Kingdom Hearts: Kingdom Hearts: Light Chaser

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After turning down the offer of oil Chrono had turned his attention to the markings on the wall. B.E.N said that said he was told that whoever made the map that the pirates were the same as the ones who lived here. Maybe B.E.N could read what it was that the markings meant, presuming that he remembered. "Do you know what they mean?" He mulled over it for a bit before finally deciding to ask B.E.N. Maybe he did know something that would be useful to know.

 

Torrin showed a little bit of regret on how this potential trap to be laid. He couldn't fault his friend, if a comrade of his had been captured he too would recover them if given the opportunity even if it may have lead to problems later. "You know I would have done the same right? Either way what's done is done." Boreas said, before paying attention to what his friend had to teach him. It was quite the nice trick and it took significant effort on his part to be able to be able to replicate the rather interesting trick. He concentrated, envisioning his keyblade taking on the form of a repeating crossbow, the width of the blade increased slightly, the decorative wing along the blade mirrored to show in the opposite direction ending instead in three studs one above the other, the guard of the blade only existing on the underside, the hook-like cuts of the key forming on both sides to create the crossbow limbs. It didn't get strings as they weren't necessary. Boreas shouldered the crossbow and looked along it's length as if to aim. This felt a lot better than simply using his keyblade to aim at the enemy to cast a spell and might help with improving accuracy.

"Now, that is a very neat trick, this is gonna be helpful for spellcasting, feels a lot better than simply pointing my keyblade at them." Boreas said, just thinking of perhaps other options for later, not that he would try creating them but it was nice to think of the other options. Torrin cut himself off when the wind picked up, which according to Torrin never happened here. Boreas followed his friend's gaze and saw something happen in the distance, a portal, with two people stepping through, but something didn't seem right and Torrin ran into the water to get over there. Boreas took off his green tunic and tossed it on the beach, also leaving his boots behind he ran after his comrade into the water to go help the people in the water, he was a bit behind Torrin and hoped he'd arrive in time, Boreas didn't hate swimming as much as Torrin, he actually used it to keep in shape and was closing the distance with Torrin and the two newly arrived people. Boreas heard one of the two people shout to go for the other and being the faster swimmer he went for the person that needed it most and headed for Gero to pull him back to shore. "Torrin I got this one, you help that one." Boreas shouted to his comrade.​

 

Illiana continued to look at the marks as B.E.N. answered her question. As she continued to look, Chrono had then asked B.E.N. if he could read the markings on the wall. She wondered how all these markings could be a map. It looked rather odd to her but she started walking around the room. It had looked like it's been centuries since anyone had been here but for some reason Illiana had felt calm, even in the situation she was in. She looked over to see B.E.N rush over to his kitchen and back, cleaning up a spill. Illiana walked over and helped out B.E.N "Here let me help. It's quicker if two people clean this up." She tied her hair up into a ponytail before beginning to help. She then grabbed a cloth and began cleaning up some of the spill left by the robot.

 

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Take was shocked just how quickly Scroop seemed to move. He thought he'd gotten the jump on him, thinking Scroop wouldn't think they would lunge for an attack. But he was wrong, apparently, and the pirate got the upperhand as a result. Take felt his keyblade disappear the instant he hit the floor. And while it hurt his head, he managed to somehow not feel the choking. Everything was going black by that point, and the last thing he saw was Choma step in before he was out.

Spoiler: Episode Takehiko Part 2

Atmos held out a blindfold in her hand towards Take. "Put this on. Your training for today will be to leave this library. Yes, it's that simple." It had been two days since the boy's arrival and it appeared that little had changed. He seemed to...acclimate to his surroundings but she wouldn't have called him comfortable with them. Or even with her. She knew things like this took time but she already had a feeling that he would be one of her more difficult students. It wasn't Take's fault of course but she knew he would have probably felt more comfortable with a teacher who was more structured and direct.

Atmos on the other hand, was anything but direct. The second Take would put on the blindfold she would leave the room and magically move the door somewhere else. Somewhere on top of the bookshelves. The library was large and it would be easy enough to get lost in especially without one's sight. It was only one floor but the bookshelves sprawled out in every direction making hallways that led, in many cases, to dead ends and some paths circled around right back to where they started. It was a mess of a maze. If Take couldn't see then it was unlikely he'd ever leave. And that was the point. At some moment in time he would have to figure out that the test was unfair, remove his blindfold, and see that he had been cheated to learn a lesson.

