Kingdom Hearts: Kingdom Hearts: Light Chaser

​

There seemed to be a lot of confusion reguarding this situation. As Chrys explained Torrin’s reasonings for not finding Tinarah with the others, it sort of made sense to her. And if the Light Chaser really was cruel, he would have locked her up and not explained things, right? Or kept Tinarah here against her will. Where ever she ended up, that would have to be resolved later.

It was then Chrys pointed out that Torrin has a weakness. It wasn’t obvious at first, but when Aria looked closely, she could see he wasn’t at all ready to fight much.

“Whoa, okay,” Aria said as she raised her hands and scooted back from Torrin and positioned herself to be in a triangle of sorts so she was a little closer to Chrys. Chrys could have had any reason to off her off too if Torrin’s words were correct, but she did nothing but to protect her when they went to fight the large shadow creature. “I think there’s just one big misunderstanding here.” She looked to Torrin while glancing at Chrys to keep her eyes on her. “The Light Chaser promised me I could go back to my friends when the time is right. That’s when the darkness around this world is gone. And he said I could go back sometime today. Sooooo, Tinarah’s not here. That’s who you were looking for, yes? So she’s not here. I don’t know about the other... princess you mentioned, but I hadn’t seen her. So, um, let’s not fight? Eh?” Aria smiled sheepishly and held her hands out as an offering of peace. “Maybe we can talk things out and get it sorted? Plus, you know, I can’t fight really well. And you don’t look so well, Mister... and I’m not about to fight Chrys... The Light Chaser and his students have been really nice to me...”

 

​

Glyde had been careful with his steps as he descended from the top deck. Each stride down the stairs was meticulously measured, and his efforts strained his mind as he minded not to make unnecessary noise or stirs... But all of this for naught. Despite his utmost caution, the bottom step down let out a sharp wooden, growl that filled the room.

And this again... before he could process what was happening, Illiana had him clear across the room, and tucked against the wall, snapping a hushed reprimand before she was in turn reproached by another occupant of the ship. Glyde moved to assist her, but halted in an instant as the cold metal of a gun barrel pressed into his back. As if by instinct, Glyde splayed out his hand, like a resigned convict, prepared for a death sentence.

"Neither of are particularly guilty of any sort of crime," he explained, adding into Illiana's plea. "We've heard nothing of consequence; even if we had, it's not our intent to interfere with anyone's business here. Killing us is actually probably way worse for you lot in the long run anyways."

 

​

Takehiko was glad he had a name to associate with the cabin boy now. Though he was a bit more distracted by the pink floating blob that came close to his face. There was a moment where he found himself smiling a lot more at the thing before he caught how much he was actually grinning at it at he stopped. Take covered his mouth a little to calm himself down. There was a reason why he was reacting the way he did. Just looking at the thing, he could just hear his little brother's voice screaming 'look at it, it's so squishy looking' and Take found so much humor in that. But he managed to contain laughter. Didn't hurt that Morph got so close it almost tickled.

Take removed his hand when he was certain his emotions were contained and he pointed to himself and said, "My name's Takehiko, you can call me Take And this is Chrono. You can call him Chrono." Take had motioned over towards his partner. He probably figured the white haired boy wouldn't care whether or not he introduced himself. He didn't see the harm in giving this boy their real names. If Chrono didn't like it, he'd take an earful later.

 

​

Aria’s eyes widened when the white haired male suddenly went from cold to aggressive rather quickly. He was acting like an animal trapped in a corner, wounded and snarling to make themselves more threatening. Everything about this situation was dodgy to say the least.

When the keyblade of the other was pointed in her direction, she flinched when she heard a noise. Blinking, she realized she was not harmed and looked behind her to see a portal. Those things kind of scared her now since Tinarah had disappeared into thin air after going through one.

But still, she thought about going through the portal. The thought of being with her friends and seeing her Master was very tempting. She hesitated though, and clutched her wrist that had the bracelet fastened on it. “The darkness... is it gone from the world yet?” Aria asked Chrys as she looked over at the older girl. The last thing this supposed Princess of Heart wanted to do was make this world fall because of her. Aria’s eyes gleamed with desperation, and her body was tensed. She didn’t know who to trust right now, but she didn’t like the negative energy that was coming off the other. And Chrys did nothing but protect her up to this point. She could trust Chrys more, right?

