KH Re:Puzzle of Truth Ch. 4

a bit

"So it's finally begun, huh?"

Standing on a metal-tiled, stone-railed balcony overlooking a very muted green field going up in a bowl, a figure in a tentacruel-masked mantle turned as another walked over. "Huh? ...Oh." The first turned back to looking at the view, the second reaching its side. "Yeah, guess so."

"You think we're really going to...you know...?"

A pause. The wind blew gently at their mantles. "...Who knows."

"Yeah..."

Another pause.

"...A faded valley."

"It's kinda pretty, but depressing, yeah?"

A mirthless chuckle. "What isn't depressing these days?"

"Me?"

The first turned to look at the second, then chuckled again. "Who knows."

Interlude

"Uuhhhnnnn..."

"I...I can still feel the power of darkness flowing through my veins..."

"Wh...what is...happening...?"

"I used to be someone, but..."

"I feel so...strange..."

"Will I still be..."

"My head..."

"How could you feel safe around me?..."

"My body..."

"I am a conundrum..."

"Is...this a bed I am on...?"

"Is this supposed to be natural...or should it bother me?..."

"Am I...I am still...human...?"

"We tried to create the world's strongest pokémon...and we succeeded." BLAABOOOOOOM.

"...! Pikachu!"

Mewtwo bolted upright, eyes flying wide open. He was in a room, and was indeed lying on a bed. He was still in human form, as Maru, and was still wearing clothes, although they were quite beat up from...something. He looked around. Bedside table with a lamp. Chipendale on the right wall. A door directly across from him. A clock chiming 10:00. A window above the headboard showing a beautiful morning sky and an industrious town below, a huge building off in the distance. Not much else, though. Maru flipped the covers off and swung out of bed onto the floor. He felt re-energized, having taken a much-needed rest.

He looked at his right hand. "That key...where is it?" he whispered. He wanted a closer look at it. He searched the room, and his pockets (it was a strange key; maybe it shrank?), but found nothing save a bit of lint from his pockets and dust bunnies under the bed. He groaned. 'I wish I could just teleport it into my hand,' he thought. He even tried to do so, thinking, 'Well, I have gained a few levels; maybe I can...'

KSSHH! Bursting into existence in his hand in a thousand points of light, the key obtained last night(?) was in as good a shape as ever. Maru looked in wonder at it, examining it. Now in proper lighting, it appeared to be brighter in color than last night, though still muted. It definitely seemed to be metal, though Maru could not identify what kind from look or scent. (It smelled...familiar. Familiar yet unlike anything he had ever smelled before.) "What is this thing?" he wondered aloud.

The door opened, and a tall young man with long legs and hair came in. "That would be what's called a Keyblade," he answered. Maru turned to him. The man stopped a bit in front of him, crossing his arms. "You must be very special to have something like that," he commented, raising an eyebrow.

Maru did the same. "What exactly is it?" he asked. "A sword of some sort, I know, but...it is filled with strange power," he stated, raising the blade in front of him. "Can it do special attacks on its own?" he queried.

The man tilted his head. "Sort of," he replied. "Interesting form it took—I can see it befits you, which is actually pretty normal. However, if you should get tired of using it as such, you may always simply take a keychain and replace the one on it, see if that makes a difference." He shrugged. "Quite frankly, it's the most interesting weapon I've ever seen, and I only know of...let's see...well, I personally have seen only three people use one, and I've heard that a few more are able to, as well."

Maru nodded, then looked at the weapon. "'Keyblade...'" he muttered slowly, thoughtful. He let the blade disappear, sending it back into a pocket of space. It disappeared in a way similar to how it appeared. He looked up into the man's eyes directly. "Where is this?" he queried.

The man closed his eyes and turned to leave. "A town known as Radiant Garden." He walked to the door and stopped. "Oh, and before you ask...no, it's not in your world." And he left.

Piece 2: Radiant Garden

Maru stepped to the wall overlooking the huge chasm below. It was a beautiful, yet strange, place. The town was still busy building itself, cranes and scaffolding here and there, but it seemed to be nearing an end of sorts. Some shops were open for business; when Maru had tried to purchase a sandwich with some pokédollars he still had on him, though, they said his money was no good there.

He had met a few interesting individuals, many of whom looked different than what he was used to seeing. That man in the room, in fact, had looked a little different compared to the inhabitants of Unova, or Kanto, or Jhoto, or anywhere he'd ever been or seen. 'Another world...' He, at first, didn't believe it, but seeing a short little duck wearing spats, a coat, a top hat, and using a cane while speaking in a Scottish accent shattered all doubt that this couldn't possibly be the world where pokémon dwelt.

He sighed and checked himself over. The only thing that he had with him aside from a couple of items in his collar and some of his (now useless) money was that bauble. The cane had transformed into the Keyblade. He learned from a woman who resembled a ninja that each form of the Keyblade had a different name—she had no idea what his was called, though. Maru's shirt and pants had, perhaps after he had lost consciousness, become badly battered, ripped and frayed at parts. His cloak was also looking fairly unhappy, too, even beyond its usual tattered appearance, but remained secure around his neck. 'Perhaps it was from the realm through which I traveled?' he wondered.