Take stared a bit at the blindfold, interested a bit in the idea of the test and said, "Can't just be that simple. I assume there must be a catch. Is there?" Take's progress on questions wasn't necessarily better, but because this was instructional to what he considered orders, he didn't find problems with it as much as he found it clarification.

Atmos smiled faintly and shook her head. "No catch. The lesson will be over as soon as you make your exit. Unless you think that's too difficult for you." She teased.

Take gave her a look and said, "Not difficult. I can do it." and he moved and placed the blindfold on his face. Once she was gone, he started his motion towards the exit. Mostly going off what he remembered, he avoided touching walls and edges unless he could help it, like for corners. Then he got to the point he knew the door should have been based on, not familiar landmarks but enough for him to know but... he couldn't find it. Takehiko actually spent quite a bit of time along that wall because he could have sworn that was where it was. But when he couldn't, he backed away and thought for a moment... perhaps he took the wrong turn?

Then the maze began.

Take walked the edges of the library, and seemed to follow the natural patterns, this time keeping his hand on the wall and walking. He could not figure it out, and he didn't cue into anything. But he didn't think Atmos would pull a trick on him, so he was fully convinced it was his own fault. Once he let go of the wall to go and find another area when he found a dead end, he was a goner. But Take wouldn't give up on it either. He was at it for hours, with no seeming determination to stop, if anything he got more frantic about it the longer he went on. He even got to a point where he started just going over everything twice before he finally stopped at the wall where the door was supposed to be and he slammed the wall and finally, for the first time in hours voiced out, "What am I doing wrong? This is ridiculous. Did I manage to turn into a different room? Does this library have multiple rooms?" Take kept on going, he didn't seem to catch onto the fact the test was unfair, and that was because of his faith in those superior. Take couldn't possibly believe she would put him in this test with the intention to fail.

At this point, it was far too long, and he was started to get exhausted and a bit dehydrated, but he wouldn't stop.

Several hours had passed and even though Atmos had something to keep herself occupied, a silly novel about the notion that a magical nanny could float down from the sky on an umbrella and fix a dysfunctional family, she was growing impatient. Did Take figure it out and just leave her to figure out that he learned his lesson and she was now having to learn to question him? It would have been an interesting turn of events and as she thought it over that was what must have happened. Surely this child could not have spent this long in the library. Or perhaps he had taken off his blindfold only to read because he had already seen through her plot. Both ideas made her proud.

Atmos stood up and placed the book down as she made her way to return to the library. With a simple wave of her hand the door returned to its original position and she entered. She looked around and didn't see Take at first. She smiled.

And then she saw the boy bumping his way around a corner and into her line of sight still wearing the blindfold. Her smile faded and her heart sank. "You can take that off." She called out towards Take.

Take stopped and turned in the direction of Atmos' voice and heard her tell him to take off the blindfold and Take sighed and reached up and took it off, "I failed then, huh?" Take took off the blindfold and blinked a second, the light hurting just a bit before he readjusted and he turned and saw the door and walked over towards it and said, "Wait... I walked by this just a minute ago... how did..." Take held his hand out towards the door and motioned around before backing his hand up and asking, "Am I that inept?" he actually sounded hurt when he asked that question.

Atmos shook her head. "No. You aren't. I just moved the door. The test was meant to frustrate you to the point where you'd take the blindfold off, realize that I moved the door, and realize that the test itself was unfair." She folded her arms. "Sometimes you'll encounter problems you can't brute force your way through or find that those in positions of authority cannot always be trusted. You must be able trust in your own judgment, Take."

Take's eyes shifted to the door and then back towards Atmos as he spoke, "But... I don't have good judgement. That's why I follow and other's lead. Trusting my own judgement would just result in me still running around in circles in a library even longer... that's why there's people in authority and people to support... You gave me a task and I simply failed to follow it... unless you're implying I shouldn't trust you which seems... odd to establish." there wasn't a hint of conflict in his tone, but it was clear from the words he said that he was just confused, and he didn't get it. He wasn't even asking questions about it.

Atmos placed her hands on her hips as she looked at Take. "The point is to make you independent. You can trust me but what if you couldn't? Placing too much faith in those of positions of power can be a very dangerous thing. When I met you, you were too willing to obey without questioning. You're still the same but you have improved during your time here." She realized that this meant changing Take think differently than how he was taught on his homeworld but this was necessary.

"Keyblade wielders hold a great deal of power and if one were to be mislead to misuse their power it would be, needless to say, terrible." The Keyblade War came to mind but that history lesson was one for another time. "You must develop yourself so that, when the time comes, you may be able to trust your own judgment, Take."