 

​

Right as they were given a name to call the boy by, a pink blob formed from Jim's pocket and started to fly around the two of them. It was the mixed result of curiosity and wonder that had lead to Chrono following the blob as it flew around them to the best of his own abilities. Chrono even tried poking it at one point. He hadn't expected something like this to actually lead to this much enjoyment. "Just Chrono, please don't try to shorten it." He added. He didn't know much about Jim, but on the off chance he was someone that tried to make nicknames out of people's name, he wanted to add in that little detail then as a precaution.

 

Illiana kept a mysterious expression as Scroop clapped his claw in front of her face. She smirked before opening her mouth. "Do it. I double dare you." Before Scroop could do anything else, the cyborg named Silver stopped him. "Now now Mister Scroop, we can't be stainin' the deck with the blood of children, can we?" Illiana rolled her eyes before speaking. "The only children I see are the boy and Mr. Crabby Hands over here." Illiana shrugged her shoulders before Scroop forcefully stood her up with his claw gripping her shoulder. Illiana kept her usual unreadable expression as she dealt with the pain. As they were walking, Silver had mentioned a 'spaceport'. "Alright riddle me this Robot Man. What in the world is a spaceport? And when exactly are we getting there? Whatever this....so called transportation is...it's not pleasant." Illiana paused before smirking again. "Then again...neither is Mr. Crabby Hands' breath. Ever heard of breath mint? Geez." Illiana pinched her nose as to taunt Scroop and not to smell his breath. This is why I don't deal with issues at sea. Or boats in general. Now how am I going to get me and little Glyde out of this predicament? As they continued walking, Illiana continued to insult Scroop while trying to figure out how to get out this mess.

 

There Torrin went again, forgoing all logic with reckless abandon. As if her words, be they truth or lie, didn't insinuate the possibility that her very life and the lives of countless others could depend on Aria staying in town for the time being... and she wasn't supposed to try and convince the princess to stay?

Besides, it wasn't as if she needed to stay that much longer anyway. Soon, the problem would be fixed and everything would be fine... although...

"The darkness... is it gone from the world yet?"

"No." The words sprang from her lips without any hesitation, but she was actually surprised that Aria had spoken up, given that she had an opportunity to go back to her friends. Though the girl had tried to placate the two earlier. Perhaps this is what it meant to be a princess of heart? She was certainly right about it having been a misunderstanding though. A blind rage on Torrin's part that did more harm than good... but that actually brought her back to the point that the question had initially distracted her from.

Who had the Master sent to fix the problem? It hadn't been any of the apprentices, since they were all here. The other Masters had all withheld their support from him as well. So who else was there? Also, if Kida was here now, did they really need Aria as well? Or had the Master been counting on her to expedite the process? She knew that they would need all the Princesses at some point of course, but Aria seemed to trust them now, and they had several more princesses to go. What was the deal exactly?

Was Torrin really wrong to oppose the Light Chaser?

She crushed those thoughts as soon as they came to be. Whether or not the Master had been completely honest with her, his cause was still just and it was likely that there was just some information he needed to keep close to the vest. She had to trust him. He was the only person she had found that she could. Well, besides the Light Chasers' other students and Aria. That was different though; her fellow apprentices each sided with the Master, and Aria was a princess of heart. The only other person she had ever been able to trust...

Well, that had been her fault.

Besides, Torrin was still being a jerk about it.​

 

​

The girl gasped when the older teen grabbed her by the arm. “W-wait! I can’t go! This world is going to collapse on itself!” Aria tugged against Torrin, but he held an iron grip. Her mind was in panic, and she forgot she could do something to fight back. She had so many opposing voices telling her of certain things that may or may happen, she was terrified of the outcome if she left right now with the darkness around the world. “Chrys!” Her hand reached out to the older girl out of desperation, and then suddenly the blonde hair girl disappeared into an odd warp that swirled and another view was suddenly before her.

Aria was in a near panic when she saw she was not in Eventide anymore. The air was different, and the sky above her was vibrant and vast, twinkling and melding together blues, purples, pinks, and even oranges. She could feel the wind in her hair, and her stomach fill with butterflies as if she was lifted up, yet her feet were on solid ground. She could hear the wood creaking, and an odd sense of familiarity filled her heart for a moment.

