Ghosts from the Past(Ellie, closed)

[sumdood]

Max rolled his arm at the shoulder as the light from his gummi ship's teleporter faded away. He looked around at the familiar sight before him. It hadn't been so long since the last time he'd been here, and yet it felt like an eternity.

He felt a shock of uneasiness run through him at seeing the floating spirits all around him. It was still unsettling for him to see them. It was better now that he knew they couldn't hurt him, but it did little to dispel his discomfort at seeing them. That wasn't altogether bad, though. It was all the more reason to get this over and done with quicker.

The eery green glow that seemed to come from nowhere and yet cast itself on everything in the Olympian Underworld reflected off of the golden emblem of his home on the chest of his leather vest. The chainmail underneath the leather chestpiece didn't reflect the green light, like it normally would, but instead seemed to absorb it. The dark blues and blacks of the metal links changing in hue.

Max, holding his spear tight in one hand, looked around, taking in everything around him. He needed to find Hades, and talk to that big, blue, hot-headed God of the Dead. He needed to see what the God knew about the Heartless and the ones leading them. He was a God, afterall. He should know SOMETHING about it all.

[Ellie who has 0%]

A low humming began echoing throughout the Underworld. It sounded more like a breeze of the wind more than anything, but the underworld was always cold and chilly to the touch, so it can be a mere phantom of one's imagination.

"Swim this way
We'll dance and we'll play, now
It's very easy, come on in
Just take a chance and shake a fin"

"Well more like your ghosty tail."

[sumdood]

Max froze as he heard the song reverberating through the cavernous world around him. It sounded vastly out of place here, with its happy and up-beat sound among in a world of the dead.

Because of how the song echoed, it took Max a while to figure out just where it was coming from. Once he did, however, he began following it, his curiosity about it overcoming his purpose for why he was there. It couldn't hurt to just have a look, would it?

[Ellie who has 0%]

"Dude, haven't you learned that curiousity killed that cat? Also I didn't think you will actually be dense enough to come back here. Wasn't the last visit a bit intense proving this place couldn't be trusted?" An all too familiar voice spoke to him whether he wanted to admit it or not.

"I hope you're not here to do something stupid. I already traded my life and I only have one, then again I can't complain since I did it willingly and I get to see family so being dead isn't such a big problem...but I can say I do miss living amongst the living." The voice seems to be quite playful as it bounced of the caverns to a cold spring hidden in a cavern. Rocks shot up like stalagmites as a white light rippled from it.

No one was standing there in fact it was behind him, "Seriously Max, why are you here?"

With her hip cocked to the side, her arms folded over her chest with a questioning look. Her hair swayed as she shook it.

[sumdood]

Max just gritted his teeth and continued on. That couldn't be her talking. It sounded like it, but it couldn't be. She was dead, a spirit. They couldn't talk. They were just big white balls that floated around down here. They couldn't talk. It was probably Hades trying to play a cruel trick on him. That was all.

At least, that's what he thought to himself as he continued on, listening to her voice reverberating off of the cavernous walls. As he walked, he looked for the source of the voice. There had to be one somewhere, even if it was just Hades playing a trick. Unfortuntaely, the echoes off the walls made it difficult to find.

Finally, frustrated at being unable to find the source of the voice, he glanced behind him, thinking it might be back there somewhere. What he saw made him freeze mid-step.

"Seriously Max, why are you here?" she asked him, standing there with her arms crossed and her hip cocked out to the side. All he could do was stare at her in shock. He was so surprised. He kept thinking that it wasn't really her. It was just a trick. There was no way that she could be standing there right in front of him. It was impossible. Spirits didn't talk.

"W-well....I....Erika.....is it really you? No....it can't be," he stammered in shock as he walked forward, reaching out with a hand to touch her to see if she was real for himself,"It can't be......You're dead. You're a spirit. Spirits don't....talk...."