Takehiko stood confused and for the first time during this, asked a question, "But why would someone with authority abuse that power, they already have the most in that level, why would they need more?" he was nervous asking that question, he didn't look nervous, but his body language may have indicated the trouble in asking that, and he didn't look at Atmos when he asked, "People already put trust in those in authority. What's the point in abusing that trust?" Take felt himself grip his wrist, and the more he tried to process it, the most he strengthened his grip and his monotone broke temporarily as admitted, "I-I don't... I don't... understand...?" he finally looked at Atmos and he looked unbelievably confused, "Master, I... I don't understand..."

"Sometimes people in positions of power are afraid of losing that power. Or sometimes it's still not enough. People can be cruel, Take." Atmos placed her hand on Take's shoulder and smiled. "Even though evil exists in the Realm of Light that doesn't mean we should abandon the ability to see the good in others." She spoke softly and confidently. She had been young and naive once. Wait. She was still young. She had been naive once and had known the pain of finding of learning that people sometimes did terrible things for little reason other than because they wanted to and sometimes life would just kick you while you were down. It hurt. But it was worth it to see those who chose to do the right thing even when they had every reason not to do so.

Take felt her hand on his shoulder and nearly shrunk back at it but kept himself under control about it. When she spoke the reasons why someone may do those things out of fear of losing power, he understood that. Then Atmos mentioned the second part. Take looked away and said, "But... I've... always seen the good in others..." he then looked back at Atmos and said, "I've never thought of people as evil with bits of good in them... I've always thought of people as good... with evil parts." Take brought his hand up to his chest and said, "Is that not how it is? Is there that much dishonesty that I need a lesson to learn about that?" this made the questions pour out. Take's eyes seemed to just look everywhere while he was trying to process it. Finally, Take just seemed to calm down as his hand fell and he asked, his voice quiet and sounding like something clicked into place, "Is... that what they were doing at home?" the boy sounded like he almost didn't want to hear the answer.

Atmos was glad to hear this side of Take, knowing that it had been there buried underneath all the conditioning of his homeworld all along. "You cannot allow yourself to become blind to those in power. As for your homeworld, it is up for you to decide whether they had abused your faith in those in charge or not. I cannot make that decision for you. You will have to make peace with whatever decision you reach." If she began telling him how to feel she would have been no different than those who conditioned him. If Take was to grow he would have to develop his own sense of self.

Take looked a bit relieved at the answer Atmos gave, after a pause of silence Take nodded at her and said, "Thank you... I will learn from this lesson and grow from it." he took a bit to breath before asking, "Um, am I able to go and get food and water? I uh... I'm getting hungry." he rubbed the back of his head and said, "Probably should have guessed by the point I was hungry that this wasn't going to end well but I just don't know when to give up sometimes." there was a moment where the boy looked like he was about to smile, but pulled back before he could.

 

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Aria smiled at Jim when he thanked her for her words. She was really glad it helped and was happy for the kindness in return. “Thank you...” She then giggled when Jim took an interest in Nini, who didn’t mind the extra attention from Jim. “This is Nini... She is-... she was my best friend’s cat. Now we look after her as a team. Well, Take and I do anyways...” She trailed off when Jim’s attention seemed to be focused outside of the hideaway.

Seeing the second life boat coming into view, Aria stood to attention as the cat hopped off of her. “Nini, bag,” the girl commanded as she opened the flap. As soon as the cat was safe inside, Aria summoned her keyblade and pressed her back against the wall. She motioned for Jim to hide just out of the way on the other side, and then turned to the others. “Silver found us. Stay low until they try to attack... that means you too, B.E.N.,” Aria added while looking at the robot. “They’re gonna either try to hurt us, or talk to us... I’m not sure which yet.” If Take really had the map like Chrono said, she wondered if he kept it hidden from them and pretended to play along. If not... she wasn’t sure how this was going to go down.

 

Illiana rolled her eyes at the sound of her new nickname. She continued cleaning up the spill as B.E.N. responded to Chrono. As they finished, she handed the cloth back over to him before standing up. She brushed off any dirt that had may have gotten on her legs and dress. "Well....now that that's solved, what's our game plan now?" Illiana looked over to the others in the room as she asked. Before anyone could answer, Jim's voice rang out. "Uh guys! I think we've got company!" Illiana looked over to Jim as he alerted everyone. "Scratch that. I know our game plan." She looked over to B.E.N. "Hey. Is there a back door in this place?" She placed a hand on her hip as she asked B.E.N.

