need a place to put my thoughts. I don't even remember the dream that well, except that a few things repeat...things that bother me a bit...

I always see this man, wrapped in red cloth talking to me...

There had been many shadows following us wherever we went...

The way was lit with small, twinkling lights...circling around us like tiny fairies...

We were all inside the Ministry of Magic and there was chaos everywhere we went. I witnessed the ends of many lives...

And then there was the door. One that was unlike any other I had ever seen. I could remember that part so clearly...to the stained glass...to gold designs...the whiteness of its entire being against the shadows...And how I felt fear that it would open.

The man in red cloth would speak to me...saying it was up to me...

And it would end.

[sigh]

I have this distinct feeling I should be worried.

The Deal of a Century

2006-08-01T21:13:00.000-05:00

Note: These events happened on July 28th, 2006. I am merely recounting this to update everyone...if only a little.

"That's...interesting."

"You hate it--I know you do." I said, turning to look at Draco. We were back at the house in Montreal. Thank goodness for that. With all the excitment of the return of the Emperor (his homunculus self still haunting my mind), most of the attention's been diverted over to Kenya and her main group. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't glad that the heat is off of me. But I need a bit of a breather--especially in view of what's going on.

Severus has less than a week to live. His one month was almost up...and all I was really able to do is to sit and worry. The Order didn't think much of me, really. And I don't know if I should be angry or relieved at this revelation...but what can you do? I don't hold much importance anymore...But, as someone who's spent a bit of time with Severus Snape...That's fine with me. Let them think what they think. I'll get Severus out and his name cleared...somehow.

It was all hanging on the last Horcrux. If only Harry could find it--I believed that it would make things better. That, somehow, that lost talisman would be the key to helping me win Severus' freedom. Somehow.

"Who's this supposed to be?" Draco asked, pointing at one of the pictures I had been slaving most of the day on.

I looked at the picture, a sudden creation I had to make. This woman with the cheerful smile was Lucia Crossier; a demon hunter par extraordinaire; a beacon of light and doomed to die for her beliefs. Lucia's full story is that she is the survivor of an angry village mob's rage against her family, believing that the devil himself had come into the world when Lucia was born. She had been born with powers unlike any other and that made the already superstitious villagers (who were attacked by demons, spirits and other unsavory things nearly every day) very fearful of her--even if she went out of her way to help them.

As a child, Lucia had accidentally summoned a strange creature when confronted with the Mayor's son who wanted to do ill will towards her (in not so nice terms, he tried to rape her at the age of fourteen). Spurned and wounded, the man went running to his father and a mob was made that traveled to Crossier Manor, demanding Lucia. Their parents wouldn't give her up and ended up being killed as a result, along ith the rest of the Crossier family currently residing within the Manor. Lucia survived the night, but that was because of an impromptu demon horde attacking the village, which ended up slaughtering everyone, but Lucia who had hidden inside the manor's cellar.

Frightened, upset and guilty, Lucia went to the Diablerie. It's actually a castle a ways from her village. She thought that the hordes had come from the place (it as known to be a stronghold for some of the highest ranking demons in the world). There, proclaiming herself to be the sole heir of the Crossier family, she went on a demon killing spree. There were seven levels--each filled with lesser demons and then a higher demon--all of which she easily destroyed in her state of despair. She had nothing left to lose and she had a lot left to prove.

She fought very hard and very long, but eventually she reached the master of the castle--Grimoire. He, too, like the rest of his castle, was slain by her. But something happened that she hadn't expected. He had revived--as did everyone she had killed. She found herself surrounded by the demon lords and could only fall to her knees and wait for her fate, terribly wounded and too tired to continue fighting anymore.

But then, another unexpected thing happened.

The lord of the castle, Grimoire, extended his hand to her. He showed kindness to the girl who had just slain him in cold blood, instead of lashing out at her in anger for her insolence. From then on, Grimoire, along with his six lieutenants, went on to care for Lucia, as if she were family and she never knew such happiness. But it was shortlived.

In the six years that she knew Grimoire and his men, Lucia came to be a reknowned demon hunter. With her contract to the great demon lord, there wasn't anything she couldn't do--except find the ones responsible for the attack on her village. In the end, everything was settled. She got revenge for her family and village; the world was saved (it had been in mortal peril during those six years) and she discovered love.

Unfortunately, she died while watching the sun set for the last time in the arms of Grimoire, under the watchful gaze of her six other guardians. Lucia had given her all in the final battle--just as she had all those years ago when she first went to the Diablerie--and fought valliantly to the end where she was mortally wounded. Grimoire also passed away, just a little after Lucia, his part of the contract stating that he wouldn't live any longer than she did.

It was all depressing, really, but there you have it.

When I finished teling Draco the story, he looked at me as if I'd grown a foot out of my head. A little paranoid, I looked behind me, then patted my head to see if I had.

"You need to get out more...Hire a babysitter for William and your sister...then go outside and..I don't know...Go shopping." Draco said, pulling me up from my seat by my hand. "No, you won't do that. I'll take on William and the princess brat. You will go out and get a life. There must be something wrong if you're dreaming up such depressing drivel..."

"Alright, alright....I've been meaning to go to CHina Town, anyways."

I smiled as Draco fussed a bit over me as I looked up at him (when did he get so tall? I must be getting old if I didn't notice before...). He gave me my little satchel, got me my purse and almost flung a bottle of Avian at me as he reminded me to drink my fluids as to not let the 40+ heat kill me. When did he get so responsible? So caring? It was almost...cute. A little disturbing and out of character for the little (alright, not so little) twit, but...cute.

I gave the brat prince a quick kiss on the cheek before heading off to China Town, suddenly in high spirits.

----------------------------

Ever since I was a child, China Town had always been a mystical place. Even with the new renovations...it still held a place in my heart. Now don't get me wrong, I know for a fact that there's nothing really magical about the place at all. Everything there was a fakely Chinese/Asian as you could imagine. So, whilst walking in a part I had never been to once in my twenty years of life, when I found this strange Japanese style manor in the middle of nowhere, I had my doubts.

But I walked inside and I was quickly greeted by a woman--no, a girl in a dress embroidered with butterflies. She looked at me with a smirk and half-lidded eyes. It took me a bit to recognize her (as I had only seen her in comics), but in the end, I knew it was the Time-Space Witch...Yuuko.

"Nice to meet you, Grimoire."

I won't give the entire conversation that we had. I mostly revolved around the weather, what we wanna do to Clow Reed's neck when we next see him and about art. But I will give you the little bit that I wish to tell you. The sun was beginning to set when we spoke of it. From where we were I couldn't see the changing sky with its oranges and reds. All I could see was blue. The color of William's eyes.

"You called me Grimoire. Why?" I asked, curious about the woman's reasons. I wasn't too surprised that she knew about my story (she knows a lot for someone who looks so young). But I was a little shocked that she called me Grimoire.

"It suits you." she said as one of her assistants brought in the five o'clock tea. "Lucia may be the tragic figure, however..." She just trailed off there, chuckling, obviously knowing something that I don't. She looked at me, smiling mysteriously. "Or maybe she does suit you, too. The both of them come from your heart, so are, therefore, aspects of your being put into writing..." She waved her hand dismissively. "Or something like that..." She picked up her tea, blowing it it before taking a nice long, slow sip.

"But that's for another time...I have something to discuss with you that may change the Wizarding World as we know it." Yuuko told me with a business-like seriousness. "I want to make you a deal."

Now I didn't exactly read about Yuuko's escapades with Watanuki (he's one of her assistants), but I do know that she is a very powerful witch who could grant your wishes...for a price. She never asks for more than you can pay, but the price is always very high...

...and something someone would usually never give up.

"I heard from the grapevine that Harry has almost succeeded in finding all of the Horcruxes....except one." Yuuko said, talking about the subject as if it were something unimportant. "It was lost long ago by someone named R.A.B."

I nodded. Many had speculated that Regulus Black had possibly taken Slytherin's locket and destroyed it--but many weren't sure on both cases, so a search had been made for it by the Order.

She smiled.

"I know where it is."

Abruptly, I stood up, demanding where it had gone.

Once again, she only gave me that smile.

"Depends on what you want to trade for the information..."

Soon after that, we made an agreement. I won't tell you guys what I promised to give up, but I do hope that the effort is appreciated...because I know I won't be able to get it back. Yuuko does not exchange. Yuuko does not refund. Still, I was kind of angry with what she told me in exchange for my most precious item of value.

"It's right under your nose."

Right after that. I stomped home to try and figure out what she meant by that.

Life just got a little crazier...again.

---------------------------------------

The Fate of Lucia Crossier

The Truth About Snape

2006-07-07T23:23:00.000-05:00

Well, after waiting a while, I finally got to find out what was going on...and you know what? I've made the decision to hate every single wizard and witch out there. No I'm not being prejudice. I hate every single one of them. Equally. Some more equally than others.

Alright, that was a blatant lie and exaggeration, but my night hasn't been a very nice one. Especially not after I got this.

If I could I'd turn myself into a dark queen just so I could go and kick Voldemort's butt, usurp his throne and rule the entire world with a fluffy pink fist just so I could have things go my way.

Once again, exaggerating, but I suppose that I should be explaining the lovely night I had.

Ugh, Soundwave...if I could, I'd kiss you. You're one of the few things that are keeping me from totally snapping and trying down the road of darkness just so I can try my hand at taking over the world. I swear to god this place needs a woman running it....

Sorry, ranting again. Lets get on with today's lovely revelation. [/sarcasm]

Oh, yes. Before I forget...I thank you all for understanding William's...peculiar situation. I really appreciate it.

--------------------------

It started out with a few members of the Order coming in looking worse for the wear. Haggard, really. And drawn. Mr Weasley looked like someone had killed his favorite spark plug. Moody was--forgive the pun--quite moody. Harry was livid--something that made me avoid saying anything to him at all (even to greet him). What he was so angry about made me curious, but I held my tongue until Professor McGonagall came into the house. And even then I didn't say a word. She looked tired and older than she was--and it was quite late, so I didn't want to disturb her as she walked towards the kitchen.

But then she stopped in front of me.

"Ms Shinra, I need you to come with me for a moment." she said.

"Um...what for?" I asked nervously as I rubbed my arms. I felt an urge to hold onto my son, but unfortunately for me...I didn't have him around as I usually did as I had tucked him into bed hours before. "I mean...what is it you need me for?"

"Possibly a last request..." the woman said as she began to lead me out of the headquarters. I asked if Mrs Weasley could keep an eye on William while I was away before I could let myself go. "Thank you for the information, by the way, Miss Shinra."

"Oh, don't thank me." I said, not one for taking the credit of others. "The elf lords and Rinnalaiss did all the work. I just relayed it to you all...Thought it would be important."

She nodded, continuing to walk ahead with a purpose, though her tired steps did give something away.

"So, how did the caoture go?" I asked, worried about the answer.

"Terribly."

McGonagall went on to explain about how the fake Snape that Rinnalaiss, Elrohir and Elladan had captured had escaped when the Order had just reached the scene. The main theory that the Order members that had gone to collect the indisposed Death Eaters and the fake Snape was that even though he was a fake...he obviously had an immunity to the potions that had been used on him...or, at least, a better tolerance of them so he would be able to fight them. Another theory that they had cooked up--was that there were not many fake Snapes...but one that kept flitting all over the place and who kept escaping because he had a purpose to fulfill. And, apparently, that purpose involved me.