The magic dispersed as soon as Torrin’s voice filled her ears. Aria turned angrily to Torrin with a half of a mind to slap him. How dare he risk Eventide! After all that time she waited patiently to get out was wasted-

Her hand stopped in midair though when she saw how frustrated Torrin was. And Aria realized that moment she had no clue what was really happeneing. The Light Chaser lied to her about Tinarah... and Torrin was right. What else was she lied to about?

Hesitantly, she lowered her hand and instead hugged her arm that had her friendship bracelet from Mika on it. Mika... “Wait a minute,” she replied softly as Torrin’s words played back in her head. “I know Tinarah’s missing, but Mika...” The girl turned to face Torrin once more with dread as she clutched her wrist tightly. “You didn’t say Mika. Where is she...?” She whispered, not sure if she was ready to hear an answer. Maybe Torrin forgot to mention her... that was hopeful thinking anyways.

 

​

Take wasn't exactly sure what he was going to answer for Jim's situation, but he hoped maybe this sudden flash of light made it so Jim was potentially distracted. He had no idea who exactly was here for a moment, then his eyes adjusted to see Torrin briefly before the flash of light happened again. Take could see it was a portal. He shifted a bit and said, "Wait... that was Torrin... did he bring back Tinarah?"

As soon as he said that, there was a faint mew that came from his bag, and Nini ran out. Take had forgotten about the little cat, but when she reacted the way she did, Take couldn't help but quickly follow the cat up. Nini had made their way to the girl first, seeing the familiar face and letting out meows of excitement and rubbing against her leg. Take climbed up and looked and had a pause. It wasn't Tinarah... but, "Wait... Aria?" he didn't know the girl very well, he only knew her through introductions as he walked forward, "I thought you were... well... dead. Not meaning anything by it, I'm glad to see you're alright. I just... I was expecting Torrin to have found Tinarah."

Nini kept meowing at Aria.

 

​

No...

Aria felt her heart sink. He didn’t even have to say the words. Something happened to Mika, and she was gone. Whatever happened, it was too painful for even this guy to say. He seemed to take full responsibility for it.

Her vision was clouded and she clutched her wrist with the friendship bracelet tightly to her chest. There was a burning, aching pain within her and hot tears rolled down her cheeks. Mika... her only best friend she had in a long time. Despite Mika losing her memories of her previous life, Aria remembered all the fun they had together on their downtime. And trying to help Tinarah be more comfortable in the castle.

As soon as Torrin spoke up, her eyes looked to him. She couldn’t afford to grieve right now, as much as she wanted to. She was reminded she was in a strange place in a very weird situation. Sniffing and rubbing her eyes fierioiusly so the other didn’t see her cry, she listened carefully to his instructions. “Wait, Torrin...” But before she could say anything more, he was gone. “Thank you...” she whispered softly.

No sooner had Torrin gone then she heard a familiar cry of a kitten. Aria looked over in surprised, seeing Mika’s cat bounding up to her and rubbing against her legs. “Nini!” The girl gasped as she scooped the kitten up in her arms and held her close. “It’s good to see you...”

Aria was soon greeted by a boy she had seen briefly at the beginning of it all. Take, he was Atmos’ student. He had a longer name, but she couldn’t remember it. But that didn’t seem to matter much at the moment. She felt relief wash over her as she stroked the cat’s fur. Her face fell though when the boy mentioned he though Torrin brought back Tinarah and she quietly held Nini in her arms. “Tinarah... I saw her for a moment...” How was she to explain this to everyone? When was the right time? Probably now before things got too crazy, even though not everyone was here.

She took in a deep breath, and set Nini carefully back down on the ground. “I thought I was dead, to be honest. And then I woke up in Eventide... only it was desolate and quiet. And I saw the Light Chaser. He had his hood on, but it was him. He told me he brought me back from the darkness, and put Eventide into some sort of state of sleep while he dispelled the darkness.” Aria sighed out and avoided Take’s eyes. “A long story short, he brought Tinarah to see me in Sleeping Eventide... and to heal her from wounds seen and not seen... She was scared though, and so the Light Chaser was going to send her back to you guys, back to Atmos and her brother.”

