Chapter 3

Demyx P.O.V.

About two and a half weeks (give or take a few days) has passed since Axel got here. I think he's a great addition to our group-well, besides the fact that he keeps wanting to set things on fire. I'm afraid one of these days that I wont be able to put it out in time and it will cause someone or something to get hurt or damaged!

Also, he's a bit of a pervert. Well, only towards Roxas anyhow, so I guess its okay. It started about a week into knowing him. I think he might like Roxas. I told Zexion my theory a couple of weeks after that and he asked me what took me so long to notice.

I cant help it if I'm a bit slow! I mean, I didn't even know Zexion liked me till he came up to me in middle school one day and kissed me full on the lips! And even then I was confused!

I'm not stupid though. I'll have you know that I am very smart when it comes to other things besides other peoples love lives! People just aren't my strong point in interpreting. I'm more of an animal person.

Anyway, poor Roxy keeps getting verbally molested by Axel and is blushing like crazy almost all the time. He's practically stuttering all the time now too when Axel's around! But . . . lately, it's almost as if he likes it. But, I mean, they do spend a lot of time together. Zexion probably already noticed this too of course so I should probably just ask him what he thinks that's all about.

I don't know what exactly is going on with them, but some weird things have been going on with all the Heartless lately too. And I've been getting this weird sensation lately that's been coming from the woods by my house that was never there before. It's almost like a tingly sensation, not uncomfortable, but urging me to go towards whatever it is.

Thus, that is why I am there right now! I have decided to venture into the woods and find this weird vibe thingy!

I continued walking happily along, humming to myself as I wandered towards the strange vibe. I stopped for a moment, picking up a stray acorn and observing it briefly before I heard a tiny tussling noise near my feet. I looked down to see two tiny chipmunks.

"Well, hello there!" I greeted, waving my hand.

"Hi!" they chirped back. Yes, I can talk to animals. Not just sea creatures, but all animals. Took me a while to figure out too. For a while when I was smaller I thought I was hearing voices. Boy did that go over well with the other school kids.

"I'm Demyx! What are your names?" I asked, bending down.

"I'm Chip!" the one on the left squeaked.

"And I'm Dale!" the other said triumphantly.

"Well, nice to meet you Chip, Dale. Is there anything I can help you with?" I asked.

"Can we have that acorn you got there?" Chip asked.

I nodded handing it over to him. "Of course!"

"Thanks!" they exclaimed at the same time.

"Hey, do you guys happen to know of a place that's sending off strange vibes?" I asked curiously.

Dale nodded vigorously. "Oh yeah! There's this area near by that way that's reeeeeeally weird!" Dale said quickly, kinda like me when I have caffeine!

"If it wouldn't be too much trouble, would you guys show it to me?"

"Sure! Just follow us!" They said and began scurrying off, me following behind them at a fast pace.

After weaving through many trees and stepping over bushes, the presence suddenly became a lot stronger. "It really is almost as if it wants to be found." I muttered to myself.

"Whoa!" Chip squeaked suddenly. "That's really strong now! We've never been so close to this thing before! All of us animals tend to stray away from it."

I nodded. "Well, I'll get rid of it then so you wont have to worry about it." I took a couple of steps forward and looked around the forest for any sign of anything different.

Suddenly, the ground beneath me shutters for a moment and gives away, and I fall. "Gah!" About a second after, I hit the ground with an indignant grunt. "What the hell?" I look up to see that I fell in some sort of hole in the ground. It was about 10 feet high. I cursed, standing up as I rubbed my sore butt.

How come these things always happen to me?! I sigh and look around me. It almost looks like some sort of cave.

"Hey! You okay down there?" Dale calls from above.

"I'm fine! Can you go get some help for me though? I don't think I can get out of here by myself." I yell up through the hole. I don't know how much help they'll be but its better than nothing!

"Sure! We'll be right back!" I heard them run off.