Maru sighed again and looked back out to the gorgeous landscape barren of familiar vegetation or anything of the sort. (It almost appeared to be made of crystal.) He had no idea what he should do, or where he should go. He had made a promise, though, and that was to find Pikachu and everyone else. How he would do that, he didn't know. Checking this place top to bottom would be a good start.

"Excuse me, young man?" asked an aged voice behind him right before he went to start his reconnaissance.

Maru suppressed his small ping of annoyance and turned to see a wizened old man. He had a pointed blue hat that was as tall as his white beard was long, and stood in a blue robe, a questioning look on his bespectacled face. "Yes?" the pokémon replied. He wondered if he should keep his standard stern expression, or soften it a little for the elder man.

The man nodded. "Yes, er, are you the one who just arrived with the Keyblade?" he inquired.

Maru nodded. "That is correct," he confirmed. 'Wait...That man said this was a unique weapon...' Maru couldn't help feeling slightly wary. "Why is that anything to you?"

The old guy frowned slightly at this rudeness, however phrased, but spoke calmly still, "I am Merlin, and I believe that, if you wish to find out more about your weapon, it would be wise to accompany me to my house."

"Oh?" Maru blinked, eyebrows raising a little. Learning about the Keyblade? Now that was inviting, indeed! He nodded. "Alright," he agreed, "but do anything intolerable, and I will have to leave, or worse." 'I should rrreeaaaaaaaaaaally stop talking like I am a god; I could quite easily be defeated at my current level. Heck, a fairly well-trained pidgey at level 20 could wipe the floor with me if I were not careful! Well...okay, maybe not a pidgey, but...'

The two walked off to the old man's house. Once inside, Mewtwo gawked at the killer computer set up right there in front of him. "Good Lord, you must be rich," he blurted out. Computers—since he had built three, now—interested him. He covered his mouth and blushed at his rudeness.

Merlin chuckled, shaking his head hopelessly. "Oh, that's just something that they put in here, really," he waved it off with his hand. "Cid uses it more than me." He walked over to a bookshelf.

"Cid?" Maru repeated, raising an eyebrow as he closed the door behind him. He was about to take off his shoes before noticing that Merlin hadn't.

"A mechanic of sorts; genius, that man," Merlin explained, taking a journal down from the shelf. He opened it up and flipped a few pages, then found what he was looking for. He came over and showed the open book to Maru. "This is a journal I kept a bit ago; I've moved on to a new book. I sketched out a few different forms and diagrams of the Keyblade."

Maru took it and looked. The first picture (they all were in glorious color, although he saw that the outlines were in ink, and was therefore confounded as to how the colors and such were so realistic) showed the Keyblade in a very basic, yellow-handled and silver-barreled form labeled, "Kingdom Key." By it was a look at its plain keychain, which appeared to be a silhouette of a mouse or rat head. Another showed it again, but golden-barreled and silver-handled. A third was entirely different, blue and bearing a book for a keychain. Underneath was the caption, "Spellbinder."

"That's the Keyblade in the form it took when Sora attached a keychain I gave him," Merlin explained.

"Sora?" Mewtwo asked, glancing at other pictures. One picture of the Keyblade in action showed a young man with a complicated outfit on—including enormous yellow shoes—with brown hair throwing the Keyblade outwards, making it spin sideways. The caption read, "Sora using Strike Raid."

Merlin nodded. "Yes, the one chosen by the Keyblade. There are only two who wield the most important of Keyblades, one wielded by Sora and one by His Majesty, the King...at least for a little while before he put it back or something." He pointed to the silver Keyblade. "That's Sora's Keyblade. The golden one is His Majesty's."

Maru turned the page and saw a white-haired young man with a Keyblade that resembled a bat's wing slashing a black thing that he'd fought before. It read, "Riku fights a Shadow." He gasped, finding that he now could name those wretched things, and looked at Merlin. "What in God's name is that?" he asked, pointing to the Shadow. "I fought those evil things when I was in my world..."

Merlin solemnly nodded. "That, my young friend, is what's called a Heartless," he explained. "They are what happens to someone when they lose their heart." He pointed to the opposite page's picture, this time of one of strange, white and silver things with zippered heads. "That there is a Dusk, a form of Nobody," Merlin said. "When someone who has a particularly powerful heart loses it, the body they had becomes a Nobody, which is similar to a Heartless but very different. For instance, an obvious observation is that Heartless are mostly dark colors—with the exception of the eccentrically odd White Mushrooms, which I have never heard actually take people's hearts; they play with them more. Anyway, the Nobodies are usually white, silver, or other light colors, and are comparatively more durable than Heartless."

Maru furrowed his brow, studying the diagrams. "Are the Nobodies allies?" he asked.

Merlin shook his head vigorously. "Goodness, no," he frowned. "They both are enemies, though they are actually enemies to each other; Heartless and Nobodies fight one another given the chance." The old man sighed. "They both caused us a great deal of trouble. If you look at the man in the cloak there on the same page, Axel, you'll be looking at another Nobody."

