Hollow Bastion, First Visit:
In Which A Moogle Has Unexpected Information
"Roxas!"
Roxas paused in counting coins to glance over his shoulder. Yuffie skidded to a halt just to one side of him. "I found someone who wants to talk to you-- Did you get a sword?" she interrupted herself, craning her head to peer around him. "Where is it?"
"Not exactly," he murmured, although he was stumped for a reason as to why he was handing over all this munny to a duck for a sword he hadn't bought.
"Not exactly?" she echoed, frowning. "You either bought one or you didn't."
Roxas sighed. "I didn't-- Crap! I was supposed to get Axel something." Riku's visit had been totally disorienting. "Where's the accessory shop?"
She gave him an odd look, but relented, saying cheerily, "Over there. I got some new earrings, one set for me and one for Aerith. Look!"
He glanced at it, and his lips quirked up. Another thing the illusory Olette had taught him was how to respond to a girl who had just been shopping. "They're cute."
"Definitely," Yuffie agreed. "Plus they add to defense."
Much more relevant, Roxas thought with a quick, lopsided smile. "So, someone wanted to talk to me?" he said as they drew up in front of the second stall. "I didn't think anyone knew I was here..."
The Organization can probably track me to some extent, he mused darkly, sifting through the bracers. Or could Namine have followed us?
But Yuffie ruined that speculation by saying, "Yeah, a moogle."
Roxas looked up at her, his eyebrows lifting. "A moogle? Like, the synthesis shop moogle?"
"No way, a different one." Yuffie grinned at him. "I know you weren't looking for heroics, I wouldn't have volunteered you for any rescue missions. But... I thought you might be looking for treasure."
Her eye was agleam, as if she thought she had him pinned, or maybe as if she were the one really interested in treasure. Roxas managed to contain his amusement, straightening to face her. "Oh yeah?"
"Uh-huh. He mentioned something about a locked door, and... I thought of you?" She spread her arms helplessly, but her grin gave her away.
He smirked a bit. "Locked doors are a specialty of mine," he admitted. Why not explore some? It would make their course more unpredictable if Organization XIII came after Axel -- or him -- and he wasn't exactly averse to treasure. Axel would probably like it. At least, more than helping random bystanders.
"They are?"
The unexpected small voice came from a moogle behind them, with a tiger-striped bandanna slung around his head. He toddled over to meet them, followed by an older duck in a top hat, bristling with indignance. "And stay out!" the duck sputtered after him.
Yuffie folded her arms. "Roxas, meet Stiltzkin," she said. "And Scrooge McDuck." The elderly duck didn't stay; he simply made an agitated sound and stalked back around the corner through some iron doors.
"McDuck?" Roxas said, briefly distracted.
"Yeah, he's the great-uncle of these boys." She grinned at the duckling manning the stall -- he had a red hat, but Roxas had already forgotten what the red one's name was supposed to be. "Until their uncle Donald comes home, they've been railroaded into working for their allowance." The duckling snickered, but he was very quick to take the munny Roxas offered for the bracer.
Donald's nephews. Donald's uncle. Roxas stood frozen, suddenly caught up in the questions he hadn't thought to ask. Did someone let him out of that capsule? Or is he still there...?
"Roxas can open anything with a lock," Yuffie was explaining, and he stirred enough to scowl weakly at her. She shouldn't go around promising things she couldn't know for certain.
The little moogle rubbed the fur of his face with two fingers, sizing Roxas up with an unusually flat stare, for a moogle. "Interesting. I have an offer for you, if you're as good as Yuffie's advertised."
"Hey, don't put it like that," she protested, rubbing the back of her neck. "It's not like I put his picture up on billboards..."
Roxas waved her down, unperturbed, and asked only, "What sort of offer?"
"Well." Stiltzkin seemed inclined to settle himself down, like he had a long story. "To start, well--"
"Don't pad it," Yuffie told him, bemused, and jerked a thumb in the direction of Merlin's house. She and Roxas started walking, leaving the moogle to scurry to catch up to them.
