Kingdom Hearts: Kingdom Hearts: Light Chaser

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Hearing that he could already be dead made Aria's gut lurch. There had been at least two deaths she had known about, both of them she hadn't seen. She had to witness the after effects of them though in one way or another without much closure. She glanced down at her charm bracelet briefly, suddenly feeling her eyes sting with suppressed emotions. The only time she really let out her grief was back on the space pirate ship with Take. After that, she had to trudge on like nothing happened. And now with a third death on the horizon... it made her blood cold just thinking about it. Qamar was right; all they had left to bury were memories. And with Glyde, she didn't really get to know the guy. All she remembered was standing up for herself to him over something petty that probably could have been brushed off.

Aria sighed with a shudder and then looked to the rocky path along the castle walls. "I guess... this is our best option to get to where we need to go. Unless we want to go through that maze again..." Although she was making valid suggestions and looking like she was thinking clearly, Aria's usual usual optimism seemed force. Her cheerfulness was hanging on a thread at this point, not having much time to recover from nearly dying and finding out she had a monster inside her head trying to actively kill her every time she closed her eyes now.

 

Illiana listened as Elionwy answered her question. Apparently she was being kept here for about a day or two. She had been able to get into the tunnels and there had been a maze below. "I don't know about you but I'm not a big fan of staying in one place for too long...especially if it's a small room like this." Taran had followed after Elionwy with Illiana looking back behind her for any followers before putting the slab back. The glowing orb was floating around the princess' shoulder. The further they descended into the tunnels the more the orb became their only light source.

"It's nice to meet other people in this dreary place. Are you a knight? Is that why you've come here?" The princess had decided to strike up a conversation. She had decided to ask Taran her question. Illiana looked over to Taran as he looked down. "No...but my friend Illiana is a great warrior and her friends are too!" Illiana immediately turned her head to Taran before immediately responding. "Hold on hold on a minute here...They are acquaintances at most....Okay one of them I very strongly dislike. Maybe hate but they're getting there." She continued to walk as Eilonwy looked back at her. "She doesn't look like a knight to me...but she does look like she comes from nobility. Are you a princess where you come from?"

Illiana could feel her eye twitch a little bit before taking a moment to think of a response. "I may not look it but I am a knight. Though I'm not of nobility, that I can be proud of, I don't like to think that because I am a knight doesn't mean I should act like nobles. But that's only based on personal experience." Illiana continued to watch behind the group of three for any followers. She turned her head back forward as she ducked under a wooden beam. "So what's the plan here? Where does this tunnel lead?"​

 

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About partway through Tinarah's explanation Chrono had decided that instead of just nodding along in understanding, that maybe he should start taking notes. Ya know, try to put together the pieces of this puzzle for himself with the...limited pieces that they hand. When he'd reached for it, he'd realized a number of things. The big two being that a) he didn't have his journal with him and b) even if he did bring it with him when he'd left, he was still wearing his super hero costume underneath this coat so it wouldn't even be on hand at all. Well that certainly sucks. He could always get a new one, but his had too muhc information for him to simply get a new one.

"Possibly, even if they aren't around your age having someone else can provide another perspective with things." Chrono stated. He thought back to how Take's and his first interaction went. Getting food, casually chatting, then ending him with attempt to help Take with summoning his keyblade.

 

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As the world began to shake, Take looked as if he was taking a knee for a moment but with his keyblade not there, it was the quickest way he was able to balance himself without falling over. Then there was a loud noise and the world broke in half and the three young wielders were separated from Torrin and Boreas. Take slowly began to stand up again as he just barely caught onto bits of what Torrin said, but enough to figure out what he was trying to say. The boy sighed out and said, "Of course. Why would this be smooth sailing?" the boy turned towards Chrono and Tinarah to make sure they were alright before he looked around and said, "We should look for the source of darkness then. Not much point trying to get to them before calming this place down." he was speaking up to be heard over the loud noises and he hoped they did. The green-eyed boy summoned his keyblade and began to walk in the opposite direction of the split to hopefully find what they needed to find.
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Aria held back a heavy sigh as she followed after Master Thallasa. Perhaps it was the scenery of this place that was causing her to be a little less cheery mixed with the situation at hand. Whatever it was, she was with Fflam in a way; she wanted to leave this place as soon as possible. It was reminding her a little too much of her nightmares...

It was then they stopped at the entrance and then she saw it. Glyde's keyblade on the ground along with little flickers of light floating up to the sky. The girl's eyes widened at the sight, and her words echoed with Master Thallasa's internally. Aria unsummoned her own weapon and moved forward, staring down at the keyblade and the cloak. She felt the familiar pit of despair deep within her and hardly noticed she crouched down. She didn't exactly get along with him, but he was still one of them. And to just see his things here with no owner...

Aria's shaky hand reached out and touched the keyblade lightly. Tears swelled in her eyes as she felt the coldness of the weapon. "H-He's gone... isn't he...?" she asked, looking to their new master. She could feel her heart and throat knotting up with sadness and regret. They shouldn't have left him out here on his own. But what if there was a possibility he was still alive? Could there be? There was that sliver of hope, but Aria knew better than that by now.