Suddenly, I spot something gleaming from the corner of my eye. I turn, but don't see anything. Suspicious, I walk towards where I saw the gleam. I noticed the vibe that I got earlier was getting stronger and stronger the more farther I got into the cave.

"Ack!" And then I tripped.

Groaning, I lifted my head up to see what I tripped on. It was a clear crystal of some kind, with some type of ancient writing on it, and was shaped like a circle with a hole in the middle. I knew right away that this is the thing I was looking for that was sending off the strange vibes.

I sat myself on the ground in front of it and picked it up. "It looks like a doughnut. I'm gonna take it home with me so I can show the others tomorrow!" I cheered, getting up from the ground and skipping back to the hole in the ground I fell through.

Looking up, I see Riku standing there, shirtless, peeking over the egde. "Oh! Hey Riku! Watcha doin' here?" I asked waving.

"I was in the forest, going for a run when Chip and Dale came and told me you were stuck." Riku said, trying to hold in his laughter.

"Yeah! I fell into this hole while I was looking for this!" I tell him holding up the doughnut thingy.

Riku frowns slightly at the object in my hand. "What is that, Demyx?"

I shrugged. "I don't know . . . But it looks cool!"

Riku sighed. "Alright then, I'm going to go get a rope. I'll be back." I nodded and he left.

I looked down at the crystal doughnut again and held it up to the light, streaming through the hole. Sunlight seeped through the crystal, reflecting strips of rainbow all over the cave. "Whoa."

I stared at the crystal, turning and twisting it around and watching the colors dance around the room.

"Hey!" Riku called as he threw down the rope, hitting me on the head.

"Ow!" I whined, rubbing the sore spot on my head.

"Sorry, Dem. Grab onto the rope and I'll pull you up, kay?" Riku called down.

"Okey dokey!" I yell grabbing onto the rope after putting the crystal doughnut into my pocket. "Ready!"

Riku calls back an affirmative and begins lifting me up. As soon as I can reach the surface, I climb out.

I hug my savior. "Thanks Riku!"

He rolls his eyes, patting my back. "Yeah, yeah. Just don't make a habit of falling into holes, okay?"

I laughed, nodding. "Oh! Look," I pull out the doughnut crystal and show him it. He takes it with interest.

"Wow, Demyx. It looks like you found something ancient. This language is definitely not from this age." He said turning it around and observing it from all angles. He hands it back to me. "You should show this to Zexion."

I nod. "I will. I wont see him till school tomorrow though cause he's feeding this weekend." Zexion may be a vampire, but he doesn't like blood. So once a month, during the weekend, he takes these special pills that provide him with blood. The bad part is that it knocks him out for 48 hours. I don't know why though.

"Alright then. Just bring it with you tomorrow." Riku said.

"I was going to anyway." I tell him. "I wanna show Sora the crystal doughnut!" I giggled.

Riku sweat-dropped. "Right. Well, I'm gonna go. I'll see you tomorrow, kay?"

I nodded. "Alright, bye Riku!"

Third Person

Zexion looked at the crystal in interest. They we're sitting at their usual meet up spot at school the next morning. "Where did you say you found this Demyx?" he asked.

Demyx rocked back on his heels with his hands behind his back. "In the foooooorest."

"Where in the forest?"

"In a hoooooooole."

"In a hol-how the hell did you find it in a hole?" Zexion said exasperated.

"I fell in it." Demyx said simply.

Zexion sighed. "Of course." He turned to look at Demyx. "Do you realize that is from another world?"

"Wow, really?!" Demyx asked in surprise.

"Yeah. By the looks of it, it came from ancient Halloween Town. Why it's here, I have no idea." Zexion said turning the crystal around.

"Do you think you can translate it?" Demyx asked.

Zexion nodded. "Yeah, but it will take some time. Maybe a day or two."

Demyx smiled, glomping Zexion. "Thanks Zexy! You're the best!"

Zexion smiled. "I know." he said, causing Demyx to giggle.