He huffed, "How rude. Fine. You see, Roxas, I'm a wanderer. When the bug bites, I gotta go! And on my last trip, I found this straaange tower in the middle of nowhere."
Roxas glanced around at Hollow Bastion -- the looming castle on the western horizon had several strange towers hanging precariously from cranes, remnant of some construction project, but it was certainly not in the middle of nowhere. "Here?" he asked. "Or another world?"
"Another world. Sleepy sort of burg, pleasant..." Stiltzkin was breathing a little quick, trying to keep up with them, but he squinted, thinking. "Twilight Town, I think?"
Yuffie said avidly, "Hey, that's a coincidence!"
Roxas stared straight ahead. He had no intention of going back to Twilight Town. He should turn the moogle down. Tell him to take his toys and his locked doors and go home.
But a tower... He'd never seen a tower there, other than the Station Tower. Which meant that it wasn't something DiZ had put in the simulation. Which meant...
"Where was it?" he asked.
The moogle looked thoughtful. "Ah, at the end of a train line. Hold on just a second."
They both paused as Stiltzkin stopped walking, wrestling his knapsack off his shoulders and fumbling through the many pieces of parchment rolled up in it. He chattered while he searched, "No danger of trains, thankfully, it looked pretty busted up. Can't see a train still running."
He set one map down, uncurling it enough to see what it depicted, and pulled out a second, unrolling it to display a map of Twilight Town. "About... here!" This map had pencil marks extending from the station, going out to a corner and ending in a clumsily-sketched tower. "It was a very weird shape, with the train tracks running out over a cloud bank with no supports, none at all. Seems like the kind of place a wizard would live in." He scratched his jaw with little black claws. "But no walking brooms around, so I can't be sure."
The first map caught at Roxas's attention, and he knelt to run his fingers over the curled edges, smoothing it out. It was a map of the multiverse, depicting in full color a dozen, two dozen worlds, with neat block print describing each. He asked distractedly, "So what exactly is it that you want there...?"
"Well, I'd like to see what's inside. It's probably chock-full of valuable magical artifacts." Stiltzkin seemed to drift off for a beat into the possibilities, but he caught Roxas staring at the map and reached out to roll it up a little again possessively.
Roxas shifted back on his haunches, more amused than annoyed. "Is it really a good idea to be running around in a wizard's tower grabbing valuable magical artifacts?"
"Only if he's not there," Stiltzkin informed him. "Otherwise we hope for an invitation to tea, or some such. But, see, it's strange that a door like that is just... locked. Normally they have notes, or guards, or captive princesses, that sort of thing!"
I wonder what sort of wizard lives there, thought Roxas, looking at the map of Twilight Town again, and its sketchy pencil outlines. Maybe he's a wizard with technology.
If there was even the slightest chance that DiZ would be there... Roxas had yet to repay him for what he had done, and he was impatient for the opportunity.
Stiltzkin was watching his face, and although he was hard to read, with his limited expressions, Roxas thought he was pleased with what he saw. He drawled, "So. Can we make a deal? Maybe I can help you find that tower, and you can help me with a little of your locksmithery?"
A locksmith, right. Roxas got back to his feet, amused. "I can't make any promises just yet. I need to talk to Axel first, but I think we can arrange something."
"Well, we're almost there," Yuffie said, pointing down the road.
Roxas looked up ahead at the tiny house, and found himself smiling slightly. "So then it'll be five residents, two guests, and a moogle," he said, softer as they resumed motion, leaving Stiltzkin to scramble to collect his maps. "In that little house."
"I wouldn't worry," the older girl offered, winking at him. "You don't take up much space." In demonstration, she propped her arm up on his shoulder.
What? I'm like, an inch shorter than she is. He said pointedly, "Feeling a little crowded, here."
Yuffie smirked. "So it's like you're part of the family."
The word stuck in his mind, significant: Family. And then they were through the door and into the house.
Cid and Aerith glanced up, both smiling; they were seated on the computer bench, Aerith with a book in one hand and Cid looking at some vast architectural design on the screen.
"Welcome back."
"Ah, hey, little man," Cid said, catching a glimpse of Stiltzkin trotting up behind them. "Got some more flower seeds to scalp?"