Maru raised an eyebrow. "But you said—"

"Yes, but there are exceptions," Merlin chuckled, holding a finger. "Some Heartless are human-like, like how some Nobodies are more human-like. I could go on with explaining, but you probably don't want to go through a lecture," he said, sounding slightly disappointed.

Maru's eyes brightened—a rare happening, indeed. "I greatly enjoy learning," he said kindly. An opportunity to learn in detail about these fiends, as well as the Keyblade, was too much to pass up. Besides, what did he have to lose? He shouldn't go off looking for his friend before he knew about the enemy he knew he would probably have to face.

Merlin laughed. "Well, then, I advise you take a seat," he said, waving a hand.

Maru yelped as a chair flew right to him, knocking him into it and causing him to, well, take a seat. He blinked. "Telekinesis?" he asked. "But there was no aura around the chair..."

Merlin laughed again. "Ah, interested in psychic phenomena, I see?" he asked, smiling and pulling up a chair in the same way for himself.

Maru gave him a hard stare. "I was an extremely powerful psychic before...something happened and, as I now assume, the Heartless or Nobodies stole away all of my powers," he replied darkly. "I am still very unhappy about it, although I am slowly regaining them." And he stopped there. "Anyway, what did you do to bring the chair over?" he asked, eyes filling with wonder again.

Merlin took no notice at the story, or at least didn't appear to. "Magic," he said simply. He smirked when Maru scoffed. "And that is the exact same power you undoubtedly have felt from within the Keyblade."

Maru raised his eyebrows. He summoned it and looked at it. "I wondered what it was," he muttered, "and while I do not completely disbelieve in magic, I am still skeptical about it. See, I come from a world where a little fish can fire a high-force stream of water out of its mouth for long periods of time, even though it obviously did not swallow that much. It is a move called Water Gun." He smirked wryly. "It is considered normal where I am from, whereas I am certain it would be magic elsewhere. You can understand my skepticism, now."

Merlin nodded understandingly. "Well, I'll get to magic in a bit," he said. "But now, I suppose you want to know more about the Heartless and Nobodies, as well as the Keyblade?"

Maru nodded, and sat through a long lecture about some basic points about the Heartless and Nobodies, as well as just about everything known about the Keyblades; attacks, spells, special abilities granted to the wielder, the ability to lock worlds' Keyholes, being a Heartless beacon, etc. He was also told, in basics and short, about the tales of Sora and The King, as they related to the two topics, as did Organization XIII, whom Merlin told him about as well. After an hour or so, Maru sat back, digesting this information. He had a very good memory for things such as this. "Fascinating," he mumbled. 'Very...I wonder if it was Organiza-wait, no, they were disbanded, and that man wore a different outfit. But...Hmmm...No, I think it may have been someone else. It must have. But why take my powers separately from my heart?'

Merlin magicked over a cup of tea and took a sip. "Want some?" he offered.

Maru politely declined. "Although, a submarine sandwich or a Caesar salad would be nice," he added after a thought. He was very hungry, but he knew just how much he needed to eat. He thanked his creators for creating such an efficient body for him.

Merlin chuckled. "I'm afraid you'll have to go elsewhere for that," he said, "and even then, you'll have to have some munny."

Maru raised an eyebrow. "I have money, but it is useless. I have no clue what currency is accepted here."

The wizard laughed. "Munny!" he supplied.

Maru cocked a head, confused and slightly annoyed. "Umm...come again?"

Merlin set his tea down, chuckling. He brought out a small bauble, about as big as a marble. "This is the currency, munny. M-u-n-n-y," he spelled. Maru froze as the bauble was produced from the man's robe. After a few seconds of staring at it, he slowly brought out his own bauble, about as big as a pokéball. Merlin widened his eyes. "Liar! You said you were bare, but you look to be loaded!" he exclaimed good-naturedly.

Maru blinked at the munny orb, holding it up to his face. "I got this well before I even got my powers stolen from me," he described, "from a short old woman in a pricey red dress. She did look quite different, now that I think of it," he added to himself. He brought the munny closer to the wizard. "How much is this worth?" he asked.

Merlin examined it. "Hmmmmm...I'd say a good 1,500 munny," he appraised. He looked around, then got up and grabbed a pouch from a shelf. He gave it to Maru. "I'd keep it in here, were I you," he said, and gave the pouch to him. "It's enchanted to shrink it to a relative size compared to its worth, and can hold precisely 999,999 munny...Don't ask me why it's not a million, I didn't enchant it," he shrugged when Maru twitched an eyebrow at the maximum. "Also, it will attract any nearby loose munny and draw them inside without you worrying to pick them up." (On that note, he explained before that the magic of the Keyblade allowed his body to similarly draw in any of the orbs known as "HP prizes" that Heartless and Nobodies drop upon defeat, as in the dream. As for that, Merlin said he had heard tell of such dreams, but knew not their significance quite yet...with a twinkle in his eye.)

