Young Writers Society

Megara bit back a scream of pain - she would not give Skull the satisfaction - and glared at him from the ground. Fidel rushed over and helped her to her feet, keeping his eyes on the robot as he did. Once she was up, she tried to shrug him off but Fidel held onto her, forcing her to use him as a crutch. Now it was him she was glaring at.

"...Skull," Fidel's voice shook, "is everything alright?"

Things were not alright, but I wasn't just going to admit a serious flaw in my plan right away - I needed to figure out what was going on first. If everything went as expected, then I wouldn't even have to mention why I pushed her. I could just blame it on wanting to mess with her and not knowing my own strength.

I frantically glanced around.

Or, more specifically, my head did. I didn't have anything to do with it. I felt like I was looking for something, but I didn't know what that something was. My arm suddenly shot up on its own - reaching out for Megara, even though I hadn't wanted it to at all - and I quickly responded by pushing it back down with my other arm.

That, apparently, had been the wrong response.

I went stumbling back into the wall behind our group, head turning down to stare at the arm I had just pushed back. I tried to wrench my head back up, but it was even harder than when I had a will to fight against.

My hands grabbed onto the side of my head and frantically began tugging at it. In response, I kept my hands exactly where they were and pushed my head down - not wanting to accidentally kill myself by removing my head. Was this some kind of safety feature? I didn't know anything about robots, but they must have had some kind of protection against possessions. Why else would the robot be fighting me right now?

"Everything's alright-" I started to say, only for the robot to cover its mouth with its hands. I tried to pry them free, but was met with the same resistance as earlier.

Then I was sliding down the wall, pulling my legs close to my chest and resting my head on my knees as my body shook. I was shocked by the reaction, but became even more shocked when I felt something wet inside me.

"There's something inside me," I realized, eyes metaphorically widening. "It's squishy and it's wet and it's fighting everything I'm doing-"

I paused.

"Is someone wearing me?" I managed to get out. I looked down and glowered at my knees. "Get out - I called dibs first-"

The person inside of me shook their head.

"I need this more," I argued. Another shake - this time a little more frantic - of their head. I gave up and took the opportunity to hop back to my feet. I needed a better plan than this, but chatting with the person wearing me and finding out why they were using the guard as weird high-tech armor seemed like a good start.

I went to lean against the wall when the person suddenly wrapped their arms around us. I had always thought hugging yourself looked weird, but it was even weirder knowing that the hug was being done by another person. We even started swaying a bit; whoever was doing the hugging definitely seemed to be happy.

I stared at Megara and Fidel, hoping my robotic, emotionless face could convey my confusion and distress.

There was no shortage of confusion between Fidel and Megara. The baffled expression on Megara's face, in particular, had somehow managed to overshadow her anger.

"What the hell-" she cut herself off. The wheels turned in her head. Something about the body language....

"Kirux!" she exclaimed, correcting her volume in the split seconds before the name left her mouth.

Fidel frowned, "Are you sure it's-"

She glared, not liking the challenge to her theory, "Look," she said, gesturing.

Fidel did as he was told, though it was unclear whether he did so out of fear or of free will. He didn't seem to see whatever Megara had.

She rolled her eyes and didn't bother explaining.

...In retrospect, I should have realized that it was Kirux.

I let him continue the hug for a few more moments before putting my arms down - relieved as I was that we had found him in one piece, I still had the pressing issue of not having a body to call my own.

"Hi, Kirux," I said. He straightened a little in response; I could imagine him beaming underneath the suit. I turned back to Megara and Fidel, glad that I didn't have a face that could easily convey my reaction. "I'll be right back."

Before either one of them could ask where I was going, I strolled off towards the group of guards. Kirux was definitely trying to fight it, but I had other things to focus on. I touched the first guard I could find, switching from Kirux's guard to that one.

My new body, thankfully, didn't have anyone in it.

I grabbed Kirux by the wrist. He tried to pull away when I started leading him away from the group - I really needed to do a better job letting people know that it was me. I raised a metal finger up to my lips and did my best impression of a wink; it wasn't that successful.

But he seemed to realize who I was, and was content in letting me drag him around. We came to a stop when we were back with Megara and Fidel.

"There," I said. "Problem solved-"

I was cut off by Kirux hugging me again. Maybe it was because he wasn't hugging himself, but he was a lot stronger than I had imagined.

I went stiff for the first few seconds before returning the hug.

Megara rolled her eyes, "Well isn't that sweet. Now, if you two don't mind my interrupting your sappy little moment, there's the little issue of us now being is a rather compromising position here," she gestured around.

While all of this had been going on, more guards had arrived to sort out the commotion, or to make it worse, depending on the point of view. In this way, their exits had been blocked off.

"We're trapped," Megara deadpanned, still quietly so as not to alert anyone to their presence. She and Fidel were hidden, for now, behind the two overlarge robots that were, apparently, Skull and Kirux, but that cover wouldn't last long if anyone looked in their direction too closely.

Fidel paled. Megara gave him a demeaning look, Seriously? Still?

Before she could make a comment, though, Fidel's face morphed into an expression of realization and curiosity. He looked at Kirux, only really guessing which one was Kirux at this point, and asked, "Kirux, how are you controlling that thing?"

Kirux abruptly let go of me when he noticed the guards arriving - going surprisingly stiff for someone who usually seemed fearful or emotional. "I don't know," he signed. He gave a little nervous shrug too, clearly torn between staring at the guards and turning to look at Fidel.