"But what?" I asked, pondering about this. "I mean...what could he possibly want? And what do you think this has to do with the war that's going on at the moment?"

"Perhaps, You-Know-Who wanted revenge on Snape." McGonagall answered. "He, after all, defied his master in favor of helping your friends..." She smirked a little. "..or perhaps, more accurately, helping you. After all...had you not been in a relationship with him before he left?"

I blushed bright red, looking away. Even though I never really talked about it, I had said enough in the past to the Order about Severus and I...Though we had never been intimate or had done anything romantic, we did share a strange sort of connection. And then I remembered admitting to loving him some time ago and my face became even redder. I've been told that I had two conflicting sides...A Gryffindor side and a Slytherin side. The Gryffindor side was screaming for joy that I finally admitted it and my Slytherin side was berating me for not really thinking things through before I decided to plaster it all over my blog.

Oh, well. I cared for him deeply, that I can easily admit. It can become love if it so wished, but after having it pointed out to me so many times...Ugh. I wanted to make it un-true. I have this bad habit of saying the opposite of something if someone accused me of something--even if it was true.

So I found it increasingly trying on my patience when McGonagall continued to jab at me about Severus and the almost a year we had spent together before the fight against the Emperor. When it was clear to her that I wouldn't say anything, she decided to talk of something else entirely...something that happen right after they had all Apparated a few streets away from Number Twelve Grimmauld Place. Something that shouldn't have happened.

"We caught him."

"Who?"

"You know who."

I wanted to say 'And who is that exactly?', but my mind figured out what she truly meant and I had to gape. How did they manage that feat? And if that was so, where did that monumental final battle go? I fired a lot of questions at the professor as we reached the phonebooth that led straight to the Ministry. We both got in, while I still asked question after question. Our badges popped out ('Keily Shinra, Angry Young Woman, Visiting A Prisoner') and we put them on, though I had to eye mine suspiciously.

"Who am I visiting?"

"You know who."

Once again, the stupid question wanted to be asked, but I pushed it at the back of my mind and tried to either think terrifying thoughts or...not so terrifying thoughts. I wanted to think them, because I was too calm for my own good. I mean, it's Voldemort for crying out loud. And then I didn't want to get scared, because if I did...I might give the man some sort of an edge against me.

"Why?"

"He's been sentenced to death without a trial. His execution is within one month's time tonight...And his last wish was to see you." At this point, she wouldn't look at me as we had our things checked. The old woman almost seemed guilty about something and I couldn't fathom what it was. Another thing I didn't understand was why Voldemort would want to see me. After what I did to him and his hideout last month...you'd think he would stay as far away from me as possible. But possibly he wants to spit a vengeful curse at me for helping turn his favorite against him? For helping ruin his plans for domination over our world? Who knew?

I had forgotten what floor we had stopped at, but I was told that we were being sent to a special holding cell until he was properly processed and sent to Azkaban--or wherevr wizarding criminals were sent to nowadays.

I wish someone could have gotten me better prepared for what was about to happen. I wish someone could have explained better than McGonagall had so I wouldn't be so surprised...

...so I didn't have to start crying like a total ninny in front of several Aurors. God, I seem to be crying a lot lately...

They didn't let me go into the cell itself, but I was able to reach inside through the bars--not that I did...not at first. I just approached the cell cautiously, wary of the person that it held. I didn't get a good look at Voldemort when I had bene kidnapped by him last month...not that I had wanted to, but here I was...and I had to look at him. I vaguely wondered if they had given him Veritaserum to wrangle some sort of truth out of him...

I watched him look up at me with those red eyes--red eyes as dark as blood. His nostrils flared slightly as he breathed, a most disgusting and rather reptilish thing. I looked at his face which looked stern, frightening...angular and no holding any of the handsome qualities his mother had wished upon him....the loks of his father...

Not feeling anything at the moment, I moved to ask him what he wanted when he said my name.

"Keily."

His voice was high, as it was described in the books...And it made me shiver a bit. But the way he said my name. It was almost familiar...No, it was very familiar. It had that slight lilt to it...said in a way only one person knew how.

I shook my head. It couldn't be. But then again, my gut feeling hadn't been wrong so far. Could it be now? I looked to McGonagall, questioning her silently. 'What's going on?'

She gave me a stare. "I told you we caught, you know who."

I shook my head in denial. I closed my eyes and calpped my hands over my ears, trying to block it out. It couldn't be what I was thinking, could it? No. My heart was just getting its hopes up! It was going to shatter...

"Keily.."

I whirled around, staring angrily at the snake man who had come to the bars, staring down at me calmly with just a twinge of...remorse? Was that what it was?

Hot tears began to form in my eyes and fell.

"You can't be..." I whispered.

Voldemort--no, Severus gave a small smirk. "It seems...that the late Emperor...had managed to teach the Dark Lord a few tricks in exchange for his support." He reached out to touch my cheek, but I jerked away--hardly believing what was going on at the moment. I shook my head again. This was not happening, I told myself many times. My life was just one long series of unfortunate events...could they ever be happy again? "Keily...look at me...Look at me!" He tried to turn my head, hold my chin--anything to look at him, but I couldn't.

"Oh, god...what did he do to you...?" I asked quietly, still in denial, now with a mixture of shock and paranoia.

One would think that we would have been reunited in a romantic sort of way--and I, in all honesty, had been hoping for the same sort of thing...If only to stop the torrent of terrible things that seem to be happening all around me.

He smiled gently and tried to caress my hair. Funny how that in his own body, he wouldn't dare touch me, but now that he's stuck inside a body that resembles a snake or a corpse...he's doing all he can to be near me...to calm me down. "What does it look like?" he asked, a little sharply. "He's switched bodies with me..."

"But why?" I asked, beginning to choke in tears. I couldn't believe that this was happening--of all things to add on top of everything else!

He explained about how he had been captured by Death Eater's and had his soul switched with Voldemort's. He told me about how he planned revenge against him for ruining his grand plans. He told me about how he was going to use the switch to keep himself alive...how he was going to use 'love' as his own weapon as well. Severus--ye gods, ho I missed saying that name--said that by switching bodies that the Dark Lord would send him to fight against Harry, where Severus would get killed and the Dark Lord could lay low, while doing his best to woo me ('And failed at.' I said to Severus. 'Do I have a 'desperate' sign on me, or something?') so he could use my love at a later time. Voldemort had planned on using me as a human shield against any enemies that would try to destroy him.

"You have to admit...I heard stories about your fights against his Death Eaters when you escaped...and what you did on Mustafar? You have a lot of repressed rage, don't you?" Severus said, smirking with that face I was so unfamiliar with.

"So, what...was he planning to have me die like Lily did for Harry?" I asked, hoping that that wasn't the case. That would be too strange if it was. Severus shrugged.

"I'm not very sure, but it might be." he said. "And he had been hoping to have me die in his place by Potter's wand and thus...'fullfilling' the prophecy so he could catch the Wizarding World unawares and in a new body..." Severus looked bitter at this, but soon that bitterness changed to slightly disinterested concern. "Obviously...his plan had failed for I escaped and you're not with him..."

I shuddered. And to think...I had let him touch William! My eyes widened. "Anna!"

Severus looked taken aback. "Anna?" I flushed with embarrassment and quickly explained about William's little sister.

"You don't think he had any ideas for either William or Anna do you?" I asked.

"I wouldn't put it past him...especially with his new abilities...I suppose he's found his own way to immortality now..."

This was bad. This was really bad. It had been bad enough with the Emperor doing it, but Voldemort, too? And the one he had tested it on...well...I sniffled and shyly reached towards him. I brushed against a cool cheek with my fingers, wondering. Then I let my hand cup his cheek and stared straight into his eyes. I am not a Legilimens or an Occulomens, but I saw how earnest he was...I saw who he really was inside the form of this terrible man....

I gave a sigh as a tear fell.

"You know...if stuff like this keeps happening...I'm going to think myself important." I told him, my voice shaking a little. I closed my eyes, feeling more tears fall. I took deep calming breaths.

Gods, I felt like such a sap.

"Um...Severus..I've been meaning to tell you...It's something I have to say or I might never be able to tell you...what with you being executed...Oh, god...They're really going to kill you, aren't they? I mean....they can't have you Kissed, luckily...But you still have to die and they probably won't even give you a fair trial and...and...and...I..I..."

He stopped my mumblings with a finger to my lips as Professor McGonagall and one of the Aurors who was guarding the cell said that it was time for me to leave. I didn't want to go and I made a terrible scene about it. I had to tell Severus something. I had to do something...anything.

Severus was going to die in a month. A month. I had to tell him....Tell him about William! Th truth about William...The truth about...

"Severus, I..."

He stopped me again.

"I know."

As I had managed to get to the bars of the cell, he pulled me close and I almost expected a kiss from him...But no. He just held me tightly. As I was pulled away, I felt the weight of something in my pocket. Only after being unceremoniously booted out of the Ministry and told that visiting hours are such and such, did I check what had been dropped into it.

I cursed myself, Dumbledore, Voldemort and Severus.

"So...what will you do now, Miss Shinra?" McGonagall asked as we began the trek back...'home'.

I stared at the little thing that had been given to me. I looked head of me, lips pursed into a thin line. "First," I said, "I'll get my act together. Then I am going to bring back the not-quite-a-Sith-apprentice back so she can help you fight against Voldemort. That bastard's going to pay for what he's just done!"

"Oh?" McGonagall looked at me, seemingly intrigued by my rather silly sounding proclamation. "No more weeping then? No more sitting on the sidelines?"

I shook my head. The woman smiled.

"Well, then, Miss Shinra...I do believe that things are beginning to look up."

Keily's Chronicles: Part 3 - Keily's Little Prince

2006-07-06T09:05:00.000-05:00

Well, some of you have guessed that I am currently in the Most Ancient House of Black which is still playing host to the Order of the Phoenix. Now before you start panicking at the thought that I have revealed the headquarters for the Order I will give my explanation. I don't really know how they did it, but the Weasley Twins managed a sort of concealment charm on my latop that connects straight to my blog. So though you--that is, my friends--can easily read what it says about Number Twelve Grimmauld Place, our enemies cannot. So...if any of you want to drop in on me, you know where I am...or do
you? I recall that only the Secret Keeper can reveal the actual location of this place, so you might not be able to find me anyways...But I do suppose it's better that way.

I've barely talked to anyone since I arrived, though I have to say that I've been taking the last week or so rather calmly (although, I must admit that my fear of fire has gone up thanks to Mustafar and a few crackers being let loose at my feet as a welcome from the Twins), especially considering the last few days. Fred and George talk to me when they swing by--which is pretty often despite being savvy businessmen.

"Slow days." They often told me to which I gave a smile at.

Besides not really talking to anyone, I spent the better part of yesterday trying to get William to settle in--what with that blasted portrait of Mrs. Black constantly yelling bloody murder at us--

"HEATHENS! I HAVE BLOOD TRAITORS IN THIS HOUSE! AND A CHILD BORN OF UNSPEAKABLE MEANS! TAKE THAT DIRTY BLOODED THING AWAY FROM THIS PLACE! IT IS--"

--the Twins getting into trouble--

"We didn't mean to send her into shock." said George plaintively.