Maru took the pouch and placed the munny within, watching it shrink as it fell inside. He put the pouch into his back pocket, which he frowned at. "You know, I plan on going on a journey, somewhat like what Sora did," he said, looking still at the old jeans. "I do not think I am in acceptable garb, though, as my outfit is, for some reason, quite beat up. Do you know of a good clothing shop?" he asked.

Merlin chuckled. "Why, yes, actually, I do," he said. "And it's completely free."

***OBTAINED Munny Pouch***

Holds your munny and attracts any loose change. Can hold 999,999 munny.

Merlin opened the door and held it for Maru. "I'll wait out here. You've been expected for quite some time, you know," he said, smiling.

Maru raised an eyebrow, but made no comment and entered. He had been taken inside a castle, it appeared, to a large oaken door. Inside, after the door closed, he had taken in a sizable room with mirrors and wardrobes here and there. Nobody was around. "Hello?" he called, stepping to the center of the room.

"Oh! Dear, what have we here?" an old voice chirped, and a short, stout woman with fairy wings flew in from behind a wardrobe. She was dressed remarkably similar to the woman Maru had rescued from the clothes thieves, but this one wore green.

Another fluttered over, in blue. "Why, Fauna, it's that handsome young man we've been waiting for," she answered.

Maru blinked, still needing to get used to the thoroughly unexpected. "Er..." he mumbled, sweat-dropping a little.

"You spend any of it yet?" asked a familiar voice cheerfully. Maru looked as a third fairy flew in.

He gasped and pointed. "You!" he shouted. "The woman I saved! You're not even from my world, so what were you doing there?" he asked. He had let that contraction slip, but couldn't do a thing about it now.

The red-wearing woman giggled that same giggle all those days ago. "We had found that someone in your world was likely to get a Keyblade sometime soon," she detailed, smiling sweetly. "So, I just went and looked around a bit. I knew it was you as soon as you went around with those fancy moves and beat those thugs so soundly!" She punched the air in emphasis. Maru raised an eyebrow suspiciously and the woman shook her hands and head. "Honestly, that little spot of trouble was completely unplanned! I had no idea that would happen!"

Maru smirked and chuckled, shaking his head. "Well, regardless, no, I have not spent it yet," he finally answered. "But if need be, I will use it to pay for a new outfit."

Fauna giggled. "It's free, for you, at least," she said.

The blue one sighed, though. "There's a slight problem, though," she frowned, putting a finger on her chubby cheek.

Maru, were he in his pokémon form, drooped his ears. "What sort of problem?" he queried.

The blue one motioned to the red-clothed woman. "Ask Flora."

Flora smiled and said, "Thank you, Merryweather," and then gave a sorry expression to Maru. "You see, my wand is being borrowed by a student of Court Magician Donald's, and I still haven't gotten it back. We can open the gate to the world that he lives in, but the odd problem is, for some extremely strange reason, only those whose favorite colors include purple, violet, or pink are allowed to enter. That, or Donald." She motioned to the other fairies. "As you can see, purple is not our color."

Maru raised an eyebrow, the restriction striking him as odd. "Well, that problem can easily be fixed," he smirked, reaching up and fingering his rat tail a bit. "My favorite color is purple."

Flora clasped her hands, gasping in joy. "Oh, honestly?" she asked. Maru nodded. She turned to the others. "Oh, girls, this means I'll get my wand back! Er, that is," she added, looking over her shoulder, "if you don't mind getting it for me?"

Maru smiled and shook his head. "I don't mind it at all," he said. "If I have to beat whoever has it senseless to get it, I will. I-I'd prefer not to, of course," he hastily added, himself. 'More contractions...I'm starting to slip...EEP!' (For some reason, Mewtwo was very resistant to contractions. As to why, your guess is as good as anyone else's, but I favor the "he's serious" and "he's new to the world" theories. He was finding it more and more difficult to fight them as he spent more and more time speaking vocally, however.)

Flora nodded, smiling, and turned to the girls again. "Okay, then, would you two please...?"

Fauna and Merryweather nodded, smiling, and pointed their wands at a point in space in front of Maru. A portal appeared, with an absolutely insane world showing through. As Maru paled at such a mad universe—'What is this, an acid trip?'—Fauna sheepishly added, "We forgot to mention that he lives in a world of imagination. Please be careful, as things may not work quite the way you expect them to."

Merryweather nodded. "He's also very playful, and, while within his home, can basically do anything he wants," she warned. She flew in close and whispered, "Personally, I think he's a bit annoying, so beware. The worst part is he's kind of sensitive, so you can't be too obvious that you want him to leave you alone."

Maru shuddered. What was he getting into? He nodded, though, face resolute. "Well, I'm off," he announced. He groaned under his breath at his fourth slip-up. "I have the Keyblade and my skills, so I will be just fine."

Flora waved, as did the others. "See you soon, and good luck!" she bade.

Maru gulped as he stepped into the portal. "Thanks." 'I just may need it,' he thought as he fully stepped inside the portal, seeing as he flew straight up as soon as he was inside.