The moogle hitched his pack up higher, looking regretful. "Not yet. Sorry, Miss Aerith. I'm hunting some bigger fish right now, actually."
Aerith said serenely, "Just think of me if you see any."
Roxas took a few steps in, starting to say, "I need to go talk to Axel real--" He was drawn up short as he turned to go up the staircase and it wasn't there. He frowned, looking along the wall. There should be a short staircase to the right of the entrance, with a little landing, and then a left turn and more stairs... But it wasn't there. "Huh."
"What?" Cid followed his gaze and scowled. "Fuck, the stairs are gone again. Well, don't wake up that old windbag, he'd want to sing a damn song before letting you up. Try going through the kitchen."
"Through the kitchen," Roxas repeated, slightly dubious. But they'd lived in this improbable house for much longer than he'd been here, so... He headed for the kitchen door and pulled it open to reveal the same view he had expected: long table, a half-dozen chairs in wildly differing shapes and sizes, counter...
He turned back to the others, scowling. "It's just the kitchen--"
"Try again," they chorused.
Taken slightly aback by the simultaneous agreement, Roxas closed the door and waited a beat, then opened it again. This time it looked out on a smallish greenhouse outdoors; he stared at it, bewildered, and then slowly shut the door.
The third time, he opened it on the missing staircase. This house makes no sense, he decided, and climbed up to the second story.
As he'd expected, Axel was in Leon and Cid's room again; sprawled on the bed he'd slept in and reading a book.
"Hey," he said in greeting. "What's that?"
Axel showed him the cover with a little crooked smile. "Handiwork Around the House," he said. "I would've looked for something more involving, but all the other books are downstairs, and so are those people who live here."
Roxas felt the corners of his lips quirk up. "They're not that bad."
"They're worse." But he didn't seem to mean it; the redhead sat up and stretched, asking lazily, "What'd you get?"
Ugh, that threatened to ruin his good mood, though. "I didn't really find any swords that were worth it. But I got you a bracer," he added, nonchalant, and tossed it at the other man, who caught it deftly.
"What's it do?"
"The options were defense, or less defense, so..." Roxas managed another smirk.
Axel raised his eyebrows. "I see."
Roxas settled on the edge of the bed and said slowly, "I think I found someplace I'd like to go next, if you don't mind."
There was the suspicious look. "Why would I mind?" Axel wanted to know.
Damn. "There's this moogle downstairs," Roxas explained. "He says he found a wizard's tower, and he can't get the lock open himself."
"Really," Axel said, toneless and reserved.
The only possible explanation of how Stiltzkin had known to ask him would implicate Yuffie or reveal his encounter with Riku, and he was strangely reluctant to do either. "Look, the tower is in Twilight Town."
That brought Axel's skepticism to a halt; almost visibly he shifted gears, giving Roxas a shuttered, evaluating look. "You sure you wanna go back there?"
"I don't know." Roxas rubbed his jaw. It still ached from his fight with the Beast yesterday. "I'm pretty sure I don't want to go back. But this tower... Do you think it might belong to DiZ?"
Even the name made them both tense. Axel's gaze narrowed, and he glanced away. "Could be, but I doubt he'd be there. Why would he want to stick around a place that reminds him of how you got away?"
Was he disappointed? Relieved? But maybe it was better this way, to get stronger and get a little bit past what had happened before fighting the mastermind of that travesty. Roxas folded his arms and pointed out, "Then there shouldn't be any problem in going to check it out. Because if it has anything to do with him..."
The destruction of the computer in the simulation hadn't been as satisfying as it would have been if it had been real, if he'd been able to say to himself, Now he'll never misuse that again. He'd very much like to break some more of DiZ's toys.
"Did the moogle mention a mummy in red?" Axel asked soberly. "Because the guy is kind of distinctive."
That pulled a small grin out of him. "He said there was no one around." Roxas shrugged, fidgeting with the bands around his fingers. "You don't have to come if you don't want to. I'm pretty sure I can open the door without help. It'll probably only take a couple of hours."
