Kingdom Hearts: Recollect

Mora looked over at Alder and there was a moment where she seemed to ponder what Alder said, conflict in her eyes. But that was until a portal was heard behind her, and she turned to go look over as Ria walked on out of the portal. Seeing the work done, there was a sort of perverse joy to come out of their voice over them being in the portal. As Ria spoke, the tone that seemed to prevalent was clearly the closest to Chrono's voice, "So you got three of em, good job! The leader, the dog, and the shell!" Ria walked into the circle with no restraint as he walked up to Kara and touched her face, holding her chin upwards as he said, "And the leader is sleeping. Typical. Always the dreamer." he let go of her face and said, "It looks like you're almost done, you've got almost everyone important."

"You said I only had to get as many as I could."

"I know the rest are heading this way, I need you to only get one more. If they come here, just try to get them into the circle and that's all I'll need."

"Which person?"

"There's a boy in the group with darker hair. But not the one with black hair."

"That's... hard to decipher. Can you do the face thing like you did with Ae-"

"I have no access to anything of theirs. So I cannot change my face."

Mora looked confused and Ria sighed out in frustration, "They just look like a girl okay. Listen, it doesn't matter. They're a major problem to me, and if you get them in there, everyone'll be safe."

Mora's eyes lit up at the idea of everyone being safe and nodded saying, "I've got it."

 

​

Cerdic had a point there. What right did she have in trying to help him after holding a keyblade to his face? Daeni stared at the ground a moment as he started to back away from the rest of them. She clenched her fists and looked up, ready to try and apologize, but Cerdic was already running off. "Please, Cerdic, listen to me!" she called, running after him. He ran through the heartless with relative ease. Didn't help he also had longer legs, so she was at that sort of a disadvantage right then.

Daeni started to make her way through the crowd of heartless, yelling out to Cerdic, hoping her words would reach him. "I'm sorry I'm an idiot. I was...I was letting my emotions get the better of me. I know I hurt you." she said, feeling countless heartless grabbing at her as she waded through them. "I messed up bad and I'm the biggest idiot. But I want to understand what's going on with you. I don't need that journal. I just need you to talk to me." she called. Heartless attacked her relentlessly. Their claws gripping and scratching her bare skin. Little nicks and scrapes patterned her legs. There was even a cut on her face from one that jumped at her. She tried to shield her face, but it still connected a strike, causing her to stop a moment as a droplet of blood formed at the scratch.

"I know I have no right trying to be friendly right now. I want to understand what's going on. Please, let me help you. I don't even care about that stupid journal. I don't want to lose a friend!" she called out the last part louder than the others. She had made it to the other side with a few injuries, but she was able to walk. She was sore all over from being attacked, but that was nothing compared to the pain of having hurt Cerdic.

"I really messed up...please, don't run away without at least letting me help you." she said, still chasing him if he was still moving.

 

​

"Whatever suits you." Chrono said struggling to his feet. It was a lot harder than it really needed to be due to the still encroaching darkness, but he still managed to do so. "Yes and no." That was the short answer to Alder's question for he wasn't able to get a grasp on any of the memories that had flown into his head before they were taken away from him.

The voice he hear when all those memories were taken from him was still clearly heard still stuck with him. "You." Chrono said, his attention directed fully at Rias who now stood before them. "I want back what you took from me." Even if Rias voice was sounded like his own, he new for a fact that it was Ria's voice that he heard when all those memories vanished from his head.

 

Mora looked to Alder and that hope that was in her eyes briefly was gone. She played with her hands nervously, picking at her nails as she said, not even certain in the slightest with her words, "I... I don't care what they think of me in the end. As long as they're safe, I don't need them to approve of me..."

Ria heard Chrono speak and pulled their hood back up and walked on over towards him, pretty close to an arms reach as he said, "I haven't the slightest idea what you are talking about, Chrono. If anything, you took something from me. And I need it back. And once I do have it back, well. You aren't exactly needed anymore." Ria reached on over and grabbed Chrono basically by the hair. Chrono should have felt pain, he was trying to do something very similar to what he did to Xen and Chloe. But resistance was very easily put up and Ria started being the one to look in pain rather than Chrono, as Chrono shouted, "What's mine is mine, nobody else!"

Ria backed off, breathing heavily and saying, "You brat!" and punching Chrono in the face and recoiling saying, "I'll end you and your waste of an existence. You hear me? You failed at your own game and I'm the better player now, and I'm not going to let you stay in my way and mess up everything. I'll make your suffering painful for making this last as long as it has." Ria staggered away. He looked over at Mora and pushed her away from the circle, away from Alder, and said, "If you're gonna be weak about it, get out of here before he can change your mind. Or I'll end all of their existences right now." Mora looked in fear and she looked over at Alder, tears forming in her eyes before she bowed her head in apology and ran off, away from the group.