Roxas and Sora walked up with Axel, the twins chatting about some manga book they both read.

"Hey! Check this out Sora! It's a crystal doughnut!" Demyx said as he grabbed the crystal from Zexion and ran over to Sora.

Only he tripped. And the crystal flew out of his hands and broke into about thirteen pieces on the ground.

They all stared at it, mouths gaping. A heavy aura surrounded them suddenly and they all felt as if something bad was about to happen.

"Dem," Roxas started slowly. "What was that?"

"Umm . . . an ancient crystal doughnut that I found." Demyx said, still stunned at the broken crystal on the ground.

Zexion sighed. "It's a good thing I have a good memory. You guys pick up the pieces okay?" Zexion stood. "I'm going to the library."

They all nodded, a few murmuring goodbye.

Just then, Riku walked up to the four boys still staring in shock at the many pieces of crystal on the ground. "Hey guys! What's . . . up?" He stopped, looking over to were they were all staring. "Uh oh, that cant be good."

Roxas, finally snapping out of it, rolled his eyes. "When is it ever not a bad thing when Demyx does something?"

"Hey! I resent that!"

Sora knelt down next to the broken crystal and began to pick up the pieces. "I wonder what it said on it."

"Zexion's researching it. He thinks it's from Halloween Town." Demyx informed them.

"Probably would have been easier for him to do that if he had the actual artifact." Axel murmured.

"I know! I'm sorry! I cant help that I'm clumsy!" Demyx protested.

Roxas and Sora smiled. "We know. We love and forgive you anyway."

Demyx cheered.

"But still, the fact that we broke an ancient artifact could be really bad. Especially if it's from Halloween Town." Riku said as he began helping pick up the crystal pieces with Roxas, Demyx, and Axel.

"I really hope nothing bad happens." Roxas murmured, picking up another piece of crystal and cutting his hand on it. "Ow," he hissed, dropping the crystal and clutching his hand.

"Oh! Be careful Roxy." Axel said coming over there and looking at Roxas's hand.

"I'm okay." Roxas said. "It's just a cut."

"You're bleeding though." Axel said frowning. He began lifting Roxas's finger that he cut towards his mouth and he licked it. Roxas blushed profusely.

"A-a-axel! Wh-what did you do that for?!" Roxas asked, snatching his hand back and holding it to his chest.

"I thought it would help." Axel said innocently.

Roxas buried his face in his hand's. "Ugh, Axel." he groaned as Sora, Demyx, and Riku all laughed.

"Aww! How cuuuuuute!" Sora cooed at Roxas. Roxas replied with a hard glare which caused Sora to giggle.

Riku grabbed Sora's pile of the artifact and put it with the other pieces he picked up in the front pocket of his backpack and then turned around and pulled Sora into his lap, making him squeal. "Come on, Sora. Stop harassing your brother. I think he has enough of that from Axel." Axel smirked.

Roxas glared at them. "You all suck."

"We suck? Do we suck hard, Roxas?" Axel asked, a mischievous smile on his face.

"Ugh! Stop twisting my words!" Roxas yelled smacking Axel, making him cringe away with an indignant, "Hey!"

Sora giggled, covering his mouth with his hand. "Ooooh Roxy!"

"Gah!" Roxas stood up and stomped away.

"Noooo! Roooxy!" Axel moaned running after him.

Demyx, Sora, and Riku busted up laughing.

"When the hell are they gonna realize they both like each other and get together?" Sora wondered.

"I have no idea, but hopefully soon. I think One month of them unintentionally flirting with each other is enough for me." Namine said as she walked up to the group of boys.

"Agreed." The three boys said simultaneously, making them begin laughing again.

Roxas P.O.V.

Sora and I were out on patrol with Demyx, later the same day the crystal broke. So far, that dark looming feeling that's been hanging over us hasn't dispersed in any way since. Zexion has been looking long and hard over the past day and still hasn't found anything to give them a lead on what was on the crystal doughnut.