Axel was on his feet, waving it off with broad gestures of both hands, before he'd finished speaking. "When do we leave?" he asked.
Roxas followed suit, smiling slightly. "Well. The moogle is just downstairs."
Axel's first comment was an unusually interested, "Hey, it's got clothes!" and the relationship between moogle and redhead had gone downhill from there. It was a stiff and uncomfortable walk back to the marketplace, where Stiltzkin insisted they go for transportation, and it had thoroughly defeated Roxas's faint pleasure from the good-natured farewells he'd shared with the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee, and Yuffie's stubborn demands that they return when they could.
Good people. Doing a good thing. And...
And for good reasons. Very unlike his current company.
"Is this a bill?" Axel was asking.
"No! Not at all," Stiltzkin said, waving his paws. "Technically, it's an invoice."
Axel paused to give Roxas a very disbelieving look. Roxas looked down at the... invoice the moogle had drafted in very poor handwriting. Paw-writing? Difficulty wielding the pen in his paws might have explained the scrawl, but it seemed a very convenient disability when Roxas puzzled out what he'd written.
Stiltzkin rattled off, "Base navigation services and supplies. Or you can check the box for salvage rights instead. Basically it's a flat rate retainer in exchange for an equitable split of the salvage proceeds, which you can exchange for your rights on a sliding scale--"
"What's a 'pedicure expense'?" Roxas asked. "Who's getting a pedicure?" He stared flatly down at Stiltzkin, attempting to discern whether or not the claws on his feet were -- painted or something.
"The total is at the bottom," Stiltzkin pointed out helpfully.
Roxas mused, "We could go open that tower all on our own."
"Well-- It's quite hard to find, you know--"
Axel agreed, "I think we could find our way around Twilight Town."
"I won't charge you a retainer if you won't either."
"I work pretty cheap, really."
"Look." Stiltzkin said, collecting his dignity and brushing off his fur. "I'll level with you. One of the reasons I haven't gone back to that tower is because I can hardly afford it. I'm out of gil, GP, zenny, gella, potch, and I've barely got any munny left. At this rate, I'll be stranded."
Roxas scratched his cheek, seeing the logic of that, but he really couldn't bring himself to care. "I just can't help thinking there are some extra items in here. And some that were left out -- like, keyblade commission... escort service... combat expertise surcharge..."
"Fire insurance," Axel added.
Stiltzkin said plaintively, "This is a shakedown, come on. Twilight Shard prices are through the roof--!"
"Wait, Twilight Shards?" Roxas interrupted.
"Oh, it's how I get around." The moogle recovered quickly from his distress, scurrying ahead to a broken-down area slightly above the marketplace. "You take Energy Stones, heat them, and they set off the Twilight Shard! It's not cheap, but it's reliable."
Roxas exchanged a quick glance with Axel. Lower-formed Nobodies were composed of great amounts of darkness; Twilight Shards were crystallized fragments of darkness. If they found lesser Nobodies, with their crystallized core of darkness, they could... remove it with precision accuracy.
"How about if we pay you in Twilight Shards?" Roxas suggested.
Stiltzkin paused in the center of the area, looking back and forth between them with narrow eyes. "How do I know you won't run off with them?" he said.
"How do we know you're really interested in fire insurance?" Axel countered.
The moogle muttered and set up an odd construction in the middle of the cobblestones -- a little pyramid of stones with the Twilight Shard wedged between them. "Now we light the fuse..." He looked around for something to light; Axel sighed and hunched down, snapping his fingers to offer a small, cheerily-burning flame. Stiltzkin looked impressed, but he simply said, "I see why I need-- Never mind. That'll do," and held the fuse to the flame.
"...And duck!" The moogle scattered.
Alarmed, Axel reared up and sprinted for Roxas, who couldn't even react before the redhead knocked them both clear to the ground, just in time to miss the sound of an explosion, echoed by a cataclysmic sound, the sound of the exploding Twilight Shard rending open a dark corridor in the very fabric of Hollow Bastion by sheer, brute force.
NEXT >>> Twilight Town, First Visit (Part 1)