 

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“Drat,” Aria muttered under her breath. She clenched her fists and then glanced back at the others. “They have a gun pointed at my ma- I mean Master Choma, and Take. We have to come out of hiding...” She was frustrated that she couldn’t do a thing to change the situation. Her eyes landed on the pair being held captive, seeing that her master was standing but Take...

She felt a surge of anger swell inside of her and ground her teeth. “Alright, let’s go,” she said to the group as she unsummoned her keyblade and stepped out first. As soon as she let herself down from the house, she held her hands up in the air and walked slowly towards Jim and the other pirates. When she got close enough, she stood close to Jim, glaring at Scroop. “What did you do to Take?” she asked in a low voice, her eyebrows furrowed. He looked as if he was knocked out cold, which bothered her immensely. What happened up there anyways? If no one’s life was in danger, she probably would have shown Scrope a thing or two about hurting her friends.

Aria took in a deep breath, keeping her hands up as she looked at Silver. “Can I at least heal him? I can’t stand to see him like that. No tricks,” she promised as she looked to Master Choma and at the guns trained at her.

 

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Although Scroop's reaction to Aria's comment was cold and wordless, Silver waved his hands at him to allow it. As such Aria had pulled her keyblade out to heal Take and the black haired boy stirred and slowly began to get up asking, "What... how did I...?" he looked up and stared at Aria a moment and asked, "When did you get here?" he then heard a sharp breathing behind him and turned around to see Scroop looming over with that same intent to kill and Take said, "Oh. Hello there. I guess cranky here got the headstart. Good job, you managed to knock a kid out after an hour or two, I'm sure the captain is very proud of you."

"Don't get smart with me boy. I'll snap your neck in a second." Scroop growled and Take rolled his eyes, turning to look back at Aria, "Thanks..." he stared at the ground a minute and asked the world, "Am I allowed to stand up?"

 

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The journey through the brush was uneventful. Glyde clung to back end of the team as they proceeded across the field, still carrying his Keyblade, which he persisted to use as more a walking stick. Every dozen or so paces, he stole glances back, watching for any signs that they might have been followed; they were fortunate enough to have not been pursued by foot.

As they arrived in B.E.N.’s home, Glyde found a place to lay his legs out, and quickly massaged and comforted his still throbbing limbs until he remembered that he could easily heal the injury with magic. He cast a Cure spell on himself, and the soreness from the violent landing faded away to nothing. He spent the remainder of the time in silence, investing his time into stretching his now healed legs. Between motions, he took sizeable bites out of the breakfast Aria had handed to him. A feeling of nausea passed over him, but did so quickly; eating a meal for the first time after a long span always threw his body for a loop.

Stomach filled, legs and arms feeling as strong as ever, he commenced a search for an adequate place in the hideout to catch some extra sleep before they moved out…

"Uh guys! I think we've got company!"

Dang. He had just picked out a good spot on a soft plot of soil to lay for a nap when he heard Jim’s warning. Getting up, he turned his head about the hiding space, uncertain, at first, of what to do. Illiana was looking for another way out of the room; he could run. But then Jim and Aria were still outside; they’d need help if there was a threat, which, by the tone of Jim’s voice, there was. Eventually, his plan settled into lying in wait just inside of the front entrance, but just off to the side; if the pirates rushed through, and none of them noticed him, he could pick one off and try to splinter their crew.

It was all unnecessary though. Not two minutes later, Jim called again, requesting that everyone gather outside. Begrudgingly, Glyde abandoned his idea. Resting his Keyblade up across his shoulders, he stepped out to the scene: the pirates, Silver at their head, holding Take and Master Choma hostage. “What?” Glyde asked, failing to conceal an irritated tone. “We’re not fighting? Negotiations? What’s the sitch?”
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Shaking her head at Avra's antics, Chrys considered her combat options. Both she and Avra had taken a lot of damage, but she figured they could still stand another attack. She could possibly boost their odds with supportive spells, either to make them last longer or do more damage to Grandmother Willow.