"Really! We just wanted to scare her with a little harmless fun!" defended Fred.

"How were we supposed to know that she had a bad phobia of fire?"

--the infamous spats between Mrs Weasley and just about everyone else--

"RONALD WEASLEY! YOU TAKE YOUR HANDS OFF OF HERMIONE THIS MINUTE! WE HAVE GUESTS!"

"Mum!"

--and just about everything else that can happen in this crazy house. Harry hadn't arrived just yet, according to what I heard the others whisper. Apparently he had heard news of Death Eater activity and had gone off to check it out along with Professor McGonagall and a few other adults. I smiled a little, at the fact that he was allowed to go along instead of just staying behind and being left in the dark as most tended to do with him. And it had been Harry's decision to save me, too...even though we were virtually strangers and people who didn't agree with one another on many subjects. Mainly pertaining to Severus and Draco.

That was a subject that was pretty touchy with the rest of the Order as well, which was the main reason I didn't bother talking to too many of them or for a long amount of time. I was afraid of creating rifts between us and I didn't want that...especially if I wanted answers later on. Yesterday, I had asked about what was going on many, many, many times, but...no one really wanted to give me any answers and if they did, what they knew was very little. I had to wait until Professor McGonagall returned. Not that I don't trust Harry, but I do have to worry a bit about what he would say to me.

I have to say...I'm lucky that I'm still connected to you all (courtesy of the Twins yet again) and that everyone in the Order isn't holding William's lineage against him.

Speaking of William...I suppose I should continue my chronicles until I get my answers...for I am quite sure that some of you want some for yourself...Like exactly how William came to me...Or in some cases...

...came to be.

-------------------------

Did you know that there are alternate universes out there? I'm sure some of you know. I am very sure of their existence for the sheer fact that dead people had been popping up when they shouldn't have been at all. Or you know...other various things that should never be mentioned...

The day after I went into my spiralling karaoke depression, I decided that I should try to pretend that everything was going to be fine. Or at least keep myself busy so I didn't have to think about it. I began to start working on a costume for the upcoming anime convention in November. I finished in the record time of four hours full of non-stop sewing. Hoo-rah. [/sarcasm] You can guess that I'm not too enthusiastic at the moment, right?

I decided to take up my old training regime from when I was just a teeny bopper. I dusted off my foils and began doing exercises with them. Back when I was little...about 12 to 14 years old--maybe younger...I started taking fencing lessons. I stopped after I got into a bad accident and my parents panicked. I kept my old foils despite argument from my parents, though I never touched them. Every day for almost five or six years I longed to touch the hilt of the light practice rapiers...

I'm older, slightly wiser and a lot more careful now--with no idiot rivals to try to hurt me. So I do my best to ease back into something I had long abandoned. I kind of stunk though. My speed isn't what it used to be...my grip is terrible and my memory is fuzzy at best about what I had learned.

Still, I was feeling a little better now that I had managed to get some of the anger out of my system. Karaoke and violence are the best medicine for an Asian girl in depression. I was about to go and get myself a cream soda as a treat when I hear the sounds of something hitting the ground behind me (I had decided to practice in the backyard). Turning around I saw a man dressed in a white coat with long brown hair and familiar ice blue eyes behind a pair of glasses. I blinked as his appearance registered in my mind. Once it did, my jaw dropped appropriately.

Many a time have people said that if you worked hard enough...your dreams could come true. Or if your dreams were strong enough, they could become a reality. Well, here Ueru Betsubetsuni standing in front of me...a man who, just yesterday, was just a figment of my imagination...made up as a partner to my fanfic avatar in my own PPC spin-off. I blushed a bright red at how good looking he was and cursed myself for making him so. And then I wondered...what was he doing here? Was he going to try and off me for being such a terrible author? For making his life so miserable that Vader's seemed like a walk in the park (well, that's an exageration, really)?

But then I noticed that he was carrying something in his arms. Curiosity getting the better of me I stepped forward and asked him what he wanted.

"You are Agent Shinra's 'true self', are you not?" he asked, his voice a slightly emotionless and smooth baritone--just as I had imagined it would sound. I understood the question and nodded my head. In the PPC, there are often theories that run through the corridors about how each person there is merely the avatar of someone else--most likely an author. And since I am the author who wrote the spin-off that included Ueru and Shinra, I had to be the true self. It's a little confusing to think at times, but you get the hang of it after a while. "Then do you know the specifics of the mission known as 'Subjugation' and all your duties pertaining to it?" Once again, I nodded, though I had to furrow my brows.

The PPC protects the continuums of many different 'universes' that are inadvertedly invaded by Mary-Sues, typos that become living beings, geographical mistakes and so on--just because they can become as real as the man before me was. They go on many missions to stop things like this from happening and to keep the places safe. As for Subjugation...

Some months ago when I was visiting the PPC Message Board someone had discovered a terrible fanfic called 'Subjugation'. It had nearly everything imaginable in it. Homaphrodites, werewolf sex, pregnancy, a magically dead Voldemort, lots of slash, defamation of character, pedophilia and various other things I could barely name, but the worst part of it all was...an evil Dumbledore. Now folks, I had never been a fan of the guy, but I do know and good and noble character when I see it. And Dumbeldore had been a great man, but the things that the author made him do in this fanfic...

Molestation of students, fathering illigitimate children who were not his by canon, being cruel and manipulative in the worst of senses and...and...

Being William's real father. I had read the whole damned thing through at least three times. Dumbledore rapes a Snape that had been turned homaphrodite and gets him pregnant twice. First with William and then with an unborn second child which was 100% female. Yes, folks...THAT'S the real reason why I didn't want to say anything to Severus. I had just been making up excuses so I didn't have to say the full truth...

At the time, I just thought it all unreal...and that when I signed up to be the children's surrogate mother (though I only ended up with one), I thought it not quite real.....Though I desperately wished it were. Even if I am young and inexperienced, I do want a child, because I know I can never have my own.

And now...here Ueru is...to deliver William to me. I thought I was going to cry when I held him for the first time. Just as the author had described. He was a beautiful baby with a healthy color, already with a head of black hair and the most familiar and gorgeous twinkling blue eyes I had ever seen...And he was my responsibility.

"You do realize that he must never come into contact with his true relatives, don't you?" Ueru asked, looking at me gravely. I returned it with an incredulous look. He had to be kidding. "We think it would be best if he grewup to be a muggle child instead of the Sue-child we suspect him to be..." Sue children are children born from Mary-Sues or from A Mary-Sue author's influence. William as just that. And in accordance to PPC Rules and Regulations...Mary-Sues had to be terminated. I held the child in my arms protectively, worried that Ueru might do something rash. And as his writer I knew he was quite capable of it. He's assassinated more than twenty Mary-Sues and had killed one Sue-child already.

"You can't do that!" I yelled spontaneously, moved by maternal instinct and terrible indignation. "And where's Anna?!" Yes, where was the second child? I said I would adopt both of Severus' children. He raised an eyebrow at me.

"Anna?" he repeated. I blushed. I had said the first name that came to mind that I liked. The second child, being unborn, had no name as of yet, so I decided to name her myself. I explained as much to him. "We decided...that it wold be for the best that they were separated...as to not suddenly rouse memoies of a past they cannot return to..or try to find and remake."

"But...that's not fair. You shouldn't separate family...it isn't right! Look what happened with Luke and Leia!" Oh, god. Luke and Leia. The thought of them made me think of Vader and with that...the current battle against the Emperor and with that I thought about Severus for the first time in that day. And instead of being weepy, I got angry...VERY angry.

It's almost needless to say that I gave Ueru what for in through violence. I won't tell you what I did to him, but I'm sure you all can guess the amount of damage I did to him with the weapons I had on hand. At the same time, I yelled at him about what it was to hide the truth from someone--that they might ruin the person that they are by hiding the truth. I shouted at him that things might turn out alright if I tried hard enough--tried really, really, really hard to make things right that they would be.

And you know what the bastard tells him as I'm heaving and wheezing?

"Tell Severus the truth and we'll see." he said. "Then maybe I can help you find Anna and set things right." And with that, he went back to wherever PPC HQ was located in via portal. I sighed. What the hell did I just do and get myself into?

Things were just happening so fast...and I wondered...

And then William started to cry.

"Oh! Don't cry...Don't cry!" I said, beginning to shush him.

And that was how I ended up with an infant son.

Strange, eh?

The Writer's Note

2006-07-04T22:17:00.000-05:00

Well, I took everyone's advice and ran out of my house like a bat out of hell. I gave my family fair warning before I made my abrupt departure. Unfortunately for me, I had a stand-off with Snape before I could get away. I won't go into details, but I'm sure he wasn't pleased to know that I--we--had caught onto him so quickly. I think he--whoever he was--had honestly expected to fool me into thinking he was Severus for quite some time...

You're all probably wondering where I am now. Well...I can't tell you where I am exactly, but I can tell you that I am safe and am surrounded by allies and friends who will keep me safe for the time being. William's alright as well--as healthy as he can ever be, if a little spooked by recent events. Poor thing.

I thank you all for your support. I know that my life is troubling and rather confusing at the moment, but once I've met with...certain people I can get to the bottom of everything. Things are getting rather complicated once again...and I had hped for some peace...

And Megatron...he is NOT my lover. Do I have to give you the 'Severus is old enough to be my uncle' rant?

Something Wicked This Way Comes

2006-07-04T08:22:00.000-05:00

First off, I'd like to congratulate Kenya's mother on her upcoming wedding. May your years together be sweet and blissful-- full of happiness and joy!

Secondly, I'd like to tell therandomcat666 that the reports seem to have been false. The Order of the Phoenix checked it out, but they saw no signs of Voldemort or his followers. In fact, they can't seem to find them anywhere...It's almost as if they've disappeared off of the face of the Earth. Normally, that would be a good thing, but in extraordinary cases such as these...You can never be too careful...I've got a bad feeling about this...

Thirdly, Snape came back. Yes, I am referring to him as Snape now. Why? Because I'm not sure the man that came back to me is my Severus. He...doesn't seem it. I get confused when I look at him. A lot of people say it's because I missed him, so it's right to have mixed emotions about him finally being back with me, but I don't think that's it...My mind feels muddled up and a little sluggish...like I had a terrible nightmare on top of staying up all night studying for an exam. This morning, I made eggs and ham breakfast for the two of us as I used to do, tried to pretend that everything was all right. I had to remake it because he said that he wanted croissants and tea. Severus never used to have that combination in the morning. He just had whatever I had and it was always eggs and ham.

He also terrorized my sister, something he had also never done before. And when I defended her he tried to terrorize me, much to my chagrin. If this is the real disposition of Severus Snape, I do not like it one little bit. I know that he might be stressed out due to recent events--especially last night--but he usually kept his rage to himself. The only time I've ever remembered him taking it out on anyone would have been his students at Hogwarts. But he had been living with me and he hadn't raised his voice or a hand to me before. We just co-existed peaceably with a few good spats in between.

But then, he came back later, asking for my forgiveness...asking me in a way that I just had to forgive him.

It's truly bizarre.

People I know, whom I've asked, would say that that was how love typically was. Well, excuse me if I say that Severus and I had never been typical. There had been no confessions (not any real ones, at any rate), no dates, no romance...nothing of the sort really. Just a sudden realization that something had happened between us...

