Takeo: A Fractured Heart (Wattys 2019)

Chapter 13: A Slice of Darkness

Takeo shot up off of the table when he heard Jane yelling, and Emileigh wasn't far behind him. He hopped off of the table, but quickly collapsed to one knee, as he was still fairly injured. Emileigh look over to him, "Takeo, just stay there! You're in no shape to fight!"

"But I can help! I can't just sit here and do nothing!" he yelled back, trying desperately to get up. Emileigh looked back towards the Heartless that were attacking Jane, and they looked the most distinctive from any Heartless they had seen before. These Heartless looked like monkeys, and there were a couple distinct colors. There was a couple brown furred ones, and a few blue furred ones as well. The brown ones looked as though they were holding slingshots, which was odd since Takeo had never seen a Heartless wield a weapon before. The blue monkey seemed to have much sharper claws than its brown counterpart, yet both of the monkeys seemed to move rather quickly. 

Emileigh charged the Heartless, but all of them scattered just as she reached them. She looked around, and saw that the brown, feminine monkeys were dropping banana peels on the ground. She quickly ran around all of them, and charged at the monkey once more. However, just before she reached the brown monkey, two blue ones pounced on her from her left and right, forcing her to the ground. 

"Emileigh!" Takeo yelled. He was mad at himself that he couldn't help his friend when she very clearly needed it. He looked at the ground, and yelled. Suddenly, everything went black, and there was no hint of any kind of sound. He looked around, but could not see anything. Was he floating? Falling? He couldn't tell, as there was no physical objects anywhere around him. He tried to call out, but even he couldn't hear his own voice. This worried him, yet he still tried to yell once more, to no avail. 

Suddenly, a platform rose out of the darkness to his right, immediately catching his attention. He turned towards it, now noticing that he, in fact, is floating. He did a swimming motion to get over to the platform, where he dropped down. There was an image on this platform, a picture of a boy in a red jumper on top of a white t-shirt with spiky brown hair going in all directions. There were also smaller pictures, that contained images of four other people. Two of them were human, one a boy, and the other a girl. The other two were of a duck with blue clothing, and some sort of humanoid dog with armor on. Who were these people? Are they important to Takeo in some way? 

A rumbling began, shaking the entire platform. Takeo looked around in a panic, trying to figure out what to do. The shaking ended as quickly as it began, and everything was still once more. 

"What is going on here?" Takeo thought to himself, "Where am I? Where are Emileigh and Jane?" 

No matter how much he worried, he wouldn't be able to get back to them by just standing there, wondering. He had to try and get out.

"So much you need to learn, in such little time." a disembodied voice spoke, the voice coming from seemingly every direction.

Takeo turned quickly, trying to find whoever was speaking. The voice didn't sound familiar, which confused Takeo even more. It wasn't Emileigh, Yen Sid, or even that man in the black coat.

"In order to defeat your darker half, you must first understand the darkness in and of itself." said the disembodied voice. A dark orb appeared on the opposite end of the platform from Takeo, and out came the man in the black coat that had been harassing Takeo for some time now. Takeo tensed up, and tried to summon his Keyblade. However, he could not get it to materialize, and when he looked up from his hand, the man in the black coat was very close in front of him. Takeo gasped and jumped away, but the man in the black coat followed wherever he went.

"You see, Takeo, this man will always be with you, whether you like it or not. There is no getting rid of him, for he has a unique position in your heart." said the disembodied voice.