After some careful thought, Chrys decided to reserve her MP for now, and instead continued to press the attack.
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AP: 14/54

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Boreas swam as fast he could to the man in trouble, putting his arms under his arm pits and swimming on his back keeping the body of Master Gero on top of him. He was still faster than Torrin was in the water. When the water was shallow enough to stand Boreas dragged Master Gero ashore and checked his breathing, he was fine other than being weakened and cold from the water, having lost consciousness. When Torrin arrived and summoned a fire, Boreas joined standing by it after he had put the old man he had recovered down by the same fire to warm up as the water was rather cold. Master Atmos recognized the man, claiming it was someone who had apparantly died. "Was a body ever recovered or had he disappeared for long enough to be declared dead?" Boreas asked Atmos, if the man looked exactly the same as he did back in the day and had been confirmed killed then something rather weird was going on. When Torrin introduced him he simply bowed. "Pleased to make your acquaintence."

The girl Torrin had rescued from the water didn't seem to be in good shape and seemed to know this Master Atmos too and it turned out this was the missing person they had hoped to recover. Someone apparantly lost to the Light Chaser being delivered right to their doorstep by a portal of which the type hadn't been seen before by any of them... that would imply that Torrin either never saw a portal of the Light Chaser in a year of fighting or something else was going on here. As it would make no sense for the Light Chaser to just let her go like that, there had to be an angle somewhere he wasn't seeing. When it was discovered that Gero had created the portal it atleast made more sense to him than have her appear delivered from the Light Chaser out of nowhere. Because he doubted this girl was in the shape of fighting enough to escape the Light Chaser and outright letting her go didn't make sense. The girl confirmed to know both Atmos and Torrin and if this master of masters title was anything to go by they would have another powerful ally.

She had been gone and while Boreas had no frame of reference he trusted Torrin's claim that she couldn't have aged that much. "I know you were trying to get her back after all Atmos mentioned it to me, it's why you went to the lion's den in the first place." What was standing in front of them definitely wasn't a child and while Torrin was already questioning the person, Atmos raised a very good point. Torrin and himself were accustomed to this Realm, if Tinarah was on the team to fight this Light Chaser there was a very high probability she wasn't from the Realm of Darkness. "Torrin those first two questions are fair enough to see if they are the real deal, but that last one can wait for now. Atmos has a point we ought to get her somewhere more suitable than a sandy beach on the edge of Darkness." He turned back to Atmos. "I take it the honour is all mine again? Where do we need to go?" Boreas said as he put the tunic and boots he had discarded earlier back on as the skin had dried by now. His trousers were still wet but it didn't bother him as much.​

 

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Chrono had figured that B.E.N wouldn't remember, but it was still worth a shot. Since that was not the case, Chrono idely looked at the rest of the markings until he heard Jim. Company? None of his immediate thoughts were good. He took a peek outside himself and seeing Silver himself standing outside was precisely what he didn't want to see. A silver lining shown when Illiana asked about a backdoor and, according to B.E.N, the did have one.

Once again Jim had called for them and Aria gave them a update on what was going on outside. Wanting to confirm this with his own eyes, Chrono peeked outside and very soon spotted both Master Choma and Take, guns aimed towards them just as Aria had said. The idea of using the backdoor to escape faded with the hostages before shown to them. Little choice was left for them but to comply and stepped outside of the hideout. "So much for not being found." He muttered to himself.

 

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Aria was grateful to say the least that everyone made it in one piece... And they weren't tied up. Instead, they were free to walk with Jim. She kept silent on the ride over, and still stayed quiet when everything was going down. Granted, she was getting antsy when the pirate crew was out for blood and was ready to fight them back, but that wasn't necessary.

Now she was walking around with a slack jaw in the treasure room. There was so much shiny things, she couldn't help but to google over them for a moment. That was until Jim snatched her attention back by saying they were going to get out of here, and not empty-handed. Captain Amelia pointed out a ship, and a rough plan was set.

As she was making her way over to where they needed to be next, her eye caught a small chest laying open on the ground. She stopped to have a quick look, noticing beads of all shapes, sizes, charms and colors scattered on the ground. She gasped when she realized what they were, and grabbed at least five small leather bags, checked them briefly, and then shoved them in her pack with Nini. "These are gonna room with you for a while." The cat meowed in protest as Aria placed a small jewelry kit in a leather pouch on top of her "loot" along with small spools of gold and silver. "Oh hush, you have plenty of room in there," Aria argued with the cat. "See? Now you have a nice comfy... bead pillow." The cat growled quietly in contempt, and Aria patted her gently on the head before closing the flap and getting back to the mission on hand.

Aria moved close to Take, keeping her voice low as they walked and kept looking back at the pirates to make sure they stayed occupied with the loot before them. "How's your head doing?" she whispered, wanting to check up on him to see if he was completely okay now.