Oh, my. And to think...this all started out yesterday...

------------------------------------

"I have a bad feeling about this."

This is the first thing I say to Narcissa Black Malfoy when she floos in to my part of Canada for the first time. Luckily for her, we decided to have the ceremony at the nice chalet up on Mount Royal--the very same Mount Royal that we have Dumbledore’s (and various other wizards and just recently, Dooku's) Memorial on, so she didn't have to be around too many prying Muggle eyes. Though I went to great lengths to have the entire place reserved just for the group coming in to name William's godparents, I myself am still a mess...due to the fact that I just returned from my terrible 'Snape hunting spree' that had come the day after he told me he left me.

Needless to say that Narcissa didn't like the fact that I looked like a drowned rat in my very soaked and dirtied black coat instead of as the pristine young woman that I was supposed to be in the green dress robes she had insisted that she buy for me for the occasion. That and that she thinks I'm being silly. Draco gave his mother a hug as I began to walk towards the rooms usually reserved for the bride when the chalet was reserved for weddings. I forgot what it was called.

Leaving Draco outside, she helped me get dressed. I had always wondered what the girl's dress robes would be like. Would they be robes with flares? Or would they be dresses? In this case, I think it looks like a very ornate ball gown with a nice long cloak on the outside. Still, I found myself still feeling uneasy about today. Maybe it was just because I missed Severus terribly...or the fact that the corset that she insisted that I wear with the robes to give me a figure was crushing my ribs. Now I know how Elizabeth Swann feels. Ouch.

Still, it wasn't as if I had to randomly run off to fight a war right in the middle of the ceremony, right? I managed to regulate my breathing without seeming too obvious.

"Why the green?" I asked, looking at myself through the floor length mirror in the room.

"It's a Slytherin colour. And it looks better on you than red does." she said in distaste. I kind of have to agree with her. Though red could be considered a national colour, I do look pretty spiffy in green velvet and white lace. The fact that I have a figure now kind of adds to my current state of vanity. Finished with dressing me, she asks me to spin around for her. Satisfied with how the fabric draped and suited me, she gave a satisfied nod. "Now, lets do something with your dreadful hair." After about two hours of trying to tease my chin length hair into ringlets or plain curls, she gives up and just ties some of my hair back with a satin ribbon.

"I like it like this anyways." I said.

"If you like being simple,” she said with a pout. "We could always make your hair grow out with magic." She was about to pull out her wand, but I quickly shook my head no. As much as I would love long hair (and I really would) my family and friends would freak out if it suddenly flowed all the way down to the small of my back just so Narcissa could have her way with it. "Spoil sport."

I looked at myself in the mirror, wondering at the image before me. I've never been beautiful or even remotely pretty (despite what some people would tell me). And I had always hated being called 'cute'. But I can safely say that I clean up pretty good--well, Narcissa can clean me up pretty good. I bet if I had tried putting on the make-up she carefully applied to my face I would have looked like a circus clown. And the robes? I probably wouldn't have fit if she hadn't made me wear the corset...Or I would stretch the material round the waist area. That would not have been a pretty sight.

Then my thoughts strayed to Severus. Would he have approved of all this? What would he think if I had told him that the babe that he had held in his arms so carefully had been his son? How would he react? Would his resolve to leave be stronger? Or would it have weakened? Should I have shouted at him? Screamed? Ranted?

Did he miss me?

I was suddenly hit with that same terrible realization from days ago and I felt like I wanted to cry again. I know I should have told him. Really should have, but you know what? I'm a coward. And all that cowards do is run from their problems. Heh. Good thing I was the fourth fastest runner in my class...

"Oh, Narcissa...What if he never comes back?" I asked worriedly, going over to the door.

Narcissa raises a brow at me. "Severus? Oh, he comes and goes...Does what he pleases..." She walked over to me and put a hand on my shoulder. "But he is a good man. And I think you know that better than anyone. I stayed put when he first ran. You went after him when he disappeared again." She squeezed my shoulder and left the room to join her son, talking to him about his life as of late. I watched them through the crack in the door, gripping the wood in my hands.

As I am about to leave, I hear a crack and sudden wailing. Turning around I find Dobby with William, who was flailing about unhappily. Quickly, I go over to the two and pick up the boy and begin to try to shush him, my thoughts of Severus gone for the moment.

"Dobby is sorry, madam, but Dobby is wanting to wait until former mistress finally left before presenting madam with the young master,” the house elf said about to start punishing himself. I had told him to bring him straight to me from the Weasley's (I had dropped William off there before running off to find his father) at least an hour before the ceremony started and he had run late because Narcissa and I were wrestling with my hair. I pulled the chair away with a free hand before he could hurt himself.

"That's okay, Dobby." I said, grimacing just a bit. I pulled a muscle in my leg. Boy had that chair been heavy! "It's fine. Can you tell Mrs Weasley thank you for taking care of my son. And thank you, too, Dobby!"

"Oh, Dobby is more than happy to help when he can." he said.

"Oh! And tell Harry that I wish him well, too. And don't forget to thank Professor McGonagall!" I had sent invitations to quite a few people and some of them had been from the Order of the Phoenix. Most of them declined because they were too busy or harboured too much of a hatred for Snape--although they did promise never to tell anyone else about little William's lineage. As for why I am thanking Professor McGonagall...well...she promised me twenty-five of the over a hundred house elf population to help with the preparations for the after-ceremony feast.

The house elf nodded his head and disappeared with a crack. Williams cooed quietly and tried to turn to see where the elf had gone off. Curious little thing! I smiled and kissed his chubby cheek, going out to see if anyone had arrived yet. Out front I met up with the guests of honour--Kenya Starflight and Darth Vader, William's future godparents. I talked to both of them for quite a bit, letting both take their turns with the infant. The boy did quite well in either person's arms, though they were virtual strangers to him. But he did have his few mishaps. Sorry about your cape, Lord Vader! I'm sure some soap will get that spit out! And sorry about him trying to pull your hair out, Kenya! I'm sure William will grow to love you both in time! He really is lovable, I swear! After their arrival, the rest came in droves.

It seemed like my invite on Kenya's blog brought in quite a few people from the Terran Resistance war effort. People I didn't expect to come were now there and coming to meet William and I at the entrance, giving their congratulations...and gifts! Since I never had a baby shower for my son (as I wasn't pregnant with him) they decided that it was better late than never...although I had to wonder at some of the gifts I got...Fett, I really appreciate the gift...I really do...But what am I going to do with a blaster rifle? General Grievous! Thanks for the...er...battle droid...I'm sure we'll have a great use for it...Even IF it almost killed me when we tried to operate it. Doctor...I give the air from my lungs in return for yours! V...oohh...that bouquet of roses was sweet! Megatron! You didn't have to go out of your way to get William a mobile! Elladan! Elrohir! Le hanon! The tunics you brought him are adorable! And Han...Leia...shouldn't you be saving these booties for--ahem!

The guests kept flowing in and so did the subsequent gifts that came with them. We had to get a table out to put most of the gifts on because I couldn't juggle them and my son at the same time anymore. And then Maul and Trisha came.

They gave me the last thing I expected to get...or for anyone to give me for that matter.

It was Dooku's lightsaber. Maul had picked it up after the battle on Mustafar as a sort of memento of a great man, but after he found out about how considerably close Dooku and I had been (we were more like tutor and errant third grade kid, rather than master and apprentice...or friends, really...), he decided that I should have it.

"Grievous has four. Another one for you shouldn't hurt,” he said as I accept it. He and I both know that I'll never use it, just out of respect...and for the fact that I could barely use two without hurting myself (having five years of sword fighting experience is one thing, lightsabers are a whole other ballgame).

"Thank you, Darth Maul. Its means a lot to me." I said. He nodded and went inside with Trisha, an arm wrapped around her waist. I stared at them for a while, feeling just a bit jealous as they took a seat with the elf lords and the Malfoys. Wanting to keep the precious gift close, I stuck it into the belt of my dress robes.

More people came and sat. More gifts were given and placed on the gift table until it was around seven, when the ceremony was supposed to begin. Giving the open field before us a look, I turn to go inside with William when a familiar voice stops me.

"Am I late?"

I didn't know whether I should be relieved, angry, indignant or joyous. As I turned to look at Severus (who else would have a voice that almost purred when he talked?), I settled on feeling a little...confused?

He looked like Severus. He moved like Severus...He talked like Severus...

...How come he didn't feel like it? Now I'm not one to say that I am Force sensitive, or that I'm terribly magical or extremely psychic...But! That bad feeling I had earlier was suddenly beginning to surface in the pit of my stomach...

"You'll catch flies if you don't shut your mouth."

.... Or I could just be paranoid. I was being silly. Maybe the second sudden loss of Severus had gotten me paranoid and gave me abandonment issues. Maybe I was afraid that the Severus that was walking towards me was going to rush off into the night again just as he had a few days ago...I was really scared of losing him. And if he was going to disappear on me at midnight...I wanted a piece of him left behind at least, so I could find him!

"Severus..." I said, moving forward as well.

He smiled--rather uncharacteristically. "Dearest..."

--Don't go to him! --

I stopped, blinking...that was odd...and that was really out of character for him. Even if we were friends...even if he was fond of me--hell, even if he loved me he would never call me 'dearest'...even if he meant it in sarcasm...which, at the moment, he wasn't. He reached me and wrapped his arms around me, leaning down so that our noses touched. I thought that my heart was going to burst at the moment, having never been that close to him before. He liked his space and I liked mine. And we had been fine with that. But this...this...

"I missed you..."

I raised my eyebrows at him. "You've only been gone since Friday..."

"And I counted every hour...every minute and second when I was away..."

Aw, hell. Even in normal circumstances...I would have found that weird. Nobody really talks like that! I don't talk like that and I'm as corny as hell! I make puns every other minute--bad ones, mind you! I pushed myself away and he let me go, though I thought I saw a flash of something in his eyes. Was that anger?

Whatever I had seen, there was now a mask of indifference on Severus' face and his eyes displayed a cool and calm look--something more of the Severus I knew. I felt a little bit more relaxed at this. Finally, I thought, some normalcy! He finally took notice of the baby in my arms, picking up one of his chubby hands, but not saying anything to him. But my paranoia wouldn't leave me and Severus was making it quite hard for me to know what to think. I still didn't know whether I should kill him or kiss him, as I had promised to do on Kenya's blog. I suddenly felt the sting of tears in my eyes as I thought about both of his hasty departures.

"So, this is my son..." he said. I sniffled and looked at him quizzically. I never told him about William...and why was he so calm about it? I thought he would have thrown a fit about not knowing he had one...or at least be in denial about it. Where were the fireworks? Where was the rage?

Where's my Severus? I thought to myself.

He looked straight into my eyes and I felt as if I were being read like a book. Shaking my head of the strange feeling, he smiled softly. "I read it on Miss Starflight's blog. You wrote quite a bit about it. It's a shame you haven't found Anna yet, I would have...cherished having a daughter as well as a son..." he told me. He lifted a hand and gently pushed a lock of hair away from my face. It was a tenderness I never remembered him having...a softer side I thought he never possessed. Maybe my assessment of him had been wrong? It would have been so easy to think so...to think he was just a big softy inside...

Too bad I knew he was too sharp to be so.