~Freed Creativity~

Seeing a ceiling to the room above him, Maru made no scream as he sailed upwards. He landed softly, as expected, and began walking. The ceiling was porous and squishy, like a sponge. He knelt and examined it, confirming it to be inorganic after a few moments. He looked around the room.

It was crazy. Swirled parts, distorted tables, and bits and pieces of incongruous, complete sanity, like perfectly normal chairs around said tables, a few quaint floor lamps, and a flat floor. It was like being in a fun house that even children might find hard to bear, with moving, crazy colors, swirls all over, and uneven structure. (Thankfully, most of the colors were dark enough that his eyes didn't hurt, but it still felt like an acid trip.) Some objects, totally random, floated about. Odd smells came to his nostrils, and different footstep sounds erupted each step he took (some even being sounds no feet should make). He tried to jump, and ended up rocketing to the floor. He grunted as he slammed into it, then got up onto it, gravity settling again. He decided to look for the guy. Nobody was around in the room.

The many doors were all locked, and some shocked him mildly (non-lethally, though). He decided to go through a hole that eventually appeared in the wall up above. 'Hey, if I get stuck, I bet they will send someone in to get me...if they can...' He jumped up again to try and reach it, finding that there was at least one rule in this world of chaos: Jumping switched gravity. He flipped before hitting the ceiling and jogged through.

Rooms went by, a maze of craziness, and he had to use his gravity-switching ability to navigate, sometimes wishing he could simply jump up and climb some obstacles. Sometimes, he even fell into a bottomless pit of a sort that wound up leading him back to the start of the room. All the time, he refused to accept that he was actually having a bit of fun. He began feeling a little lonely after fifteen minutes of wandering. Not to mention lost. He looked around the circular room he was in now. An idea struck him. "Hey, um...guy who lives here!" he called out. "If you are here and can really do so many things within this realm, come out and show yourself!"

He waited. No response.

"...Huh." He shrugged. "Worth a shot." He turned and promptly fell flat on his ass after releasing a yelp of surprise. Standing before him was a perfect image of himself as he was right now, and he had no clue how it got there. He didn't sense a thing! "Don't do that!" he shouted after he caught his breath, glaring at the doppelganger.

The other him giggled—GIGGLED!—in a high-pitched, unfittingly wacky-sounding voice. "Well, you're a fun one, ain'cha?" he asked, and, with a cartoonish POOF! (yes, complete with onomatopoeia and cloud of smoke), the copy disappeared. Maru got up to his feet and looked around wildly. From the room itself, the already-annoying voice spoke. "Tell me, what's your favorite color?" it asked.

Maru looked uneasily around. The room had all become dark, but he could see himself just fine. "Purple," he replied. "What do you plan to do now?" he asked.

"Ooohhhhhhhhh, nothing," lied the voice. The floor slowly faded into a flat, hard, purple thing. Maru looked down, then slowly forward. Before him a ways away were two lumps he recognized from looking at charizard pictures and specimens as nostrils. He spun around and, while he started, he didn't fall flat on his ass again, since he'd expected staring into two big eyes. Big, cartoony eyes, though, ones filled with delight, friendliness, and, moreover, more mischief than a haunter, he hadn't completely.

"Who are you?" Maru demanded warily. He held his hand out, ready to summon the Keyblade if things got hairy. Figuratively.

The creature giggled, and Maru felt the 'ground' rumble. "My name's Figment!" the thing replied. "And it's nice to meet you, Mr. Serious-Pants!"

Maru felt a breeze at his legs, then looked down. His jeans were replaced with a pair of plain pants emblazoned with "SERIOUS" all over it. They didn't look that bad; teens might like them. Regardless, these were his pants that were changed. He looked up again, narrowing his eyes into the menacing triangles that he still is able to make them into. (One of his favorite pastimes is scaring the shit out of people by Glaring at them like that, using his "lethal look".) "Change them back," he growled darkly in his angry-Mewtwo voice.

But Figment just laughed, raising an eyeridge. Maru noticed that he was bald save for two striped yellow horns sticking up from his head. "Oooooooh, scary face!" he commented.

"Precisely."

Figment chuckled. "I can make a scary face, too!" he said, and then disappeared. Maru was still standing, but now looking all around. Suddenly, he looked one way and froze completely solid, his belief that he was fearless throwing itself headfirst out the window.

A face stared right back at him, one with such menace and hatred and malevolence that it was enough to make the strongest man whither. But add onto that the appearance of being carved from rotting meat and bone (complete with maggots), and Maru just stood there, unable to run but unable to stay, transfixed in horror and disgust at this sight. It smelled horribly rank, too. And the growl it emitted sent shudders down his spine. If there was one thing Mewtwo just plain didn't like, it was zombies; being a Psychic type may have had something to do with that. (As such, he protested the relatively recent huge rise of the things in popular culture.)