 

They defeated the hearltess and everything seemed clear for now, another one of those strange pages appeared out of nowhere again. He could feel the ground shift and roiled beneath his feet but he couldn't see where it was coming from or see anything else that was out of place in the darkness. Tinarah, Take and Chrono seemed rather intrigued with the pages, what bothered Boreas more is that they just showed up out of nowhere, how did they end up here? He listened to the conversation as he kept an eye out on their surroundings. It seemed to pertain to that other realm again pieces of a diary, with a lot of bits missing. So they wouldn't be useful until they found the other bits and even then would their usefulness be questionable.

Torrin came over to him but before he got near the core shook again more violently this time and Boreas braced against the haft of his Glaive-guisarme. The core split in two with dark flames erupting, separating Torrin and himself from the others, the flames rose ever higher making going over them impossible, going around it didn't seem possible either. As Torrin cursed and pleaded for this world to not fall, Boreas went close to his friend and placed a hand on his shoulder. He was here, the two of them wouldn't give up until they had no strength left to give. "Come on, don't lose hope quite yet. The battle isn't over until it is over or do I need to drag you along from here on out?" Boreas shouted over the roar of the flames. ​

 

Qamar crossed her arms, thinking to herself. Sure Glyde didn't deserve to die, but he sure wasn't a friendly fellow as far as she was aware. Still, they had to find out if he was safe or not. Fflam ended up just leaving them, as expected, so Qamar trudged on, stopping with Thallasa. In front of them, Qamar saw a familiar sight of shards of light, floating away. It brought back painful memories and she immediately tried to hug herself. Aria moved forward and was down on her knees, already trying to process what had happened. Qamar watched her and heard her ask Thallasa if he was truly gone.

Walking forward, Qamar went to her knees next to Aria and looked at the girl. She then wrapped her arms around Aria, resting the girls' head against her shoulder. "He's gone....he....he's not....coming back..." she said, unexpected tears coming to her eyes. He didn't deserve this. "Go on, cry if you want. I'm here for you..." She offered, petting Aria's head. "It's the least I can do after you helped me a little bit...." she whispered.

Her eyes moved to Thallasa. "I suggest we either tell the Council or go on our way. Though I imagine letting them know now is better than later...." she said. She released Aria and pulled out a tissue and handed it to the girl. "Here, dry your tears."​

 

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“That’s three,” Aria finally spoke in a hoarse whisper against Qamar’s shoulder. The tears rolled freely down and her throat tightened with grief. It hadn’t even been a full week and they already lost three of their own. “It’s not fair... why do we keep losing our friends like this?” She didn’t know Qamar’s friend, but he seemed nice and tried his best to make everyone feel welcomed. Mika was the first one to die, and that one hit her the hardest. Now it was Glyde, and so many things were left unfinished between them. They didn’t really get a chance to talk much, but Aria figured they could have gotten along once they came to know one another. Now she wouldn’t get that chance.

Aria’s shoulders shook as she cried without much noise, finally making herself hug Qamar to find some relief from this pain she was feeling. She didn’t expect anyone to actually die on this quest to restore balance, but it was becoming apparent their very mortality was at risk. Her own life was almost lost at least twice now, which she was grateful the Council hadn’t pulled the plug on her quest yet and forced her to go back after Quietus.

The girl sniffed and finally let go of Qamar to sit back on her heels. She looked up to her friend and then took the tissue in her hands, rubbing at her eyes. “Thank you,” she mumbled. The tears had been a combination of grief from the loss of another friend, and the frustration of the new weight on her shoulders. Everything had been turned upside down for her in a manner of days, and she had pushed down her feelings to carry on. They needed her to be strong; she was one of the seven. She couldn’t afford to be weak and helpless.

After drying her eyes, Aria took in a deep breath and forced herself to stand up again. She reached down to take Glyde’s his tattered cloak in her hands as the keyblade vanished from sight. They didn’t have time to grieve or to process. “Should someone go back to find Illiana and Taran...?” She asked meekly.

 

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Just as Chrono had taken a step to adjust himself, the ground around them had violently shaken and a wall of flames had erupted between themselves and Torrin. Said shaking had almost knocked Chrono off his feet, but he managed to keep himself standing. The others seemed to be fine as Tinarah and Take were still standing and Torrin's voice could just barely be hear through the roar of the flames right next to them.

With no other information to go off on, walking off from the split was about all they could do. Finding a source of darkness amidst all the darkness that was already around them sounded near impossible. "Maybe our keyblades will react when we get near." Chrono suggested, summoning his keyblade as well. He didn't know how they would react if they even would, but what else were they supposed to do beyond walk around in the darkness.