[Ellie who has 0%]

"Did your mafia connections told you that?" Her brow cocked up with a skeptical look. "See and I doubt others know about that, so this is a figment of your imagination. I doubt you're high...never seen you do drugs. So tell me how's the kid going, because if he wasted my sacrificial deed I swear I will haunt him for life."

"Well, I can't neccesarily do that, since I'm here very momentarily. You know the dead do have a 'unfinished business', which is why I asked 'Max what are you doing here'?" Erika repeated herself. She continued, while walking through him like a mist to sit on a rock in the cavern.

"I know you didn't come to visit me, which means you were going to visit someone else, a particular moody untrustworthy lord of the dead!" Her hand reached up to scratch her hair. "Man, I die here, and you guys come baaack, seriously I thought that would be an omen to never come here again. Don't tell me Mikael came with you?"

[sumdood]

Max froze as she mentioned Mafia connections. The Traverse Town Mafia he'd gotten help from. Only Erika would have known about that. Only the real Erika. That meant it was her.....

He let get talk for a while, and when she seemed to be through, he looked up at her and asked,"May I speak now?"

Without waiting for a reply, he continued,"Mikael's not here. He's back in Traverse Town, taking care of other business we have to get done. I'm here for information."
He took in a deep breath, steadying himself for the scolding he knew she was likely going to give him.

"I came to make a small deal with Hades. He's a God. He should know something about the Heartless' leaders. Me and Mikael have decided that it's time someone finally stood up and stopped the heartless from destroying every world they come across. We're bringing together a group to at least keep them at bay. I'm hoping we can destroy them all for good, though."

Max, looked over at her where she sat on the. Rock, her eyebrow raised in suspicion. She thought he was doing something stupid, he bet. But he wasn't. He'd thought this out.

"We know what we're doing," he told her, finally,"I know what I'm doing, even here."

[Ellie who has 0%]

"Mmhm, sure you do," Erika hummed and crossed her legs, "I hope you know I'm here...well allowed to be here to tell you you're being an idiot. Don't ask how this whole thing is pulled off, but my time is limited, so let's not waste the little bit of the afterlife I can share."

"Sure, I'm glad that someone is thinking of doing something versus nothing, but your desire is clouding your decision. Do you think making a deal with Hades will bring the worlds closer to peace? Seriously he's one of the last people to trust; I'm sure you can look at Rubix and see a fine example." Her arms folded over her chest. "Do you know that he had to collect souls for him? I doubt for the worlds you would want to be Hades' pawn, especially if it can mean contradicting what you're trying to represent. Think about that."

"So much for a group, I wonder if Mikael is aware of what you're doing. Since your destiny doesn't involve solely you, it's unfair and unwise to make such decision on your own, which hence," she pointed at herself, "why I'm interfering."

"Let's think for a moment. There's you, one who's about to do anything and everything to what 'rid of heartless', and there's Hades, and if you read up on your history...he tends to have a sly hand with deals." Erika sighed, "What I'm trying to say is...I don't want you to end up like me floating in limbo when you can be doing something. Find another path, especially if you don't want you, your group, Mikael, and possibly the worlds to be screwed over by an immortal."

She looked up at him sincerely and looked at the ground, "So go back to Traverse Town; talk and think it over before you regret it, and I mean that. I can preach all day, but in the end Max will do what Max want to do."

Her feet rippled through the water not even affecting it; it was as if the laws of nature of life ignored her. "I guess this what I get for thinking on my own that day; you even told me there may be another way, and I'm telling the same to you. Think of it as...taking your own advice and looking at the product of deviating from it."

[sumdood]

Max just stood there, considering Erika's words. She had a very good point. Even though he'd had his gummiship AI send a message to Mikael's gummiship, Mikael likely hadn't gotten the message yet. No, he was probably too involved with that one girl....what was her name?.....

Antique. That was it.

Since Mikael had met her, his focus seemed to slip from one direction to another, not staying on-point as easily as it seemed to before.

Pulling themselves together to defend the worlds from the heartless would be difficult. Very difficult indeed.