And then, snap! There hovering before him was a short, pear-shaped, cartoonish, purple dragon. Not Mewtwo purple, but a light purple, sorta pinkish—more along the lines of Parma Violet for Prismacolor users. He had a yellow-banded underside, teeny-tiny wings that, of course, supported him in flight, and surprisingly scraggly legs and arms for a dragon, who mostly have well-built, thick legs (arms being another thing, as charizard points out). His tail wasn't tipped in a triangle, but had a forked point, with two blunt spikes forking out like a Y and banded, like his horns. He had a happy, kind, carefree expression, eyelids drooped slightly in a calm, friendly way. This guy had just gone from the scariest thing Mewtwo had ever seen to something even less intimidating than Pikachu. Snapping out of it, Maru shook his head and growled at Figment. "Please do not do that again!" he asked, more like ordered. "And tell no-one of my reaction to it," he added, turning red in embarrassment.

Figment giggled and flew over as smooth as silk. He was about 3 inches taller than a pikachu when it stood, discounting the tail. "O-kay, you little wimp," he teased, and laughed as Maru, who had had it, tried grabbing the little whelp. He dodged as if it were nothing, of course. Then, after trying to be grabbed about four times in a row, he barked, in a New York accent, "Yo, paws off the moichendice!" With a click of his claws, a pair of handcuffs surrounded Maru's hands. His arms also snapped to his body and were bound tight. "Sorry," Figment shook his head, eyeridge raised, "but honestly, what's up with you? I think you need to really chill. I mean, really—" And here, his face suddenly wore the same make-up as The Joker, and he smirked slyly. "—why so serious?"

'This guy reminds me of Mew,' thought Maru, 'but a thousand times more annoying...' When Mewtwo was living alone, he sometimes would be visited by the carefree mew, the same one he battled at New Island. And drew against, as much as he hated to admit it. (He would never admit that Mew's better than him, despite the fact the little gal can learn any TM or HM move; that alone didn't govern how good she was.) The little thing was as carefree as a soap bubble, and often tried playing games with Mewtwo when they weren't just talking. Rarely were they good enough that he consented; the only reason he didn't totally want Mew gone (or so he told himself) was because the two competed fiercely when they did race one another around the city. It always caused people to look up in wonder as a bright blue and pink streak shot across the sky, followed briefly afterward by a loud boom.

Mew was annoying and snarky in the pestering little smart-alec kid way Figment was, but the latter might even bug the former. And yet, to his horror, the pokémon found he was starting to actually, deep deep deeeeeeeeep down inside, like him, in a way. Maybe it was the mew inside him. Who knew? Maybe Mewtwo could become as playful as his pink counterpart one day. (This author and the character in question seriously doubt this, though.) "And how do you propose I do that?" Maru sighed exasperatedly, slouching.

Figment chortled, the face paint vanishing. "Well, start off by lightening up a little!" he answered. He summoned a scholar's costume to him, minus the pants. "Ya need to stop using so many fancy-shmansy words and talkin' like you're too cool for 'I'm' and 'he's' and stuff. You sound like some dorky professor!" He laughed as he walked in midair, pulling out a pointer and pointing to a blackboard, acting like a teacher. "And here, you can plainly see, in Figure 1., the Blargus jilsius..."

Maru anger-veined (as if he wasn't already). "I am not like that!" he retorted.

Figment smirked. "And I've seen you walking through my house." His costume disappeared, and another one came, this time one that made him look like Cloud, Advent Children style. "You think you're some kinda big shot bad boy? C'mon, nobody likes those kinds of people walkin' an' talkin' like that! It makes you look like a total poser!" (However, for respect of the almighty Cloud Strife, he shed the costume with no acting whatsoever.)

Maru sighed and took some deep breaths, trying to quell his mind from firing up his psychic powers when they needed a relative break. "Look. I'll be who I want to be." 'And there I go with the damn contractions! That just killed the argument...'

Figment let out a triumphant single "HA!" at the contraction. He grinned and leaned on something in midair, like a mime. "Well, whatever. But you look waaayy too serious, y'know?"

Maru scoffed. "I have been told that so many times before, it is not even funny," he rolled his eyes. He turned them back onto Figment. "I actually am used to someone like you, but I shall be blunt: You are far more annoying, sorry to say."

Figment chuckled. "Well, a lot of people find me annoying," he shrugged, and pulled down a list like a teacher would a map rolled up in its container atop the board. On the top, it read, "BLACKLIST." "WhooOOPS!" Figment let go and the list flipped out of existence. He gave a nervous smile to that. "How'd that get there?"

Maru gave a single chuckle. "I see not even the most carefree are grudge-free," he .

Figment laughed. "I really can't hold a grudge," he said, and one of the freaky kids from the movies fell into his arms. It croaked, slid right out and fell down out of sight. "See?"

Maru jerked his head down as if slapping his forehead. "Ooooogghhh... That was baaaaaad..." 'It was actually kind of clever,' he admitted in the back of his mind. 'He uses his godlike powers fairly well.'

Figment grinned. "That's a great sign! You're starting to become more like a normal human being!" he said gleefully.

At this, Maru's smile, which had grown slowly, faded right off his face. Still looking away, he said quietly, "You have no idea how much that hurts me, and how wrong you are, indeed." He raised his head and gave a dark, somewhat mournful look to the little creature.