"He doesn't know," I translated. I paused and looked over. "So how did you get in there, then?"

"It found me," he replied. His signing was slower and more hesitant now; I was starting to think that what seemed like a lack of fear was actually a lot of it, and that not being able to see Kirux's face was the only reason it wasn't obvious. "I made my keyblade, but then it opened up. And more guards were coming, and I was scared, and I can't make a corridor right now so I went inside it."

I wasn't sure if Fidel had just come to the same conclusion I had, but I had just figured out how we could get out of this.

I slipped out in front of Kirux, scooting him over a little so he was perfectly blocking Megara and Fidel from view of the guards. Then I sauntered over to the guards - who were conveniently only a duo - and stopped in front of them.

"Hi," I said. The guards gave me the emotionless look I had been expecting, but I made a quick check to see if they were as empty as I had hoped - I jumped from one to the other to back to mine, and found absolutely no resistance of any kind during the jumps. They were just as empty as my current body was.

I gestured behind me.

"There's something a little weird back there," I said. "I think it might be a possible security breach. You know how the king is about those, right? So come on - we need to take care of it as quickly and quietly as we can."

The guards gave mechanical nods before following me over.

I resumed my earlier position in front of Megara and Fidel, effectively hiding them from view.

"Huh," I commented, tilting my head to the side when the guards stopped. "I could have sworn that there was something here. Hey, Kirux, can you do that thing you do with your you-know-what? Maybe you can help us."

Kirux stood frozen in fear beside me.

I nudged him.

He still didn't move.

Giving a metaphorical smile at the two guards, I turned to Kirux and dropped my voice down.

"Use your keyblade," I whispered. "To open them up so Megara and Fidel can get inside."

There was a pause, and then there was a flash as the keyblade appeared in his hands. I wasn't exactly sure how the key worked, but all it took was a beam of light directed at each guard before they were ready for Megara and Fidel to slip into.

I stepped to the side.

"You better hurry," I said to the two of them. "I'm sure more of the guards are going to come over soon."

Fidel almost had the chance to hesitate before Megara pushed him inside one and she got in the other. They closed up around them and the pair took a few moments to get ahold of the controls. They were fairly simple, so it didn't take long.

"So now we just walk out?" Fidel asked.

Megara rolled her eyes, realized they couldn't see her rolling her eyes, and said, "Why not?"

I had a sneaking suspicion that Megara was pulling faces inside the robot, but I didn't comment on it - I just wanted to get out of here.

"There's no other reason for us to stay here," I said, "and I stashed my body near the gates, anyways - all we need to do is get it and go."

I gave a little stretch.

"I was getting a little bored with it," I admitted. "I might just keep this one until we get back to Jacob's place."

They left the palace without any resistance from the guards. Megara guessed it was just assumed that they were being sent on some patrolor something by the king. She also guessed such an assumption would cease to occur once the body was found, but that would soon be very thoughouly not her problem. Oh, she looked forward to that.

Such a train of thought continued as they all made their way to Jacobs shop.

They were at the doors when Megara thought to wonder how she, Fidel, and Kirux were going to get out of these things. She and Fidel were easy enough, Kiux could just unlock the things again and they could get out as they got in, but how was Kirux going to get out was another matter entirely. Could he use that key thing on himself?

I theoretically could have carried my actual body on my own, but said body wasn't the easiest to carry. I could do the weight just fine - the real problem was from how big my body was. I only had so much arm space. I eventually relented and got Kirux to help me a few minutes into our walk, and now it looked like we were dragging my body around on display. We thankfully didn't run into anyone on our way back, but I really should have seen the potential problem with how that looked before we got to the shop.

Dragging my body - and Kirux - along with me, I pushed past Fidel and Megara to give the door a hearty knock. Hopefully, it wouldn't be long before someone inside answered.

The door opened almost immediately. Jacob's face immediately paled and the door slammed shut with a yelp, presumably from Jacob.

Megara sighed, "Well that's nice," she said sarcastically.

I gave a metaphorical frown.

Then I knocked on the door again, this time with more vigor than before.

"Hey," I said, as loudly as I could without screaming. "Jacob, we know that you're there - let us in."

Fidel put a concerned arm on Skull's shoulder, "Hey, I think you're making him more nervous."

"Of course he's making him more nervous," Megara said, "Kirux, mind getting me out of this thing?" It hadn't fully dawned on her at first how they must look to Jacob. Now that she got it, it was no wonder he'd slammed the door.

"Hey!" I protested, somehow conveying emotion that the robot probably shouldn't have been able to convey. "I'm not making him nervous. He's been nervous since we met him."

But Kirux didn't seem to agree with my view on the situation, and he somehow got his keyblade out. One flash of light later, and Megara was able to get out of her robot.

Then I had the realization that the guard might actually work like it was supposed to, so I said, "You should probably disable that guard once you're free."

Megara climbed out of her metal vessel and slashed the crucial wires once she was out. She then sheathed her knife and knocked on the door, "Hey," she called, "it's me, morons. Open up."

Tentatively, the door cracked open. Jacobs's eye peeked out from the slit he created and surveyed the scene. It went wide and she closed the door again, that action being followed this time by the sounds of locks clicking into place.

Megara groaned, pounded on the door, "Open this door before I break it down," she growled. Not a completely empty threat. She imagined the guards, when put together, had more than enough strength between them to smash the door to splinters.