Max's shoulders aghed a bit as realization finally came over him. Why was he here? Erika was right: he wouldn't get anything out of Hades. Not without promising him something like his soul.

He slowly walked over to where Erika was and sat down next to her, sitting back against the cavern wall behind them.

"You're right," he said quietly, staring up at the roof of the underworld,"dammit to hell, you're right."

Max turned his head to look at her and said,"how are you always right?"

He let out a frustrated sigh and leaned his head back against the cavern wall, staring up at the roof of the cavern again as he sat there in silence next to the ghost of his friend.

"So.....what do you want me to do? Just go back and find Mikael, and hope we can come across some more information on the heartless? I don't think you know how difficult that is, Erika. They guard every bit of information like it's their life."

[Ellie who has 0%]

"Eeh, I doubt I'm always right. I'm human, well was that is." Erika hummed lowly and looked ovet to see him sitting next to her.

"So.....what do you want me to do? Just go back and find Mikael, and hope we can come across some more information on the heartless? I don't think you know how difficult that is, Erika. They guard every bit of information like it's their life."

"Well if you think about it, it is their life. If it wasn't important, they would guard it carefully, but even so someone's bound to make a mess or slip up. They're heartless to begin with, so it's not like they are completely undectable. Their trademark of chaos follows them everywhere they go; I guess the right thing to do is bulk up and track down recent places they've been. I mean they go there for a purpose right?


She went silent for a moment thinking how to word it,"Form connections betweens worlds so no one would be disconnected. If people are linked together; it would be easier to communicate any signs of heartless activity that may be numerous on one place than another."

"Also get stronger along the way, because it will get messy...guaranteed." Erika raised her palm forming an orb of light before making it take shape. "Think of them as fellow humans. If someone was getting closer in ruining something so significant that they are so secretive like the depend on it, they would act more chaotically...like bees. When bees think their hives are threatened, they become desperate to do anything to be protected. The more chaotic, the closer you may be to them, or the closer they may be to you, since they may obviously have their own intentions."

Her hand reached over to ruffle his hair, "Keep your light close to you. If you're going to be going after heartless, you'll be going after darkness itself. People can get lost in it, so you want to keep those you care about close. No man's an island, nor can anyone be an island to survive through this."

"...Man I wish I was alive right now...I would be with you."

[sumdood]

Keep those he cared about close. Day chance of that happening. The only ones he truly cared about were his two, bow one, best friends: Mikael, and Erika. Erika, whose ghost was sitting right beside him. That would likely be over soon. She'd have to go back to wherever it is that she stays here in this damned place......

"Erika....," he said, looking over at her,"There were only two people who I really cared about since my world was destroyed: you and Mikael. With you gone, that leaves Mikael.... And he's so busy with so many other. Things right now, I wouldn't dare get in his way for messing it up. That's our biggest problem right now: we can't solidify. We're fragmented, scattered, and it seems like I'm the only one working to pull is together.

"Sometimes I wonder if maybe it's all just....useless."

[Ellie who has 0%]

"Hm, sounds like you need someone to smack sense into you," she hugged him, which strangely he maybe able to feel her aura, "well not smack perhaps a hug will do."

"Now is it useless to take the initiative, a step forward to help what is known as humanity. Sure people who lack optismism may say you're arrogant for taking it up, but it will be a hard thing by default. You're doing something big that will cause a big difference; of-course there will be road bumps."

She rested her chin on his shoulder,"Maybe Mikael needs a visit from me to, or you can talk to him in representation of him. With his decision with standing up for this universe, his life is no longer his own anymore...unfortunately. Other people depend on you and him; this isn't to put pressure on you, but the truth. If neither of you start, then who will? How long will people have to wait and watch everything around them fall apart before someone else does? Do you really want to rely on someone else to pick it up when you already got it started?"