Figment took a breath as he stared into those eyes. Sensitive when it came to reading emotions, he could tell, definitely, that this guy was being completely sincere with that gaze. He saw the hurt and loss in those eyes. Now, like all people who say the wrong thing unintentionally, he felt bad. He drooped his head and held his tail submissively. "I'm sorry. I didn't know," he apologized softly.

Maru closed his eyes and let out a sigh. "No, I am the one who should be sorry," he replied in a calmer voice. "And you are right, you had no idea about...my...state," he decided to end.

Figment shyly twisted his tail a little in his paws, then looked like he was about to ask, but decided not to. He did a similar thing to what Maru had just done, sighing and bowing his head, eyes closed, to get back on track. Raising his head with his smile again, which Maru found that he preferred to be there instead of a frown, and snapped his fingers. Maru's bonds vanished. He asked instead, "So, then, what's your name?"

Maru finally gave a small bow. "Maru. That is all."

Figment raised both eyebrows. "'Maru?' You're Japanese, huh?" he asked. Maru nodded his head. (The greater country Kanto, Jhoto, Hoenn, and Sinnoh came from was called Japan, though nobody bothered to talk about country when each region was so vastly different from each other.) Figment thought a second, putting a paw to his chin and making the standard "Hmmm". After a time, he looked up and snapped his claws. "Your name means 'valuable,' right?" he asked. "Well, I know that's what it means when used with some other names...you know, like 'Orochimaru' and 'Ebisumaru,' right?"

Maru blinked. He'd never thought of the definition of his name in a sense; he just thought up something that sounded like his real name, Mewtwo. Ironic that his name mean something that Giovanni called him once. He smirked and shrugged, giving a "heh". "Well, true," he nodded simply. "I never really think about my name." 'But how fitting,' he thought. 'I name myself after a word whose definition in this case people usually apply to property...'

Figment smiled. "Well, nice to meet you," he said. He held out a paw. Warily, Maru took it, awkwardly since he had to use only a few fingers. No shock or anything, and he could remove it safely, as well. The dragon giggled. "Still don't trust me, eh?" he asked. "Well, how's about this: I let you outta here safe and sound, savvy?" He asked the last part while donning the familiar Capt. Jack Sparrow hat and beard (in this case, fake).

Maru nodded. "Alright," he said, "but I had no desire to come here for fun. I'm looking for somebody," he explained. '...Wait...Oh, I am this close to giving up...' "Is there anyone else here besides yourself? And be truthful, now."

Figment laughed. "I wouldn't lie to you!" he replied, as if it were the most absurd thing he'd ever heard of (and that's saying something), but he added, "Well, in the way you mean, I mean." He cleared his throat and stood at-ease, announcing, "No, sir, there is but one person besides me here, and that is yourself." He presented his arm out to Maru as if showing an invisible audience.

The pokémon raised an eyebrow. "Really?" he asked. "Well, then, you would not happen to have Flora's wand, now, would you?" he asked, holding out a hand back.

Figment raised his eyeridges. "Oh! That thing! Why didn't you just say so? I'm sorry, hang on," he held a finger, and disappeared. He reappeared a moment later carrying an armful of wands of all sorts. He dropped the pile onto the floor of the air he stood on, and started sorting through them, picking up one at a time and chucking it behind him if it wasn't the right one. "Lessee...No, this is to that pink fairy...This is to her really fun husband...Oooh, this is one of those cool immovables, I'm keeping this—" (This one he had in his paw, then he raised it high, hit a button, and let go, the rod suspended in midair) "—what else...This is that British kid's...or is it the other one's?...Wait, this is the other one's, it looks way older...Hoo, I wonder if Tink's replaced this one yet...Whose is this again?"

"That actually looks more like a conductor's baton, actually."

"Yeah, but it's magical, so...Ooh, Merlin'll want this back, too...This belongs to a red faerie, all right, but not the right one...Ah-hah!" he finally crowed in triumph, holding up one wand, another in the other paw. "Here we are! Now, y'want these?" he asked, holding Merlin's wand and Flora's wand to Maru.

He nodded. "Yes," he replied, taking them. "Thank you. And Merlin probably would appreciate his wand being back...By the way, why must you have so many wands?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "You obviously have vast power in this universe. Why use these devices to enhance your already-near-infinite power?"

Figment smiled and waggled a claw, snapping with his other paw to poof off the pile. "I'm a practicing magician under Court Wizard Donald Duck, I'll have you know," he answered. "And my mentor's asked me to practice magic so that I'll be able to do stuff outside of my world. Wands are alright, but I prefer cards, really," he commented, producing a pack of cards and shuffling it idly. "They're much better attention-getters and stronger sources of inspiration, what with so many kinds of cards. You've got playing cards, trading cards, and the infamous Tarot cards, which are some of my favorites since there are so many different styles. Not to mention they kinda, well, symbolize what lies within your soul and all."