Ria stood looking at where Mora was and said, "Funny thing about people who wanna do the right thing. They can be easily manipulated. And she's quite the sheep. She isn't strong enough to hold her own will, but she cares a lot about her parents, and her friends. She doesn't have the power to distance herself from those emotions. I know you can empathize with having to work with people that way."

 

​

Chrys sighed as he watched X and VI run off through the crowd of heartless, not even bothering to fight them. X was only cementing his reputation as a complete waste of everyone's time with almost every new sentence that came out of his mouth. Almost.

Chrys had to admit, Cerdic had made some pretty good points to Ria, and shown that he had a sort of noble disposition hidden... somewhere deep, deep... deep inside him.

Even if he himself was slightly at a loss as to what exactly had transpired. He had hoped at the time that his moving on without them would have caused them to reevaluate their choices and spur them into action. However, little had changed, and they only seemed to be fighting more. Perhaps he should have expected this from the start with this group; they were a bit too focused on what was in front of them, so his words meant virtually nothing when he chose to turn and walk away. While they had taken it as a signal to leave, they had in no way taken it as sign that they needed to resolve their issues before things got out of hand.

Though he was being slightly unfair to IX, who was the only other one to not fly quite so far off of the handle as soon as Ria had appeared. Everyone was a bit too bent on revenge though to realize something very important: If Ria was just some puny little shadow that they could beat down as simply as because they wanted "revenge"... well, they would have done it already wouldn't they?

VI was just being dramatic though.

"All of this infighting and shouting is pointless." He hissed as he sliced through the heartless that were tormenting the female L.I.G.H.T. member. He grabbed her bicep and lifted her to her feet without much thought. "Well then, come on. Let's get this over with... before I come to my senses and realize there are better and more efficient ways of investigating than... this." He turned back towards where the other two were, and shouted to them. "Let's try and focus on keeping up with X while we take out heartless when we can or need to on the way: We don't want be at too much of a disadvantage, but whatever he says, he'll still be in a bad position if he's on his own!" He only could hope it was the right choice: If too many Heartless were left crawling about like this, they could all wind up cornered, and that wasn't the optimal scenario. On the other hand, if Ria really had absorbed III and V, then leaving Cerdic alone could make him the next target. They were caught between something of a rock and a hard place, and the way to go was not very clear.

 

​

Despite the pain that he was just put through, the pain that still coursed through his body, Chrono had a defiant look on his face aimed right at Ria. Once more some memories had flown back into his head in a less painful manner than before. A lot of things had become clearer as a result of the memories he had gotten, none of which however left any pleasant feelings in him. "Do your worst, I'm not backing down anytime soon." Hidden behind his words however was wonder about what Ria had just said and whether or not he should believe him or not. After what he was just told and remembered, he wasn't quite sure.

 

Ria laughed when Alder asked that question and said amused, "You aren't the first person to ask that question today..." Ria let out a fearful and shaky voice as he imitated Cerdic, "W-what are you? What are you?!" Ria chuckled a little as the voice faded back from Cerdic's to the relative default and he said, "So I'll give you the same answer. I am the dark result of a tantalizing hypothesis. One you actively refused, but was tested anyway." Ria looked over in the direction of Chrono and said, "But sometimes, the results can be better than the original product. So I'd personally say this is a success. Even if you all can't see it that way. Granted. The test can't be determined a success until it is fully executed and well... it hasn't been. Someone interrupted the procedure, but we can work with the errors. Well, I can. You'll be dead by the time those errors are fixed."

 

​

Daeni was pulled by Chrys and she watched Cerdic. She watched him stop and turn around. He snapped and started to talk back to her, venom deep in his rant. "I'm sorry." she responded in the middle of him saying this wasn't about her. She knew that, but she didn't like feeling this way and she hated seeing him run away in fear.

Why waste her time? She didn't think she was wasting her time. He's a dear friend after all. Sura Ria is running around with that creepy voice, but none of the people that mattered would believe a thing Ria said...Right?

"You're not stupid..." Daeni whispered to herself, hearing him. She saw his knees shake slightly, and she knew he just needed to talk out all of this.

"You're not weak." she whispered more. The screams...she heard them...she thinks. She's not sure, since she was with Relli. That's all she knows. Relli was there.

Painful was just one word to describe the pain she remembered when she woke up. Her body couldn't even stand for her to move when she first woke up. Now she knew why. Her darkness was stolen. And now she was left with just light. How was she even walking? Shouldn't she just be some kind of...nothing at this point?

"You're enough, Cerdic! You're perfect!" she called, trying to stop him from feeling worse. It hurt her badly to see him this way.

She watched him fall to his knees. When the heartless started to gather around him, she pulled away from Chrys and started to run towards Cerdic. "You didn't fail us!" she yelled, sliding over and smashing a few heartless with her keyblade. They backed off a little, but Daeni still had to fight them back.