--Get away from him! --

I shied away from his touch and gave him a shaky smile. Perhaps we could have a conversation later, I thought to myself. At the moment, we had to be inside the hall. I told him this and he nodded, following me inside. A few people gave us looks--some of them approving, while others...not so. Quite a few were looking at the man murderously and it was because they were angry on my account. 'Friends don't let friends get hurt by jerks' mentality and all that. Hopefully, no one was going to kill him for getting me upset...that would have gotten me more upset! Severus took a seat at the guests of honour table where Kenya, Lord Vader, William and I were sitting.

The ceremony had been great though. I had practiced the speech given to me by Narcissa, who said that it was the sort of thing usually said at rites such as these. I talked about the hardships of life, the inevitability of death; of happiness and sadness; sickness and health; triumph and defeat...love and hate. I had been nervous and wanted to throw up a few times, standing there for all to see. I'm sure I messed up a few lines, but if anyone noticed they didn't snicker behind their hands for anything--and I was grateful. I would have run off the stage in a crying fit if that had happened. Dear lord, I hate public speaking.

"...and so, do you Kenya Starflight and Lord Vader, hereby take your duties to heart as if he were your own child...to care for and love till death do you part?" I asked. The both of them gave each other looks, taking a moment to really think about it before answering me.

"I do." they said, almost simultaneously. I smiled.

"Than let it be known that Kenya Starflight and Darth Vader are now legal guardians and god parents to William Albus Snape." I announced to the applause of everyone. I let the two of them go back to their seats and pick up William so we could take our own seats as I notice something. The plates on the tables were quite empty and the baskets full of bread and butter were nearly gone. I wanted to slap myself for almost forgetting. "Oh! Right, then! Thank you all for attending and before we begin the banquet that the house elves of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry worked so hard on, I would like to say a few last words." I grinned as a few people in the crowd began to suspect what was coming, as I made the quote almost word for word. "And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!" I said, giggling as the plates were suddenly piled up with food.

It was smooth partying afterwards and nothing could get me down then. I flitted from table to table, talking to this and that person, making small talk with groups of people at a time with William in my arms, so I didn't really have to be around Severus much (who was starting to give me the creeps because he kept looking at me wherever I went the way a panther stalks prey).

I talked to V for quite some time about the best kind of explosives as well as the best kind of roses of which to use as a signature (he'll always go for his default and my favourite will always be the primrose, thank you very much). The Fetts (Jango showed up late, but he was welcomed nonetheless) showed me how to handle the rifle, 'just in case of emergencies' they said. Jango hogged William for quite a bit of the night and so did Boba. I honestly thought that he would have gotten jealous of William for hogging his father, but Boba held him almost as much as his father did. But since they opted to 'baby-sit for free', I got some time to do a little dancing when the tables had been cleared after dinner. I had the honour of dancing with Erik--the Phantom of the Opera--for a slow dance and a fast one with Axel. I was also stolen away by a few people I didn't recognize for a few other fast ones. And I asked of one from Vader rather shyly--I think my face was beet red when I asked, too.

Finally, after sitting out most of the night and saying and doing nothing, Severus finally came out to take me from Vader for the next dance, which was a slow one. I can safely say that that one dance...had been pretty awkward. Severus had never been much to dance--even when I used to try and coax him into it.

Yet here he was, spinning me as if he had danced his whole life.... as if he knew me so personally!

--Keily! --

I shook my head, feeling it throb a little. I stopped in the middle of the dance, forcing Severus to stop as well. There it was again! And this time, I had truly felt it. Strong and resonating. That bad feeling was coming back amidst the celebrating and rejoicing. I suddenly wanted to get out...to leave with my son without a word. I moved to go and find William--get to Jango or Boba or whoever had him. And then he grabbed my arm, almost with an iron grip. I tried to pull my arm away, but he wouldn't relent. And that was it. I wasn't going to play the weeping flower anymore. I was finally going to give him a piece of my mind!

I looked up and froze. There was anger in his eyes...pure anger and it sent a chill down my spin--gave me a feeling I was almost becoming used to. Fear. For the first time since I met him...Severus was instilling fear into me. And I couldn't look away, even if I tried. At the corner of my eye I could see Jango coming forward with Boba behind him, holding William who had fallen asleep. Severus' grip tightened and he began to pull me close and I snapped out of it. I struggled against him.

"Let go!" I cried. "You're hurting me!" I shouted, as I wondered what was happening at the same time. What was going on? And was this really Severus? Why was he acting like this? I wanted to know!

--Keily! --

"Keily." he whispered coolly, trying to lock eyes with me. Instinctively, I made sure we never made eye contact as I tried to get away from him--as if his very touch was burning my skin. Finally, I was free of him and I managed to get to Boba so I could take William. I was just about to let the man change arms with me so I could bolt--I heard a scream from the main hall doors. All heads turned in the direction of the scream to see a figure we all had thought dead almost a week before. It was more of a rotting corpse if anything else...A pus spewing organ pile sin against God, really, but...

I wanted to throw up. Who in their right mind would use human alchemy to resurrect the Emperor? What had they used in exchange for...this...this...atrocity?

I suddenly remembered the talk people used to have at the sci-fi club about how a clone came to claim the unborn Anakin Solo as his...as the Dark Side's. I remembered how I used to shiver at the thought of how close it had been to Leia...

"Did you think...th...at...you...c...ould...be rid...of...meeeee-eee--eee?" it said as it trudged through the rather shocked crowd.

...how terrible it had been for them all to think that they would lose Anakin to the darkness...

"...Dark...ne....ss is eter...nal..."

...how much he looked like his uncle...his grandfather almost...

"...it i...s e....ver p....re...sent...as the l....ight...is...brilliant..."

.....how he died in the end...so young...

"...I wi...ll...come ba...ck...for...you...all....traitor...ous....sc...."

In a calmness I never had before--with a quick hand that I thought I never possessed--Dooku's lightsaber was in my hand, lit and then--

WHOOSH!

I sighed at the decapitated...thing at my feet. It was twitching still and I'm sure it could bring itself back together just as any of the Homunculi present surely can. We had to find a way to dispose of the thing quickly before it came back stronger than ever. I left it in the capable hands of Gluttony who could eat just about anything--and I do mean anything.

"Well...that killed the moment." I stated as William began to wail. I stared at the ignited lightsaber in my hand. So much for not using it. Then again, if Dooku had been alive and named William's godfather like I had wanted to...he would have probably done the same thing.

"Tragedy seems to follow you everywhere, doesn't it, Keily?" Draco said, a might insensitively, breaking the silence that followed my own statement.

"Draco?"

"Yes?"

"Shut-up."

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The party hadn't picked up after I sliced the homunculus Palaptine's head off. Many had been sickened by its first appearance--never mind when I did what I did. I had retreated to the room I used to dress up in, trying to soothe William and my frayed nerves. First Severus acting weird and then that? Outside my door, Maul and Trisha had taken up being my temporary guards, while the Fetts, Vader and quite a few others were scouring the grounds around the chalet for traces of where the homunculus might have come from. Who knew what could happen. Most of the invitees went home. The devoted, close and beloved stayed behind.

I laid myself on the day bed once William fell asleep again in the stroller that one of the guests got for him. I felt drained of energy...physically and mentally. I was glad for the safety my friends were giving for us, because I was quite sure that I wouldn't be able to defend myself or William in the state I was in. I still had Dooku's lightsaber with me, tucked into my belt in case I needed it again. I was about to close my eyes and drift off to slumber land with my son when Snape more or less barged in, despite protests (and threats) from Trisha and Maul. Too tired to deal with any drama (let alone get up properly) I let him go on with whatever he wanted to say.

He went down on bended knee next to me on the couch, taking one of my hands in his. He looked so pathetic then and I vaguely and sleepily wondered what he wanted. "I'm sorry." he said, his words barely registering in my mind as he looked me in the eye. I felt a lot more sleepier then, my eyelids getting twice as heavy. "I'm sorry that I hurt you...that...that disgusting filth had come in at all...and that I did nothing. Forgive me, Keily." I sort of noted that he said my name as 'Kay-lee', which was the correct way of saying my name...which was odd because he always pronounced it differently...so that it always made me think of him. 'Kah-eh-lee' was how he always said it. It was almost like a cross of my name and 'Kelly' and I always found it endearing more than annoying. A random thing to wonder about, but I was very tired at the time...almost drifting to sleep...

And he looked so sorry--something I rarely ever see in him. I didn't struggle with him as he pulled me close, eyes still locked on each other's.

--Keily! Look away! Get away!--

There it was again. I wonder what's truly going on, but then...I don't feel so bad anymore. Maybe it was just paranoia after all? Being like this around Severus...It's almost like that night again when I fell asleep by his side. I reached up with my arms and wrapped them around his neck. After this I slept for quite a while...

Farewell, My Prince

2006-06-29T20:07:00.000-05:00

I think it's time for a break from telling you all about my little adventure so I can tell you a bit about the funeral yesterday.

Currently, I'm sitting at home--tired and yawning, wanting to sleep, but can't. William's got a bit of fever and I can't sleep until it's gone down. He's tuckered out already, so he's not crying anymore, but I'm sure it's going to start up again soon enough. Now, I have to tell you all...though the war is long over...Severus hasn't returned to me. Draco is still here, but he's also made himself a little scarce...hopping from place to place...He visits every once in a bit, so I'm not mad at him...

Severus could have at least sent me those letters he promised! I've barely heard any word from him! And it's got me so upset I've started my old habit of hitting things....Luckily for me there was lots of wood and I still have one of the lightsabers given to me...The last thing I had from Dooku...

Oh! I suppose that I should explain a bit about William. I've never mentioned him before...Well, Willy is special. Very special. He's my son. Now don't go nuts on me...he's not my biological son! I'd never sleep with someone before marriage...let alone get pregnant! I adopted him after a strange fiasco between some Protectors of the Plot Continuum Agents and an alternate universe brought him to me. I'll go into full deatil about that later in the 'Keily's Chronicles' posts as he's a part of the reason I got kidnapped by Voldemort in the first place.

So William is my adopted son from an alternate universe...an alternate universe where Severus Snape had children! Yes, children...not child. William has a little sister, but I have no idea who or where she is....I suspect that she had been given to a different family in hopes of hiding her...I have to say that I was not thrilled at the 'Kenobi plot' being pulled off in front of me. One day I'll find William's sister, I'm sure...But for now...

We attended the service, William and I, taken there via shuttle. Lord Vader had been quite generous in giving us the lift down there. It had been William's first ride on a craft and he had looked pretty excited--a bit too excited. I couldn't get him to sit still the entire ride. I think he got on the nerves of the other passengers of the shuttle with his constant squealing. I admit that I might have snapped at him because my ears were ringing and popping at the time and I'm very sensitive about them. I had to bribe the kid with honeyed milk to make him stop crying when we reached Kenya's place.

The service was lovely and I cried a bit, my hand finding someone else's and squeezing it. I don't remember whose hand it was, but it had held mine during the entire service and I'd like to thank the owner of that hand for letting me hold it...especially if we're total strangers! If you were the one who had their hand held by a girl who looks like this and this, then I give you much gratitude for putting up with me!

I laid the bouquet of tulips I had taken with me to rest beside the marker for Dooku's grave where his ashes had been buried. I gave him a few prayers before following the others away from the site.

And then the party had begun.