So far nothing terrible has happened to us—well besides the whole slush incident during lunch—oh, and the bathroom thing . . . but we don't need to get into those.

Definitely not.

Anyway, right now we're downtown hunting near the park. There are a lot of kids around this time and they are really easy targets for the heartless and nobodies so we tend to chill around here till they come.

Demyx has summoned his sitar and is currently playing it, trying to lure some of the heartless here sooner though cause we're supposed to go over to Zex's house later tonight. Sora's sitting next to me humming along to Demyx's tune randomly while I'm watching some of the kids play on the jungle gym.

"Roxy," Sora whines, getting my attention. "Why can't we go play on the jungle gym? I'm bored!"

I look over at him rolling my eyes. "We're supposed to be staying on guard Sora." He pouts at me and when I'm unaffected he hits Demyx's shoulder. "Help me win him over!" and they both look at me with their pouts on full force.

I, of course, helped invent The Pout, so I am immune. I smile cheerily and with a happy tone, reply, "No."

Sora huffs and crosses his arms as Demyx shrugged and went back to playing his sitar. I smile in victory and lean down to pick up a stick on the ground when suddenly we hear a scream further into the park. Our heads all snap over to see a little girl being grabbed by what looks like a heartless.

"Come on!" I yell as we all get up and run over.

Sora turns to Demyx and yells, "Now!" Signaling for him to play a tune that puts up a force field around us that makes us invisible to the human eye as well as so that no one can come in the direct area.

"Let me go you meanie!" shouts the little girl, still trying to free herself.

Sora and I summon our keyblades and Demyx plays a water spell on his sitar making the water from the ground come up around the heartless's legs and immobilize him as we run up and strike, our keyblades slicing though him with ease.

The heartless hisses as he disappears into a white light. "I just wanted to live."

Sora and I smile sadly and say, "You will now. Just not here."

The little girl turns to us with a look of awe. "Woooooooow, thank you misters!"

Demyx smiles as he comes up behind us. "You're very welcome. Would you like to hear a song?"

The little girl nods enthusiastically and Demyx begins a melody that wipes her memory, and then he releases the other spells as Sora and I put our keyblades away.

We turned, walking away, "Come on, Zex's is expecting us."

We walked into Zexion's living room to see Riku and Zexion huddled in front of the computer, Namine off to the side sitting by the gas fireplace, which was on, drawing as usual. "I just don't understand it. It makes no sense."

"What doesn't make sense, Zexy?" Demyx asked, bouncing into the room and plopping down on the couch as Sora walked into the kitchen.

"These translations! They're all the same symbols but they make no sense." Zexion ran his hand through his hair as his hoodie down since we were inside. You could see his forehead creased in confusion, the computer screen illuminating his already pale skin so it looked like he was glowing.

I frowned, sitting down calmly next to Demyx. "Maybe it's a code inside a code."

Zexion's head snapped over to me, like I just discovered the cure for HIV. "Yes! That makes perfect sense, Rox! Now, if I could just figure out what it's trying to say." Zexion mumbled to himself as he began typing speedily on his laptop.

Sora walked out of the kitchen then, two sea salt ice creams in hand and Axel trailing behind him. A smile spread across my face and I got up walking over to the duo.

"Roxy!" Axel cheered thinking I was coming over to him, when in actuality it was for the ice cream.

I raised my eyebrow over at him as I grabbed the ice cream from Sora and licked it. Axel pouted. "Oh, I see how you are, Roxas. The ice cream comes before me now?"

I smiled at Axel. "The ice cream always came before you, Ax."

Axel huffed as Sora laughed. "Don't feel bad, Axel. Sometimes I think that Roxas thinks the ice cream is more important than his own life." Sora giggled. "He'd probably jump after it if dropped over a bridge."

I pouted. That was so not true . . . well, maybe if it was a tiny bridge. "I would not."