She dodged a few swipes and returned them with her own attacks. Back and forth they went. She destroyed at least 5 of them before she backed off. She was hurt, a few scratches here and there, but other than that she would be fine. Heck, even her cheek was bruised from a heartless headbutting her. That didn't mean she had to cry. When it was safe enough, she stood by Cerdic and looked down at him.

"Cerdic, I love you, but please get up. You made mistakes, but you're strong enough to admit to them. That's what makes you strong. You're not afraid to admit to your mistakes. You're here because of that. The past is the past, all we can do is fight for the future and for each other. And we can't do that fighting each other..." she said, sighing. "And I'm serious." she said that last part a little lower. "I do love you..." she mumbled.

 

​

"And just what was that 'tantalizing hypothesis' you mentioned?" Chrono asked speaking up. Each time Ria turned his attention towards him didn't do anything but add concern to the wave of emotions that were surging about within him. Just why was it him in particular that seemed to be getting the most attention right now. There had to have been something else that he was missing, but once again he knew naught what it was.

 

​

Daeni sighed in relief as she watched Cerdic run. "That certainly got him going." she laughed to herself. While it was probably going to make things awkward later, it at least got Cerdic to run away and head back towards the other group. Especially since he was probably gonna just sulk on the ground forever if she didn't do anything anyway. She turned back to the other two and gulped. "Well, guys, it's time to run I think. I don't particularly wanna fight right now anyway." she said, heading over to Relli and Chrys.

"I'll help you Relli." she said, taking Relli and holding their hand as she started to turn and leave. Ever since the crypt, Relli seemed really out of it. So maybe they just needed a little nudge to get them going. Daeni didn't mind. She was glad she could at least protect one person, even if it meant making one of them freak the heck out. She shook her head and sighed. "Chrys, do I need to take your hand as well?" she asked with a chuckle, looking at Chrys. When she got her answer, she started to run with them, gripping Relli's hand tightly. She was scared. Super scared. Touching somebody else was the only way she could calm down, even a little, she had found. At least Relli didn't seem to be bothered as much by it...but she couldn't be so sure. As far as she was aware, Relli could actually hate it and feel annoyed by it. Though they didn't seem like the type to Daeni.

All she was sure of was that they needed to get back to the others. Things seemed to have started to hit the fan and that wasn't good at all. It just made her feel worse.

 

​

Chrys rolled his eyes as Daeni commented and laughed to herself as if everything was going according to plan. Not that he thought that she was speaking romantically when she said she had loved X, but the way she spoke and reacted was as if she had planned to frighten him into action in the first place. He doubted the girl had planned that far ahead.

"I can run on my own, thanks." He responded to her question.

As they ran off, Chrys couldn't help but feel leaving all these heartless simply to roam free would be a mistake. Unfortunately there was little he could do about it, since it was quite obvious by now that he had no influence here whatsoever. Whatever this choice brought about, it was his hope that they could finally reach the others... and hopefully save Cerdic from himself as well.

The latter was highly unlikely though... he'd probably either argue with everything they would say, or take something they say and turn it into a self-motivating speech that will totally have been his idea.

...Things were looking pretty grim.

 

Ria smiled a bit at Chrono's question and he looked up at him. His mouth could be seen, but the rest of his face could not as they stated, "The hypothesis? Hm, I could tell you... but that's not necessary in the slightest. You'll figure it out when I'm done with all of you." Ria heard a noise and looked up towards where the ladder exited the mountain and said, "I think the rest of our friends are arriving."

---

The further along they went down the road as they booked it from the heartless, slower the shadows seemed to get. But as they approached the entrance to the sanctuary. Suddenly, Mora came running from another direction, also being chased by shadows. She ran into Cerdic, since he was the closest one. And she fell to the ground and looked terrified before she got up and tried hiding behind Cerdic saying, "Help me!" she looked clearly defenseless, and a little banged up, and as she hid behind Cerdic she asked, "You're a hero, right? Please help me!" as the rest of them ran over. There was a moment where Mora locked eyes with Marley, but then she quickly looked away and back towards the heartless. Mora looked around an said, "Th-the sanctuary is nearby... if you get through some of these heartless you might be able to get inside..."

 

Holding hands with Daeni, Relli continued to run, almost being pulled by the girl. Who knew she was so strong? The world seemed to pass by in almost a blur, and the environment just seemed like shapeless blobs of color. Even their teammates swam in and out of focus, though at least they could tell who they were. The exception was Daeni, purely through merit of being so close, and even her features swam into one another to an extent.

They ran, until they stopped, and Relli nearly ran into Daeni at the suddenness. The prince wondered where they were now, and how long until the world would stop shifting with every movement.