He held a card up. It was somewhat skinny and had two circles as the top corners and a curve arcing between them, similar to the keychain on Maru's Keyblade. It was red-bordered and had a comic-style hit burst on it behind a sword icon. Figment explained, "These are special cards, though, that I use for fighting, and they contain some of my power of the imagination in them. There are Attack, Item, and Spell cards, and I like these more than a simple wand, since I can throw them and attack from a distance with more than one at a time, not just do one thing at once," he told the interested observer. "Besides, it's cooler, I think!" He held a couple between his claws and threw them like shuriken, but, of course, in that straight-forward fashion that's got to be impossible the way they throw them...

Maru, crossing his arms, nodded and observed thoughtfully. "Interesting, indeed," he commented. "And yes, cards do inspire more unique fantasies than does a wand, usually, since a wand is just a stick, which does have some primal power in and of itself, but otherwise makes you think a bit harder than one would like. A symbol on a card, though, instantly makes you think of something, and the creatively-inclined will almost guaranteedly think of something relating to them that they could create." He gave a respective nod. "For one such as yourself, a being of the imagination, it fits more than wands would. Personally, I find cards make more sense, since they can obviously contain a great deal of power in such a compact device, and some may be used repeatedly. Besides, they are more fun, and make you use more of a strategy."

Figment, surprised that his ramblings were listened to and a bit unnerved by the big words Maru was saying, sweatdropped. "Uhhh...Thanks," he said, raising an eyeridge and putting his cards away, "but, ah, you kinda ranted a bit there, dude."

Maru sweatdropped and blushed a bit. "Sorry, high intelligence does that to you...see?" he apologized, shrugging. He stretched and sighed. "Well, I had better be going before I force a discussion or, worse, a lecture onto you," he said, holding out a hand. "I suppose it turned out well to meet you."

Figment happily shook it. "You too, Mr. Serious-Pants!" he replied, grinning. "I'll change 'em back if you want, by the way."

"They'll be changed anyway." 'Could you please stop that?' "And it is 'Maru', please."

Figment snickered. He then motioned for Maru to step back, then transformed into a giant version of himself. He took two great paws and tore open a hole in the air. It was a portal to the first room. "There ya go!" he chirped happily, making the "after you" motion with his paw. "Thank you for flying with Figment Airlines, and we hope to see you again, and that you have a very nice day!"

Maru fought back a laugh at the corny joke. "Farewell," he bade, and walked through to the first room again. The main portal was still open, and so he went back through.

Behind him, Figment put a thoughtful paw to his chin as he closed the hole. "Hmmmmm...I remember the last time those old bags gave someone a new set of clothes, the kid ended up supposedly saving a buncha worlds..." He grinned playfully. "Yannow, as boring as the guy is, he's really somebody else, and having a big imagination's not really as fun as it can be if you can't share it with others...And I'm getting lonely, anyway!" He nodded and put his fist in his palm, smiling decisively. "Awright, it's time for a little fun, methinks!" He chuckled evilly, rubbing his paws together as he bustled off to get ready.

~Author's Note~

Great Scott, this chapter's short! I almost wanted to add the next to it, but that'd be way to long—30 pages as it was! So I'm just gonna end it here.

As I've said a lot already, I'm at college now, so updates will be slow. I probably shouldn't even be doing this, Friday night or not, but...well, I kinda started as a time-waster last night before showering, so I kinda wanted to get it over with. Don't expect a hell of a lot more; this one was really easy because of how there was basically no action whatsoever in it. I'm still pondering whether or not I should've just let Merlin explain so much to him, but damn, does it make writing a helluva lot easier for me. At least for the Heartless.

Um...I dunno anything else to say since I've been working on the next chapter to see if I can ditch the huge Merlin scene, so I don't remember anything about this one I wanna talk about. As for the scene, I've determined that I could get away with it, I think. I hope. Come on, people, this is a fanfic. As much work as I put into it, I still think of it in large part as writing practice. Sorry if that offends anyone, but that's the truth.

*scans over after submitting*...Oh! Bonus points to those who caught the reference to a certain Humble Indie Bundle game in this chapter!

~8D OMAKE 8D~

*A couple years back, before events of Kingdom Hearts; Freed Creativity. Donald is trying to teach Figment magic.*

Donald: Now, which spell to start on...?

Figment: Ooh, ooh! I wanna learn Flare! Teach me Flare!

Donald: NO! That's too advanced for you, kid! We're gonna start on Blizzard. It fires a blast of ice at an enemy.

Figment: Oh, I know that one! *conjures and throws a snowball at Donald*

Donald: *face turns red with rage and the snowball melts off* Why, I oughtta...*stamps foot* Th-That's cheating! Now quit fooling around and pay attention!

Figment: Awww...Okay.

Donald: Thank you. *lifts up rod* Okay, now, you just focus your energy into your rod, and—

Figment: *snorts, then bursts out laughing*

Donald: *stands there confused for a moment* Huh? Why—*realizes what he just said and starts fuming, steam coming from his ears*—you...little...*explodes into a classic Donald fit, chasing Figment*

Figment: *mid-flight, whips out a checklist, smirking* Set off Donald Duck within thirty seconds—check. But that was the easy one...*also on the list are "Set off Donald Duck within fifteen seconds", "Set off Donald Duck within ten seconds", and "Set off Donald Duck within five seconds".*