Sora and Axel laughed.

Riku chose this time to speak up. "Um, guys? You might want to come see this." We all quickly huddled around Zexion and Riku, looking at the translation Zexion was able to find.

"It's a warning?" Demyx said.

"Yeah . . . and it's a good thing we found out too because Roxas and Demyx are screwed." Zexion said.

"What? Why? How?"

"The warning basically says that if broken, the person responsible, Demyx, will be cursed with bad luck until properly fixed by a special crystal fuser." Zexion explained.

I frowned, confused. "Well how am I screwed then? I didn't even show up till right before it broke."

Zexion sighed. "You, Roxas, bonded yourself to it by blood when you pricked your finger on it."

My eyes widened. "Oh. Shit."

"Hah, yeah. So you are bonded to it until it is returned to it's rightful home, all the way on an island in Destiny Islands. And the cave it's supposed to be in is unknown." Riku said.

"That's, like, really far!" Demyx stated.

"No shit, Demyx." I said making him pout.

"So, does it say where this special crystal fuser guy is?" Sora asked.

"In Halloween Town, of course."

I groaned. "That's even farther than Destiny Islands!"

"Yeah, so we'll have to overpass Destiny Islands to get to Halloween Town and then on our way back will stop there to drop that dreading thing off." Zexion said.

Demyx squealed. "Yay! Road trip!"

I rolled my eyes. He should totally not be as excited about this as he is. Especially because it's him who's cursed. Well, along with me. "Hey, uh, does it say how long until we start to become cursed?"

Riku nodded. "Twenty-four hours after the incident. So, tomorrow morning."

I whimpered. I have a speech tomorrow!

"It's okay, Roxy." Sora consoled. "I mean, who knows? It might not even be that bad!"

Uh huh, right.

Third Person

"What the hell are you two doing in bed still? I told you guys to get up a half an hour ago!" Cloud yelled, Riku standing behind him, smirking.

The twins were both still in bed, all snuggled up next to each other in their neon green and pink pajamas.

"GET UP!"

"EEP!" Sora and Roxas both jumped up, startled, and toppled over the side of the bed, Sora landing on top of Roxas. "Ow," Simultaneous groans came from near the floor.

"You guys do realize it's ten after seven, right?" Riku's voiced out in an amused tone.

Sora and Roxas's heads shot up in surprise. "RIKU? SHIT!" And they scrambled up throwing whatever they could find on. After about three minutes of scrambling around the room and getting the right clothes on the right parts, they stood huffing in front of Mr. T #2. Zexion and Namine were already in the car.

"Glad to see you two so eager to join us." Zexion commented, a smirk in place.

Sora pouted as Roxas glared. "Hello to you too, Zexion." They said, both in a pouty voice causing Zexion to snicker.

Riku started up the engine, heading to Demyx's house. "I came by earlier to pick him up but he seemed to be in the same situation that you two were in."

As soon as they got to Demyx's house, Riku honked the horn 3 times. Fifteen seconds later, Demyx came scrambling out of his house looking just as bad as Roxas and Sora.

"I swear! It's like that curse thingy started an hour early!" Demyx moaned as he sat down tiredly next to the twins.

"We know what you mean." Roxas groaned.

"Hey, if it is that curse thingy, why is it affecting me too?" Sora asked.

Zexion shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe because since you and Roxas are twins you have the same blood make-up and it bounded you both to the crystal."

Sora sighed. "Look what you got me into, Rox!"

Roxas rolled his eyes, aggravated. "You act like I wanted this too!"

Sora and Roxas both huffed and turned away from each other.

"Oh come on you two. Don't start fighting now, it'll only make the curse worse." Riku chided as they pulled into the school parking lot and pulled up right next to Axel's bike.

Axel smirked as they all got out of the car. "Whoa, did I miss when the tornado came through?" he mocked, referring to Demyx and the twins.