It was spirited, fun, fast paced and a bit of a blur to me...and I didn't even drink anything! I remember William being pretty happy--what with all the attention he had received. He had changed hands more than that one bottle of Corellian wine had. I managed to meet up with his future godparents, too and chatted with them a bit about this and that...what they had to do and when the godparent naming ceremony would be. I also introduced little William to them who had gotten too sleepy at the time to do much.

After that, I decided to retire early as William was tired and so was I. Unfortunately, we couldn't get a ride anywhere just yet, so we wandered about the place set-up for the celebration party, William on hand...when I run into the most unlikeliest of people to appear there and he ends up whisking me away to England....or somewhere that felt like England...don't know how I could tell.

...But I had to restrain myself from flinging myself into Severus' arms like a lovesick dolt. William being in my arms not withstanding.

He regards me calmly, though I could tell from his eyes that he was regretting his actions just a bit. He eyes the sleeping babe in my arms, wondering whose it was, most likely. I gave him a shaky smile.

"So...finally decided to see me, did you?" I asked.

"Yes..." he replied.

An awkward silence stretches between us a neither of us know exactly what I to say. A million feeling course through my body--a billion thoughts race through my mind and I couldn't just pick one and give voice to it. I mean...when he left, he practically told me that I wasn't so bad to be around. And in one of my earlier posts I admitted to loving him, so...

Luckily, he manages to find something to say...and it's about what I'm wearing. He lifts one of the ends of my extremely long pink ribbon in my hair and smirks.

"New fashion statement?" he asked.

"Like you're one to talk about fashion, you batty old man."

He paused and looked up at me, holding the ribbon in between two fingers. His expression is one I've never seen before and it almost unnerves me.

"A 'batty old man' that you love." he replied coolly. He dropped the ribbon, crossing his arms as he waited for my answer to that one. Talk about your awkward silences. I had the decency to blush about it. Even though I pretty much screamed it to the world I had hoped that my 'declaration of love' wouldn't reach his notice. A romantic fool I may be, but even I know that Severus Snape's fondness could only go so far--especially towards someone almost young enough to be his daughter.

I sighed. What could I say? I couldn't deny it, but I couldn't confirm it either. So I just stayed quiet and looked at the ground, like so many of his students tended to do when they were guilty of exploding a cauldron.

"Who's this?" he asked, his voice sounding closer.

I almost jumped in surprise to find that he was just inches in front of me. How did he manage to get so close without my notice? "William...he's my son." I answered. I expected a pause to follow--or even some sort of snarky remark, but what I got instead was--

"May I hold him?" he inquired softly. Numbly, I let him take hold of the baby--his baby--cradling him so gently in his arms as if he had before though I knew it wasn't the case. It had been no surprise to me to find out that Severus had been Draco's godfather, so he had a bit of experience with infants. But still, to see him holding his son...his flesh and blood...

..Made my heart want to break. My eyes welled up and I tried to say something anything. Tell him that I loved him...scream at him again for being gone....say to him how impatient I was getting by waiting for him...

But I said nothing and just watched him hold William. I wondered what he thought then. Did he notice the similarities between them? Did he think that the baby's black hair came from me? That his lips were mine? Or perhaps he was thinking what a nose the boy had. I choked back a sob that wanted to come out. I was still emotional from the war, as well as the funeral that had happened earlier in the day.

After a while, he gave him back to me--his hands brushing along my bare arms. I shiver a bit--whether from the cool air or from his touch...I don't know. I really don't want to think about it.

We exchanged a few more words; got comfortable on some chairs in the room we had arrived inside and had a small conversation that I didn't remember all too well. The things I did manage to recall was that the conversation had been serious...very serious and I had wanted to cry some more...

...I don't want to bore or scare off you all with what was said and done, so I'll just sum it all up in the tears I had when he brought me home.

Severus is leaving.

For good.

He didn't want to admit it, but he said he was doing it for me...for Draco and everyone else. He had a lot to make up for and said he didn't deserve to be happy until he paid his dues....even if he had to die.

Count...what am I going to do?

Keily's Chronicles: Part 2 - Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

2006-06-23T23:49:00.000-05:00

As some might have recalled I sent some very angry words towards Severus and Draco through the use of Kenya's blog. Well, they had been well worth it and I am not ashamed of them! In fact, they ended up getting the exact response that I wanted from Severus during the first few days of worrying about him. He called me and we talked for hours. I don't think I ever cried, while yelling at the speaker phone so much in my entire life...not even when I suffered messy break-ups.

And Severus...he had been a good sport about all of it. He promised me that he would come back safe and sound...that he would write me letters, so all I would have to do was be patient for them. I told them in no certain terms what he could do with his waiting and his letters and such. You could guess how unhappy I was with him...how scared I had been to wake-up in a place I wasn't used to without him or Draco around...

And when I finally managed to calm down...I told him how much I missed him and how much I wanted him to come home. Of course, I had been blubbering on the phone at the time, so I'm quite sure that he hadn't heard a damn word that I said to him.

And then he had to go and say that stupid, foolish thing!

"Thank you for walking with me...on my road to redemption." he said. "Albus used to tell me...that such a road is a long and lonely one, but...I'm glad that while I walked it...I got to meet you."

Predictably, I cried some more like the little ninny that I was.

And it wasn't until after the phone...a day or two after the phone call at least...I really, really, REALLY realised what I had said to him that day. Or at least...tried to say. And Severus, if you're reading this, well...I suppose you've a right to call me a 'silly sentimental Slytherin child' now. I love him. It's as simple as that. I tried very hard not to. I really did try. I didn't want to fall for a man who might have passed for my father...I didn't want to be involved with someone at all, not after the break-up I had a while ago because I wanted to be free of commitment...And yet.

It happened. Funny thing, love is. I had been infatuated before...when I knew him simply as the irritable git who lived in the dungeons of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I adored him when he started to live with me...

And only just realised that I practically loved him at first sight when I helped him and Draco into my home so I could treat their wounds...You really don't know what you've got until you've lost it. And I lost it and I have the distinct feeling that I won't be getting it back.

Well...do you know what an Asian girl does when she's depressed about love? We go do karaoke! And here's an appropriate, lovey-dovey song for you!

1000 Words
by Jade from Sweetbox

I know that you're hiding things
Using gentle words to shelter me
Your words were like a dream
But dreams could never fool me
Not that easily
I acted so distant then
Didn't say goodbye before you left
But I was listening
You'll fight your battles far from me
Far too easily
"Save your tears cause I'll come back"
I could hear that you whispered as you walked through that door
But still I swore
To hide the pain when I turn back the pages
Shouting might have been the answer
What if I'd cried my eyes out and begged you not to depart
But now I'm not afraid to say what's in my heart
Though a thousand words
Have never been spoken
They'll fly to you
Crossing over the time and distance holding you
Suspended on silver wings
And a thousand words
One thousand confessions
Will cradle you
Making all of the pain you feel seem far away
They'll hold you forever
The dream isn't over yet
Though I often say I can't forget
I still relive that day
"You've been there with me all the way"
I still hear you say
"Wait for me I'll write you letters"
I could see how you stammered with your eyes to the floor
But still I swore to hide the doubt
When I turn back the pages
Anger might have been the answer
What if I'd hung my head and said that I couldn't wait
But now I'm strong enough to know it's not too late
Cause a thousand words
Call out through the ages
They'll fly to you
Even though we can't see I know they're reaching you
Suspended on silver wings
Oh a thousand words
One thousand embraces
Will cradle you
Making all of your weary days seem far away
They'll hold you forever
Oh a thousand words
Have never been spoken
They'll fly to you
They'll carry you home and back into my arms
Suspended on silver wings ohhh
And a thousand words
Call out through the ages
They'll cradle you
Turning all of the lonely years to only days
They'll hold you forever

Keily's Chronicles: Part 1 - The Disappearing Act

2006-05-16T09:44:00.000-05:00

On request...I will now write up about what happened to me during the whole final battle against Emperor Palpatine. From the first signs of trouble to my kidnapping, my subsequent escape and my part during the final fight on Mustafar.

And so...lets start off with the first part of my little story...

--------------------------

I don't know about the rest of you, but I despise the idea of war. Especially if it involves people that I care for deeply. Now, it's not to say that the people I had to see off cared deeply for me, or I for them, but...I suppose I loved them enough to start crying my eyes out like a ninny when they left. It all started about the end of May* or so...when I finally taught the boys how to use the laptop...more or less.

Draco and Severus were in quite the foul mood. Severus more so than usual, which I find quite odd as A) There were no students for him to deal with, B) No one he knew from home was around and C) There was no sign of Potter. But at the time, I didn't think too much of it, so I just let them stew over for quite a bit. After all, it wasn't prudent to get on the nerves of a man who could hex you to Hell and back and, as stated before, Snape was in the worst of moods I've ever seen him in.

It was when they started acting nice that I started to worry.

Now, these two had been living with me in relative quiet (as seen from the lack of posting in my blog) for the last...I don't know. Almost a year or so. They would either hog the bathroom(Draco), hog the kitchen(Severus) or just generlaly make my life that much harder at home (mysterious messes, destroyed appliances, strange fumes from the basement, etc...), but I had always considered this sort of behaviour quite normal. Something to expect. I expect Draco to act like a spoilt brat. I expect Severus to insult me, especially if I do something stupid.

The last thing I can ever expect from them is an offer to take me to the festival down in the Old Port of the city on Saturday. A Japanese festival. In other words... a yukata wearing, gold fish catching, cherry blossoms falling all over the place with an old monk standing to the side...Japanese festival.

"Did you guys drink something odd? Like an experimental potion or...I don't know...one of the Red Bull cans?" I asked them, looking at both men incredulously. I knew that neither were into other cultures all that much and the thought of lingering around too many muggles for the disclosed amount of time (which was a full day) they gave me for our outing was torture for them. More than once have I heard both of them mutter 'bad enough we live with a family of them'.

Either way, we went out to the Old Port to have our day of 'fun'...which didn't turn out so bad. If you had ever been to a festival, you know how lively and fun they can be. And Montreal has so many festivals during every year....like the jazz festival, the matsuri, the just for laughs festival and various others. Usually, I wouldn't attend the matsuri fest, but it was very nice and very well funded by the boys (where and how they have the money, I'll never know or ask). We went to the vending stalls first, buying up lots of treats to eat while we had fun out in the sun. I also bought a few boxes of Pocky for my sister, because I knew she'd be angry at me for not taking her out and forgetting to buy her some stuff.

After the vendors we went on to play games through the day...Well, I did. Severus just watched while Draco ran off somewhere with some gypsy girl. I was trying to win myself a fish, but it just wasn't any fish...it was a very beautiful male guppy with the loveliest and rare blue blue tail you had ever seen--but I was having problems catching it. Usually, people would have to catch a goldfish--and there was a stall for that--but since they gave the choice of getting an assorted fishie...I couldn't resist! At home I have two large tanks full of fish. One has different types, while one is just full of guppies. And when I spotted this little darling amongst the other variety swimming around I gave up around twenty bucks trying to catch it.

How you can catch a fish at one of these games is that you get a bowl and a paper screen which is really delicate. What you're supposed to do is to catch the fish with the screen and lob it into your bowl. But the thing is...it takes a lot of skill...otherwise, you break your paper screen and have to buy another one. As long as your screen doesn't break, you can keep trying. But once it's gone...tsk!