Aria pressed her lips in a thin line as she forced herself to look up at Take. “That was the plan... he made the portal for her to leave, and she left. The Light Chaser told me I couldn’t leave because if I did, Eventide would collapse in its current state and the darkness would consume it. So I had to stay behind. But I just found out she never made it to you guys.”

It was then she remembered the other bracelet on her wrist, the one she recently acquired as a gift from the Light Chaser. “I don’t want this,” she muttered to herself. She slipped a finger under it and tried to tug it off, but it seemed to suddenly tighten and pinch her finger. “Ouch!” She shook her hand out and tried again at the golden bracelet while talking to Take. “The Light Chaser told me I was a Princess of Heart or something and my light was so strong the darkness was attracted to it. But I don’t know—nn!— how much I can —hmph!— believe him now... agh! Darn it!” Aria shook her wrist out in frustration when she failed to take off the golden bracelet and frowned deeply in frustration. “It’s stuck! He gave to me as a gift before I found out he lied to me...”

 

​

There was a lot of stuff he had to process with Aria's reply. First, she'd seen Tinarah briefly, which at least confirmed that the Light Chaser had something to do with her being kidnapped. But then the Princess of Heart thing came up. Which... okay, so Aria was apparently one of them. So that accounted for two. Which would confirm that Kida being kidnapped had something to do with it as well. Then Aria began struggling with the bracelet and he walked forward and said, "Well, Torrin had a feeling that the Light Chaser was going to be coming after another Princess of Heart next, since he took the one from Atlantis when we were there... which is why we ended up... here... wherever here is." he stopped when he was close enough and looked at the bracelet and paused at what she said and looked up at her and said, "Well... he had you and lost you again. Maybe this is his way of finding you. Unless this was some branding of a promise or something... I don't know but... if he is going after Princesses of Heart, he might come back for you?" Take looked at the bracelet and asked quietly to himself, "There's gotta be a way to get it off though... right? It would be a tactical disadvantage to keep it there if it actually tracks you..." the boy stood in thought for a moment before snapping his fingers in realization, "I've got it." Take looked Aria dead in the eyes and said with no hint of irony to it, "We cut off your arm.... nah... just maybe loping it at the wrist."

Nini hissed a little at Take before he looked at the cat and said, "What? Her life or her hand? You make the choice." Nini growled and Take held his hands up, "Fine fine. We won't cut off her hand. Sheesh cat." Take let out a sigh of defeat and rubbed the back of his head, "I just don't want another person gone again that we just got back."

 

​

How they there was the harder part to explain and before he could get around to do so the flash of light had caught his attention. Like Take his first thought upon seeing Torin was that he had returned with Tinarah. Naturally the idea of this brought a lot of hope for Chrono, yet it was too good to be true. The person accompanying Torrin wasn't Tinarah. However it was still a surprise nonetheless. He'd brought back Aria, the one that they all had thought was dead.

When Chrono had made his way over there, he'd heard the summary of what had happened to Tinarah. Simply put, it didn't make him feel any better. Whoever the Light Chaser was had clearly lied to her and sent her off to who knows where. Dammit, just when I finally thought I had a chance of finding her. A deep sigh followed this thought. He couldn't get too down on himself. He would still find his sister, that was for certain. Tuning back into the conversation, he caught the back end of what Take had said. "Yeah, let's not cut off her arm or wrist."

 

​

Aria frowned deeply when Take made a good point. The Light Chaser let her go freely to her friends, or that was the intial deal. And if she was really a Princess of Heart and valuable to his ultimate plan... he would need to keep track of her somehow, right? She raised her arm and examined the bracelet, just as Take met her eye with seriousness and suggested cutting off her limb.

“Ehhhhh?!” Her eyes widened as she held her wrist to her body, protecting it from Take’s view. Just what kind of students did Atmos have anyways?! But he did make a good point... if she was going to be tracked by the Light Chaser, wouldn’t it put everyone else at risk. She thought it could be a good plan until Nini seemed to highly disapprove of it.

Aria hid a giggle under her hand when the seemingly hardened boy argued with the cat. Her eyes softened when he spoke about losing her again, and she felt the urge to have some human contact. Not knowing if he’d like it or not (but she really didn’t care), Aria closed the gap between her and Take and hugged him tightly. She didn’t know him or the other students left too well, but she was grateful to be missed and cared about by them. That, and to feel that he was solid and not an illusion put her mind at ease. “Thank you,” she said quietly to him and then let Take go.