 

Torrin shook his head and Boreas was glad to hear his friend hadn't completely broken he just had seen too much and of how things were going he was losing hope. Boreas had seen it happen to others, he himself had lost hope at times but not now. "Look, the fight to save this world isn't over yet, it hasn't fallen yet. Until it has this isn't over, you don't have to fight alone anymore, all of us are here with you. Take, Tinarah, Chrono and good old me. I intend to fight till the bitter end." Boreas said as he walked away from the fire with Torrin who then confused Boreas a little. "What had you hoped to find out here on your own then?" Boreas asked, a little confused.

Torrin then went on as to how he couldn't explain it all to him. "Look you've made your choice and you already explained to me why you had made that choice, you shouldn't look for excuses, look for reasons instead. Either way my loyalty to you stems from my family, from my great grandfather Aethalus Thessalian onwards my family has shown nothing but loyalty to the throne and the royal family. Whether you like it or not you still are the Crown Prince, that's something you cannot change and you'll have to accept that someday, perhaps you already have. And that means you'll be the next King, and Thessalians serve loyally. But that isn't everything after you left I definitely was furious with you for abandoning me. I thought you were a coward for running from your duty. It took me five years to get over that. One of my comrades told me: 'Boreas, look your friend abandoned you, you're angry I get that, but if you ever see him again remember at least he's still alive.' I took five years to learn it to finally calm down and get here. Yes you hurt me with what you did, but at the very least you are still alive unlike some of the other friends I made in those past years..." Boreas explained, his loyalty would not be doubted. ​

 

Illiana looked over at Taran as he began to give his comments. "Do you think that...one day...Uh...never mind." She raised her eyebrow as Taran disregarded his question. Before Illiana could ask him any further, Eilonwy had put in her own comment as she smiled at the girl. "I've never met a lady knight before." Illiana scratched her nose awkwardly as she continued to walk along, a faint shade of pink tinting her cheeks. "Yea yea yea. It's nothing to be so amazed about." Eilonwy had then spoke a bit about the castle. She stopped walking as she came upon a stone wall. Illiana looked at the wall and saw a large hole. It looked like it was large enough for all three of them to cross through. Eilonwy was the first to crawl through the hole. Taran looked over at Illiana and shrugged his shoulders beforer following after the princess. Illiana looked back behind her before following after the two.

Illiana caught up with Taran and Eilonwy, moving curtains of cobwebs and layers of dust. Illiana sneezed as the dust was moving toward her face. She continued walking approaching the princess as she quietly pointed out the room. "This must be the king's tomb." "Whoa...he must have been a great warrior..." Illiana looked around the room while Eilonwy searched for an exit. Taran had approached the coffin of the king where the lid of said coffin had held a sword with a hilt made of gold with jewels encrusted on it. Illiana looked over as Taran excitedly looked at the sword. He then began to pull the sword from the tomb. "Taran? What are you doing?" "The tomb might be rigged with traps for all we know." Illiana was a little unsure on how quiet the tomb was. For all they knew, maybe the tomb would be rigged to collapse if someone were to take anything. "What? Well he's not going to be using it." Taran responded as his eyes were fixed on the sword. "That doesn't mean you should take from the dead. Though..." She paused. "It'll be a little difficult if we run into any trouble. I won't be able to defend all of us if it's just me alone. I may be a warrior but I do have limitations." Illiana placed a hand on her hip and the other on her chin.​

 

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Takehiko raised an eyebrow and Chrono's suggestion as he walked and said, "Maybe? Or maybe it's something super obvious that Torrin would expect us to just look at and say 'yep there's the darkness'." he pointed his keyblade around a bit though, misunderstanding Chrono's suggestion a bit like it worked like a metal detector or something. As he walked he directed a comment towards Chrono, "I mean, I don't remember a lesson about this kind of thing from Atmos... unless... it was in the extra reading?" he looked unsure and then looked towards Tinarah, "What about you? You were with Torrin and his good ol' evil side is this one of messed up things he did- woah that was... way more exaggerated and dark than it needed to be I'm sorry..." he looked over and Chrono nervously and then back at Tinarah, "...but was it?"
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On one hand, Chrys was rather glad the master thought they were capable of passing the exam, but his words about the council of lights...

"Do you really think it's possible that they'll listen?"

With all that they had seen so far, Chrys wasn't too sure. Everyone seemed rather desperate to hold on to their own personal point of view, and anyone else's be damned. This 'Council'... if Torrin or someone else had convinced them that the chasers were in the wrong, was there even the slightest chance that their convictions would be worth anything to such a group of people? Surely this was the same group as the Master had mentioned before who would let entire worlds fall to darkness just because they believed it necessary?​

 

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Despite Take's demonstration not being completely what he had in mind, it was close as Chrono had thought that the keyblade would appear and literally point towards what they were supposed to be looking. No such luck so far as his keyblade remained at his side, in his hand. "Not that I can think of." Unless it was in one of the books that he hadn't gotten around to reading, there were quite a few of them anyway. Despite what was said prior, Tinarah did bring up an interesting idea. While there was nothing concrete about the idea, it was worth looking into while they were down here. "I agree, last thing we need is this turning into the 'hunters' becoming the 'hunted'." Especially if what they were looking for was something that could fight back.