I sat in front of that stall for at least an hour, ruining screen after screen trying to get the rascal. I did catch a few other fish in my attempts like a tetra and a couple of small tiger fish. Sweaty, tired and feeling my legs fall asleep and my stomach cramp, I declared defeat.

"That little bugger does NOT want to be caught!" I said, sighing heavily. I looked at the tank of fish sadly, still longing to get the cute little guppy. Severus nodded in understanding, taking a small interest in the tank as he leaned over to inspect it.

"...Which one was it?" he asked, still peering into the water. I pointed out the fish and he nodded again. He took out a few coins and handed them over to the owner who in turn gave him a paper screen and a bowl. My eyes bugged out as he began to try and catch the guppy. I sputtered and tried to talk him into reason.

"Severus! Come on, you don't have to do this! S...stop, please! I could always get one from the pet shop!" I told him, blushing in embarrassment. I'm the type who can't stand having others help me. I enjoy doing things for myself. But there he had gone and tried his best to get the fish for me. After about five tries (around three dollars) he got me the little guppy I had sat so long trying to catch. He held it out to me in its little plastic bag. I didn't say anything and neither did he.

"Just take it already. You're making a scene." he said, finally. Without a word, I gingerly lifted the bag from his hand, face in an obvious red. After that we just walked around a bit more before going for dinner.

* * *

Dinner had been a pretty private affair, just between Severus and I. Apparently, Draco had found a very nice Canadian witch (who was supposedly pureblood) and had decided to go out with her for the night, leaving behind a few things he had purchased with us to take home. One of them had been an early birthday present for me which boggled my mind. One, because he knew when my birthday was when I specifically didn't tell him. And two, for the fact that he had bought me a magnificent red kimono that I gladly showed off for the city to see...even if Severus and I had chosen to eat in a quaint little Italian restaurant in the downtown ghetto. It was a nice place, one I used to visit very often when I was in high school. It had the best thin crust pizza you had ever tasted and their pasta is to die for! But that's just my opinion...

Still, dinner was mostly quiet...unusually so. I mean, it wasn't as if Severus and I had soul pouring, heart warming conversations most of the time, or anything. Our dinners are usually quiet. We might talk about what went on in the day, perhaps a few spottings of people we knew, but most of the time...we say nothing and just enjoy the silence from the bustling day. That night...the silence was sort of strained. Like there was something that Severus really wanted to tell me, but couldn't. Or perhaps...there had been a secret he wished to tell me.

But it had been alright, if only for that short amount of time...to pretend that everything was alright. I'm good at pretending, I've been told. But I could only pretend so long...especially when someone else is pretending better than me. I think that's a little petty of me, but...

"Severus?"

He looked up at me, looking slightly surprised, as if I had interrupted him in the midst of thought. His face is soon schooled into an expression of irritation--something I'm much more familiar with.

"Yes?" His voice is full of bite, but then...it softened. "...Yes?"

"Is something wrong?" I asked. "The both of you have been acting...odd."

He raised an eyebrow. "How so?" he inquired.

I sighed and shuffled a bit in my seat. I poked at my food, trying to think up the correct way of expressing what I felt...what I wanted to tell him so he wouldn't misunderstand.

"Why are you being so nice?" I asked him before I could stop the flow of words.

"Do I need a reason to be?"

Silence.

"Yes." I laid my fork down, unable to eat another bite of my food. "You...are Severus Snape." I told him, a sharpness in my voice I hardly ever used. "You...have never been known as a fair man...or a nice man." I looked up at him to see his reaction--watch his expression change into something familar such as indignant rage or...or even...something likened to dislike. But he had looked at me calmly, as if expecting this from me...or just that he was used to such words. It wouldn't surprise me. I've probably told him this before...or maybe he had already heard it from someone else...

Many a time have a Severus Snape fan have wanted to tell him this exact speech after Rowling had mentioned it in one of her interviews. Many a time have I wanted to slap him, take him by the shoulders and give the man a good shaking and tell him the speech so many wish they could just say...And I had just said the first few lines of it...

...but I dared not to say the rest.

We went home in silence, Severus picking up the bill. It had gotten chilly when the night came down and he offered to give me his coat. I didn't take it, nor did I decline, but he shrugged it off and set it around my shoulders anyway. Nothing of too great importance happened as we walked down the downtown streets at night. But he did let me take his arm when I thought I saw something in the shadows.

As I rummaged through one of my bags to get my house keys, Severus pulled out one of the parcels Draco had left with us before he ran off with that gypsy girl for the night. It was a long, rectangular box...one that had made my suspicions rise. He gave it to me, mumbling something about my twentieth birthday that was in a while. I opened the box and found exactly what I had expected from someone so practical.

A wand.

You'd think that since I was quite a sensible enough person that I would have thought that the wand wouldn't work for me. But no. I took the wand out of its resting place and gave it a swish. Red sparks came out the end and we both smiled.

"Cherry wood, unicorn hair...ten inches." he said.

"It's beautiful." I replied.

Silence.

"Severus..." I said, my voice cracking a little and I swore that I could feel tears prickling at the corner of my eyes. I didn't know whether it was from that particular gesture or from the whole day or just from this bad feeling that I was getting, but the tears were coming.

Now I know what some of you are thinking. Oh! It's a crying moment! Here he comes with a comforting hug or a passionate kiss! Let me tell you something me buck-o's...Severus Snape does not hug people and Keily Shinra does not kiss men before the third date.

Severus rested a hand on the top of my head, as if that was all I needed. As if I were just a little child...

"You know how to use it, don't you?" he asked quietly.

I nodded. "Yeah..." I answered. "I do."

"Good."

After that, we went our separate ways. Me to my room on the second floor and him to the guest room in the basement. I had tried a few spells with the wand, not really wondering at how I was able to work it. But I didn't do much else with it that night. You'd think that I would have been so excited to have received a working wand from one of the most famous wizards in the whole world...But I didn't. I actually felt pretty bad.

I did my nightly rounds of checking if the house was secure. Windows shut, doors locked, appliances that weren't in use unplugged...that sort of thing. I hadn't checked my messages all day on the net and had been itching to take a look, but weariness won over my addiction to the net, so I went with the rest of my rounds...

I put my newly acquired fish into their respective tanks. I ended up watching my new little guppy for a while, a warmth filling my heart at the sight of it, for one reason or another. It, along with the others, came close to the glass, peering at me with their small eyes. In a fit of sentimentality, I named the little guy 'Severus', before going downstairs to check up on his original.

He had already fallen asleep on the bed, still dressed in his clothes from the day. I took a seat beside him on the floor, leaning against the bed as I look at him. I didn't know what to think as I stared at him like some lovesick fool. I don't think I had thought anything during those few moments of watching him getting some rest. I didn't remember resting my head down on the mattress and closing my eyes...I barely recalled reaching out and taking a bit of his sleeve in my hand.

I guess, despite being like Severus at times...despite my wanting to be a mother...or a maternal figure...in my heart I'm pretty much a kid and all I really wanted was...

* * *

It was around noon on Sunday that I woke-up, warm and tucked in bed. I had my Severus plushie (something that the real Severus abhorred, especially since it had NO LEGS and was missing his RIGHT ARM) in my arms and I felt pleasantly groggy. And then I realized I was in the guest room. Note for all: I HATE sleeping in the guest room. It has pictures of ANTS in it and I ALWAYS get creepy dreams about ants crawling into my ears because of these pictures. PLUS, Severus slept in the bed in the guest room.....

So, Severus plushie on hand, I bolt out of there and head to the main floor, yelling the first thing that came to mind. "Severus!!!"

I had expected some sort of snappish insult or some sort of drawling remark, but nothing came. The house was still; no reply came. I looked around the house, checking to see if anyone was about. No one was there. I was alone. All alone. My parents--who wouldn't notice the End of the World even if it proposed to them on bended knee--had gone out for the day with my little sister and my grandmother had went for a walk. The only noise I could hear were the sounds of my fish tanks.

Feeling a little weirded out, I fed my fish and went to take a shower to calm my nerves. After that I had breakfast and was able to think things through. Perhaps Draco and Severus had gone out? It wouldn't be the first time that they had done so without saying anything and it certainly wouldn't have been the last. But as the day wore on...I became very worried...

Especially after I caught sight of what was on Kenya's blog.

Motherhood

2006-05-10T09:55:00.000-05:00

Sorry for not posting in a long time. Real life got in the way--among other things--but I am back. So no worries! As school winds down and summer dawns up here in Canada...most likely I'll live a much more interesting life. But since I am here at the moment, I suppose I should say something of interest...sort of. I found it interesting and a bit distressing. The Twit found it hilarious while our resident Git just smirked knowingly at me.

Alright, as some of you might have realized from my few posts...I have a little sister. She's cute, I suppose. Really annoying at times and she can even get me pretty angry, but hey...she's a kid and I can't really hold it against her. Thing is I've always been called her 'Second Mama', as I take care of her more than my mother does. I know what you're thinking: "Oh, no! Not another teeny bopper who angsts about abusive parents!"

One, I am not a teeny bopper. I haven't been since I was...what...eight? And if it extends to teenage years I won't be nineteen for long. Next month is my twentieth birthday.

Two, my mother is NOT abusive. She's just irresponsible. She loves us just as much as any mother should...she's just bad with money and dealing with kids. She's still loving...to a point. You'd go crazy too if you had a daydreamer twenty year old daughter who isn't employed and a very young daughter who can't fend for herself just yet.

Anyways, I've always did my best for my little sister. Take her to school, prepare her meals, dress her up, get her to go to bed...that sort of thing. I play with her every day, tutor her...everything I wish I could do for my own kids. The topic of children has always been a very, vry, very sensitive point with me since an accident in my childhood wrecked my chance of having kids. Technically I could have kids if I decided to get operations or something of that nature...however...the chance of the child NOT being stillborn, miscarried or having some sort of disease is very low. So I don't have much of a chance of having my own flesh and blood kids.

Quite a few of my friends tell me that I would make a lovely mother by the way I treat them and my little sister. That the kids would be happy no matter what. Ha. If I could have kids.

Today as I took my sister to breakfast at her school I had to ask her a question. I knelt down to ask her if she wanted cereal or bagels and one of her friends pointed out that I talked like a mom. I was both nauseated and happy. A weird combination, I'm sure. Later on, other kids asked if I was my sister's mom and I had to fight back from crying. The cake was when my sister actually hugged me and called me mom.

I wonder if women, by nature, just get very sappy as they got older. I never used to be so emotional as a child. The only times I cried was when I got hurt. I suppose I could've ended up worse.

Snape and I met up at Melange de Magique as I walked home. It was a bit of a tradition now between us. He would head off to check the store while I took my sis to school and then we'd walk home together. We didn't talk to each other much--not that we usually do during our walks together anywhere--but the silence stretched between us seemed a little bit more unbearable than usual.

But things could have been worse.

But things look like they're looking up already.

Excuse the random sappy rant.