"Think of it this way. If you don't do anything, there won't be anything to mess up or protect, no future. And if you think preserving the future as useless, then you're wrong. Tell them all that. If we don't act now or soon, there won't be anything to protect, to tend to, to love, to grow, to live; it will essentially be the end as life as we know it, since I doubt none of us know the life of a heartless or nobody."

She blinked with a nod believing her own statement, "Tell them that. I doubt they can ignore it. Only a fool would ignore it."

[sumdood]

Max smiled over at Erika. She knew just what to say to get him to snap out of a little fit of depression. How did she do that?

Gr had to admit he was surprised he could feel the hug, since she had passed right through him earlier. As of today, though, he no longer held preconceived notions of what spirits could do. As she rested her chin on his shoulder, he reached around with one arm to hug her back.

"Well....with Mikael, it's not entirely that simple,"He said with a small sigh,"He's been....ah, how should I say it?.....he's been...infected by darkness, some. I don't know how it happened, but it causes him to go into blind fits of rage, from what he said. I've not seen it myself, but from what he's said, they're pretty bad.

"He probably won't be able to get back on track until that gets tacken care of. I've been trying to think of a solution, but I can't. I don't know very much about all this light and darkness crap. If you have any ideas, I'd be very open to them."

Max decided he was going to quit sitting there thinking about everything that was going on, and that he was instead going to find a way to set it all right.

Suddenly, a thought passed through his mind and he turned his head to look over at Erika.

"It just dawned on me what you said. You told me to not ask how you're here, but you never said I couldn't ask why," he told her,"So, I think I'd like to know. I doubt it was to show up here and call me an idiot, like you said. I just got here."

[Ellie who has 0%]

"Wow, so he dabbled in darkness. I highly doubt he would want to talk about it, since sinking in darkness isn't the greatest thing. No one get knee deep in darkness going happy go lucky. I manipulated darkness; it grew out of 'dark' intention of vengence on my step-mother. Surely like any stubborn focused vengence craved teen, I shot her, praised for it, but didn't feel any good out of it. I did it for the wrong reasons not the good hence darkness. Darkness isn't really evil, but it truly can be amplified by strong intentions, which tends to be the wrong ones." Erika sighed sadily, "That's why Mikael breaks off in fits. Darkness can grow stronger with intense feelings, but he will have to learn how to handle it on his own. It takes more than saying 'accept the fact it's you causing it not the darkness' as in 'take responsibility for your actions and come into peace with them'."

"That's the price with being involved with darkness. You won't be able to control it if you live in denial, and not controlling it and keeping it grow can lead to the inevitable, a heartless. Stay close to him unless you want to be obligated to slay him one day, if he doesn't come through." Closing her eyes, she began thinking and talking lowly to herself.

"Perhaps he needs something to hold back is darkness if it goes too far. Sure the love of others can do it, but I doubt you want to rely on his reason when he's drunken in darkness to restore himself. Yes, he would need to learn it eventually, but it may be a burden to force him to evolve so quickly. You may need to go to a synthesis or someone to conduct some light material for him, and some dark resistance, chaos anklets."

"It just dawned on me what you said. You told me to not ask how you're here, but you never said I couldn't ask why. So, I think I'd like to know. I doubt it was to show up here and call me an idiot, like you said. I just got here."

"Truthfully, I don't know how I got here, but I think it was to bluntly call you an idiot. It seems fate knew there was a dead person to whip you back up in shape, call it a blessing. Great now I don't want to be dead if everything is going this hectically. The afterlife...is fine and dandy, but one can't 'rest in peace' once aware of things. Maybe this will extend my unfinished business then."

[sumdood]

Max shook his head. Now Erika was gonna be worried about everything going on in the world of the living.

"Look," He said to her, giving her a sidelong look,"don't you worry about any of that stuff. You're not a part of it anymore. The worlds are in good hands. I'll take care of them, even if I have to give my own life in the process.
And if that happens, it'll just make the underworld that much more pleasant a place than it already is."

Max laughed at the irony of his statement. The underworld a pleasant place? That was an oxymoron if ever there was one.