In their rush, the twins both only managed to get on a pair of sweat pants and a tee shirt, Roxas's was black, Sora's was blue. Both of their hair was all scraggly and messed up, them not having any time to even look in the mirror to attempt to fix it.

Demyx on the other hand was in a pair of loose fitting jeans that were sagging slightly from lack of a belt and had on his telletubby nightshirt from him forgetting to change it. His hair was undone, leaving it to frame his face cutely.

Roxas and Sora pouted while Demyx rushed over to look at his reflection in Mr. T #2's windows. "Don't diss. That damn curse started early and we couldn't sleep well last night." Roxas informed them.

Axel chuckled, reaching forward and ruffling Roxas's hair, making it look even more crazy than it already was. "Chill, I was just messing with yah."

"Brighten up guys, today's our last day of school before we go on fall break for two weeks." Riku said. "And tomorrow we can head on our 'road trip' as Demyx so kindly put it, and get rid of that damn curse."

Everyone nodded enthusiastically. "Right! I mean, really! What could possibly go wrong?" Demyx asked cheerily.

Oh Demyx had no idea. The day was a disaster.

Demyx seemed to have even less coordination than normal and was stumbling all over the place, tripping over everything and nothing. He also managed to somehow have his spinning wheel in ceramics get out of control and clay ended up on everything and everyone in the room. Roxas managed to trip over a chord during his speech in English and sent his teachers laptop computer crashing to the floor and then smashed it to pieces because he then fell on top of it. Roxas now cursed marble floors, for if it had been carpet it probably wouldn't have been as bad. And poor, poor Sora ripped his pants today while jump roping in P.E.

Jump roping.

The three were exhausted by the end of the day, having had enough of the mental and physical anguish of the curse.

Roxas groaned, his head falling onto the lunch table in a rough manner. "I cant take I take it any more."

Sora's pouted, snuggling up to Riku as he mourned his ripped P.E. shorts that he had had since freshman year.

Demyx pouted as he and Zexion tried to wipe all the clay smudges off Demyx's clothes. "This is never gonna come out." Demyx whined.

Roxas just groaned in pain as Namine kindly took to rubbing Roxas's back, being he bruised his lower back and butt when he fell. "I'm gonna fail."

Axel chose that moment to walk up. "Hey guys! What's . . . up? Whoa, you guys seem like my dad just came up and told you guys you only have an hour to live or something."

Roxas looked up at Axel. "I broke my English teachers laptop during my speech today, earning myself an F."

Axel winced, "Ouch, isn't that like, twenty percent of your semester grade?"

Roxas nodded. "Yeah, and I've never failed anything in my life, let alone get lower than an A-." Namine sighed, shaking her head as she played with Roxas's hair comfortingly.

"Yeah, well Demyx practically ruined his whole art teachers room." Zexion said as he wiped some clay out of Demyx's unstyled hair.

"I ripped my pants today in P.E." Sora pouted, laying his head on Riku's shoulder.

Axel sighed, sitting down across from Roxas. "Well, just think, the day is practically over. There's only two more periods left and then we can go and get ready for our trip. Everything will get better." They all gave him a doubtful look. "Well, maybe! I mean, it's possible, yeah?"

"Don't let me get my hopes up, Axel!" Sora whined.

Axel rolled his eyes. "Sorry, sorry. Jeez, just trying to help."

Roxas sighed as he picked at his food looking warily at the unknown substance he had on his plate and had earlier taken a couple of bites out of.

Riku sighed, sitting up straighter. "Let's just try and make it through the rest of the day, okay?"

They all looked at each other in nervous anticipation as to what was to come.

Keru: Tadaaaaa~ I condensed the last two chapters into one cause they were both pretty short and I took out a bunch of pointless stuff from both so now its all back to where I left off! I'll be starting on the next chapter soon so it should be up in the next couple of weeks at the latest, I swear. c: Let me know what you guys who have read this before think of the tweaking I did! And if you have never read this story before, let me know if you like it!