Beware: There Be Mary-Sues Here

2005-11-17T14:01:00.000-05:00

Have any of you ever heard of Pottersues? It's a community on Livejournal that dedicates itself solely to the purpose of mocking Mary-Sues in the Potterdom. There were all types. Canon-Sues, Emo-Sues, Sues-That-Can-Make-You-Puke, Sues-That-Cannot-Be-Named and so on. Well, that's all well and good, but Draco hears me snickering to myself on the laptop while he's entertaining my sister with the telly (they're watching the Grim Adventurs of Billy and Mandy by the way). Severus has gone shopping at Melange de Magique (it's a magic shop that sells all sorts of things like herbs, books and the like) so he's off babysitting detail.

"What are you reading?" he asks, sauntering over to a seat next to me. And me, being the slash fanfic lover that I am and also a guilty reader of Sues--if only to mock them--quickly cover the screen with my hands.

"Goodness! No privacy!" I tell him, trying to at least pretend to be affronted. He gives me a dry look and we struggle for a few moments until he manages a few sentences from the screen and his eyes widen and he backs off. I just chuckle at his reaction. "Told ya not to look!" Well, I hadn't, but the meaning behind my hiding the screen was rather obvious, wasn't it?

"People...people write such...things about me?" he asks, his face paler than usual. I grin.

"Oh, not just you. Sometimes with Harry, sometimes with Ron and sometimes with all three of you at the same time." I tell him, doing my best to sound as dirty as possible. And considering that Draco is a seventeen year old boy, my efforts had not been in vain. He blushes a bright tomato cherry red.

"That's...that's...immoral. Disgusting!"

"Not to these hormonal thirteen year olds."

"Thirteen year olds?!" he says, incredulous. His eyes are practically bulging out of their sockets! "I am not a cradle robber."

"No, but I know somebody who is." I say, grinning like a Chesire Cat and thinking very dirty thoughts about Draco's former/not former master. He catches on pretty quickly and goes from bight red to a sickly green. Poor boy wants to puke. I'd feel sorry, but it's just too fun to torture him like this. "Oh, come on. I'll feed you some fish..." He runs off to the lavatory. "...sticks. Oh, well more for me."

- - -

After Draco upchucks all the contents of his stomach we manage to have a rather peaceful lunch of fish and chips. Around this time, Severus comes home with loads in his arms. I go over to help him unload his things. All the while I make lewd comments. Lots of lewd comments. I can't help it. Underneath all my propriety, prudeness and overall 'motherly' attitude...I am quite the pervert. And damn proud of this fact.

Severus makes a comment about it finally after the sixth batch of chips I cook up.

"Draco's discovered Mary-Sue fanfiction." I tell him. Severus, who has been in the Muggle World much longer than most wizards, has already discovered what fanfiction is and what sorts of fanfictions that can be made. He actually snorts.

"The bane of all existence." he says. He turns to Draco. "You think those are terrible, she hasn't read any M-PREGs to you aloud as if she were reciting poetry." The boy gives us a confused look. "An M-PREG is usually a silly little romance story about how one person in a pair of males becomes pregnant and then gives birth." Once again, Draco turns a sickly shade of green and runs off to the bathroom. "I assume you haven't told him about the Nazi slash fanfictions involving him and..."

"Don't remind me. I'm still trying to get that image out of my mind." At this, Severus smiles sadistically. Ever since a month ago, he and I have been trying to outdo the other in who has the stronger stomach after a disagreement about who had a suckier life...him or me. True, he does win for the fact that he has Voldemort as a master and he had to kill Dumbledore and all...But I am a nineteen year old young woman with problems, so I could possibly care less. Anyways...we tend to use fanfiction slash pairings to try and make the other gross out.

I think the weirdest--and most vile--pairing we've ever come up with was 'the squid/every female student in Hogwarts under 18'. Because we all know what happens with school girls and tentacles. Ha. Poor Severus. I must've scarred him pretty bad.

"I'm thinking about writing a few new stories." I announce randomly.

"Again?" Severus inquires. "You haven't even finished Chain of Memories yet." For all of you who don't bother reading my bad writing, Chain of Memories is one of my Harry Potter fanfictions involving our very own Severus Snape trying to figure out some lost memories that he finds in a music box. It's an Alternate Universe, one that he finds amusing to say the least. "How do you expect to juggle any more stories? You have so many." I wave at him dismissively.

"It'll be one of those 'update once every two weeks' type of thing." I tell him. "And I promised to start writing my Okage: Shadow King after Chain of Memories anyways. The story I'll want to do is about Muses."

"Muses?"

"Muses."

"Yup. Two very famous muses of writing who are aptly named Orijinoru Karakuta and Mary-Sue Anabella Isabelle Serena Raven Lunar Eclipse Selena Anna-Maria Johnson-Valentine the Third." He chokes on the name.

"Mary-Sue?"

"Yup."

"You're serious?"

"It's a comedy of sorts. It'll be fun."

"Define fun."

"Oh, come on...my sense of humor isn't that bad?"

"Define humor."

I sigh. Well, whatever. I am going to write about thesetwo. After reading about all of these sues from Pottersues and the Mary-Sue report...I have the urge to do it. With all the story plots and twists I have in mind...they'll be fun for sure....

The Writer, the Twit and the Git

2005-11-11T13:25:00.000-05:00

Oh thank god! I finally managed to get this up! You guys have absolutely no idea the type of torture I had to go through. And by torture I mean with the constant whining and complaining and the--urgh! I am so glad they never grasped the concept of a bloody computer. Stupid bloody gits.

Forgive me. These last few months had been rather tedious and I needed to rant a few moments. Let me start by introducing myself.

Hi. My name is Alice Valentine, also known as Elessar Slytherin, jokingly called Issodore Telcontar and better known as 'Cinderella' at home. But for all purposes I prefer the name of Keily Shinra. Any deriatives such as 'Kei-chan', 'Kei', or 'Miss Shinra' work as well, but nothing too formal thanks. I think I've had enough of that to last me the next six lifetimes. I am a young writer in college who enjoys cosplaying (costume playing for those who don't know the term, it means...well...dressing up and pretending to be somebody else), drawing, singing and...um...things that are NC-17.

Alright...now that you know the basic of the basics...lets get on to the story...

...Unfortunately it actually happened some months ago and is still ongoing today, but I shall tell you the gist of what has happened in my formerly peaceful life.

Once upon a time, there was a young woman who liked Harry Potter who had muses to help her write fanfics and such. One hot summer day as she had a nasty writer's block for a random HP fanfic she was writing her muses appeared....literally. They had been bruised, bleeding and generally not in such a very nice state. In fact, she was very sure that the younger one was pretty damned concussed while the older one was...well...

Lets not get into that.

So the happy little writer nursed them back to health and when they did...they threatened her and told her to keep her mouth shut and lots of other nasty things. And so was the first meeting of the Writer, the Twit and the Git. They had several misadventures together such as the microwave mishap where one little Twit just couldn't understand how it worked and tried other means of heating up...rice. And the whole costuming thing where the Writer decided it was a good day to dress up exactly like the Git for no apparent reason except for her own amusement. And don't even get the Writer started with Halloween. Running from one end of the city to the other dressed up in a Sailor Moon outfit looking for a greasy Git and a stupid Twit was not her idea of fun.

And we come to our current story today...which happens to be the story where Severus Snape finally does his job as a muse....sort of.

------

I always entertained the thought of having Severus Snape for a muse as very amusing. And it rather is, but it's also....really annoying. I mean really. But considering that I made the poor guy do quite a few embarrassing things in some of my fanfics--and my mind, but he doesn't need to know that--I guess I deserve it. Ha ha. I am really glad he stinks with computers. Of course, he being a teacher he decides to be critical about everything that I do. Such as...my homework.

Grah. And here I thought my parents drive me crazy!

"The semi-colon doesn't go there," he tells me. "In fact...that entire sentence is wrong."

"Oh, leave me alone!" I yell at him in frustration, throwing my hands up into the air. "It's only my humanities essay proposal! Nobody cares about humanities as much as they care about...about..." I stop moment to think about a proper Wizarding subject. "...History of Magic!"

"It is from the past that we learn." Severus says to me, rolling his eyes heavenward. "Otherwise we are doomed to repeat our mistakes."

"Oh, quit preaching." I tell him with a long suffering sigh mastered through years and years of nagging by my family members. "Look...I really don't care about the proposal as I do the essay. She'll mark me on that...not my damn proposal."

"But it's in your proposal where your first impression can be made. Should your proposal fail, not only would she have a bad taste left in her mouth then you'll be forced to write yet another one." I glare at him. God. It's like talking to myself. Yes, I'll admit it (not out loud of course). Severus and I have a lot in common. Although it is annoying to have your own thoughts parroted back at you. I should know. I've done it to him--and myself--plenty of times. Comes with being a weirdo with extreme amounts of rationality where there shouldn't be. After all...I'm nineteen. Shouldn't I be some sort of reckless youth?

I sigh again and just click save and then close the program and put on some music. I can't write when I've got a major case of writer's block. I heave a sigh again and look to the clock and then check the date. Today is Remembrance Day. A day we remember the fallen from the wars before...well...I's say 'our' time, but I don't think it's too appropriate. I'd say...my time. But it's also a day to those who are falling every day...who sacrifice their lives so that we may live better lives...

In a move considering to be 'slithering out', I ask him if he's doing anything for the day besides annoy me.

"No," he answers, "...Why?"

I smile and drag him downstairs where we both find Draco, napping away on the couch. I grab my house keys and leave a note for Draco before I drag dear Severus with me outside and towards Mount Royal.

Mount Royal's this small mountain where lots of things happen. Like the boffle weapon fights at the Tam Tams (an event where people get together to sell wares play music or just have fun every weekend during the summer), boating at the mountaintop lake, rollerblading, biking and a few months ago...have a funeral. Yeah, I got stuck helping a funeral and you'd never guess whose it was.

Dumbledore's.

Of course, it wasn't the same one in the Wizarding World's, but we fans of HP in Montreal wanted to give the old coot our respects. So we had our own funeral and a memorial made. Hopefully it's still standing, but I don't know...

I tell him we're visiting Dumbledore's grave to pay our respects. Severus falls silent at this, but I can pretty much guess why. After all, he was the one who 'pulled the trigger' on him. But though he's pretty damn reluctant I pull him up the entire five or so kilometres with me to see the lakeside memorial to him. It's still early, because, you know...in Canada we have a moment of silence at eleven o'clock in the morning in remembrance of the dead, but...it can't get anymore silent than it already is. Severus is pretty quiet and I'm not one for saying much unless I have to. And then something strikes at me as I begin to remember something else...

I pull out a knife and begin to carve other names on the memorial--it's wood by the way.

"What...are you doing?" he asks. I give him a look.

"I think he would have liked to have had this known as well...." I tell him as I continue to carve. He gives me a weird look, but I continued with my work until I was done. And when I am done, he nods in approval anyways. It took me a bit and I almost froze my hands out here, but I managed. He helped a bit, too, in the end. I added more names to the memorial...names that not many think about because they seem not as important...

"But they are important. Without each little individual thing they did...things could be worse in your world." I say to Severus as we begin to walk back to my house. "So many people had to die...and many more will die, I bet...when are you going to go home?"

He doesn't answer and I don't expect the old git to. By now he probably didn't have much of a home to go to anymore. And if he did try to go back he'd be charged and then put to death. And Draco...

Well, this is a rather sober day. I suppose I'll make the boys something nice and soothing for dinner tonight. I think they'll appreciate the mternal side of me more than the sarcastic Slytherin side for tonight...

...in remembrance of those who had fallen.