She then spotted another one of Atmos’ students, one who looked solemn and lonely even. “Chrono...” Realizing who this was, she bowed her head lowly to him out of respect and fought down the feelings of guilt creeping up her chest. “I’m... sorry. I should have made Tinarah stay with me until we were both back safe with everyone else... ”

She swallowed a lump in her throat and lifted her head gradually. “Torrin said to tell everyone that Master Atmos is alright, and he’ll bring her back if she doesn’t appear soon...” She glanced around and realized more people were missing. “Um... where’s Bread- I-I mean Illiana...? And that other student... there was four of you with Master Atmos, right?” She asked the two boys.

 

​

The sudden hug from Aria had made Takehiko visibly tense up for a moment at the suddenness of it. He was not used to physical contact that didn't end in pain. Not that he was unfamiliar with the hug. He had gotten some from his brother's at home, and the most recent one having come from Atmos during training. But this was different. By all accounts, Aria was a stranger to Take, not someone he had exchanged more than a few sentences with. But he didn't push her away, he let it happen, and the longer it went on, the more his shoulders seemed to relax before by the end of it, he didn't hug back, but he returned in some way by rubbing her back a bit. Not weirdly just, in a way to try and indicate comfort but he wasn't particularly good at it. When Aria stopped hugging he would be lying to himself if he didn't say he got something out of the hug too. When Aria mentioned the other students he said, "Oh, Illiana split up and... Glyde? went to follow her. So they should be on this boat... uh. We were... talking to Jim when we were..." Take walked over and saw Jim just kind of staring at the three of them at the bottom of the stairs and he said, "She's with us too. This is Aria. Don't worry, she doesn't bite... maybe."

 

​

The fact that Aria had bowed before him really caught him by surprise. He did understand that she felt bad, but she didn't need to for his sake. "It's fine, I should've stayed with her instead of letting her go off on her own." He would still blame himself for that, but he would at the very least try not to dwell on that. Brooding right now wouldn't help anyone out. Chrono would have to move forward to make any progress. Kinda redundant to say that, but the point still stood. Nodding to affirm what Take had said, Chrono added in. "They should be on the other side of the ship, least Glyde went to check on Illiana."

 

​

When she hugged Take, Aria took a mental note how tensed he seemed to be. Granted she never trained with him and hardly seen him until now, she felt him relax and reassure her that things would be okay. It was nice to say the least. But in the future, she wouldn’t make physical contact with him unless he allowed it. He seemed to have gone through things Aria didn’t know about, and she didn’t wish to agitate him further.

With Take’s words and Chrono’s reassureance, Aria breathed out silently in graditude that nothing seemed to have happened to Illiana and Glyde. They were small in number and needed to stick together somehow.

When Take introduced her to someone new, she glanced down to see a boy with an unusual haircut and an air of angst about him. She heard Take’s introduction of her, and she had it in mind to defend herself. Instead, she made her hand into a duck and made it like it was going to bite him. “Ahnomnom. I only bite food... and people if they’re trying to kidnap me.”

She then turned to Jim and sheepishly smiled with a small wave. “Hi... I kind of got dropped off here randomly... Er... nice... boat? Very nice...” He was part of this world, that much she knew. And her training with Master Choma reminded her to not meddle too much with the affairs of the worlds they would visit. The world was supposed to move on smoothly when they departed.

 

"Uggh...Well that smarts. You really are crabby, Mr. Crabo." Illiana rubbed her arm as she looked at the bruise that started to form from Scroop's grip. As Silver explained what a spaceport was, Illiana listened to his explanation. The four walked further and further down into the ship as the temperature got colder and colder and grimier and grimier. "It's already unpleasant Robot Man. The further we go, the more it smells like Crabo's breath. Besides, your company is also getting more and more unpleasant for both of us bear. However, the same can be said for Crabo over there in general." Illiana pointed her thumb toward Scroop before shrugging her shoulders. As Silver notified that they were almost near the brig, Illiana continued to think about how to escape the situation her and Glyde were in. "You guys seriously need to clean down here. Do you leave the house like this for your own mothers? Geez...I'm just saying. Doesn't hurt to dust this place once a week." Illiana pinched her nose as the odor was getting more and more unpleasant for her.