Video Game: Kingdom Hearts SOS: The Road To Light

Spoiler: Flashback

A younger Kross stood infront of his master, having just ran another training course. Of course he would be tired and low on stamina. His master, Yen Sid stood infront of him, his head down and his eyes closed."Kross" He said, gaining the young boy's attention."Master, what's wrong?"He asked. "Do you know why we fight the darkness?" He asked Kross. Kross tilted his head at this, where did this come from? Of course, he had his own reasons to fight the darkness, so that no one else would have to suffer like he did. He slowly shook his head. Yen Sid turned to the moon crescent window, opening his eyes and staring at the stars."Do you see the stars in the sky? They say all of those twinkling dots in the sky are other worlds..and their light shines bright for all to see. When darkness consumes a world, or a person, the star blinks out, dies. Darkness brings about tragedies and death." He said."You mustn't forget that...however, darkness should not be hated for being misused..order must be maintained. Remember that Kross."

Kross snapped out of his thoughts when Belle came over, watching her comfort the Beast. He smiled, she was the first in this world to not have a negative impression of the grumpy prince. He knew there was a soft side to the Beast. When she went to get first aid. The spark of darkness just a split second before the portal opened. It was like a slow motion movie. He turned, eyes widened as the headless horseman heartless jumped through and snatched up Belle. He summoned his keyblade and ran, he was so close, he swung his keyblade and struck the ground, the base forgiving to his keyblade and cracked a bit."No!" He yelled out, he didn't get the chance to even land a hit on the horseman. He pulled his keyblade out of the ground and spun on his heel, running towards the others. He heard what Krowley had said and nodded once."On the double, we gotta get there NOW!"He said, looking back to the others."Let's go."He said.

 

Spoiler: Flashback

Chapter 1
Base awoke with a start. ‘Darkness… impermeable and suffocating Darkness…’ he thought as he struggled with to keep the playback of the most recent memory of his out of his recollection. He shut his eyes tightly and almost as soon as he sprang in the foreign and unfamiliar bed he found himself in. The memory came to him anyway, of course, with full disregard of his attempting of his trying to suppress it. This point infuriated him as the images reeled together into one straight, inescapable vision. A nightmarish vision the likes of which he had never before dared to know. Unavoidable, like the tears streaming down his face, the nightmare began again.

♫♪♪♫

It had been a murky day in Theate City on the day all manners and walks of life came crashing down. Rain fell like a dense curtain of cold and calamity. Stinging sorrow; it was as though the rain was itself the collection of tears of the people crying out in vast quantities along the many city blocks. They cried out in agony across the entirety of the expansive city. The smell of burning oil from a nearby crashed car, partially on the sidewalk, partially on the road, choked the sense of smell and further limited the amount of breathable of the young boy Sebastian "Base" Noble, the sole denizen of the barren street. Flooding water not only from the sky but also from a disturbed fire hydrant, tossed aside by the wayward vehicle that had crashed, dominated his sense of hearing as the eruption continued unattended. In short, he was cold, tired, lost, could barely breathe or see, and he was completely soaked from head to toe, straight down to the bone. His customarily tousled black hair stuck to his forehead as he looked one way, then the other down the street. No one. No sign of life anywhere except for the screams that came from all corners at once. To say the screams were faint would be a blatant lie; the screams, in fact, stuck out a great deal. As a chorus conducted by Barbas, the impromptu choir cried out in a tormented as well as tormenting, unorganized staccato. As if not enough of the perverse to molest the very core of Base's youthful but strangely mature mind, the choir came to produce a soloist in its off key antiphony. Four whole notes, tied together by bands of unstopping terror, crescendoed as the singular crier descended from her ill-gotten perch from high above the very same street; from one of the many interminably high skyscrapers that made up Theate. All at once, as she came into Base's weather-limited sight, the double bar line, a physical horizontal one instead of the usual vertical one on paper, was reached and the release of the cry abruptly ended with a sickening half beat. The soloist was there, right there on the sidewalk, directly in front of Base, helpless to reanimate as he had been to intervene. He moved tentatively onto the greyed concrete, barely a three yards distance away.

It was the hero in Base that caused him to approach the ceased screamer. However, this heroic predisposition would prove useless, as it seemed, in this particular case. He quickly glanced over the sunken soloist with dismay, perceiving easily that she could be no older than a year ahead of his of 17. Her face was of a rare kind of beauty, and though the life had been visibly drained from her blank and haunted eyes, her lips and her cheeks as well, they all possessed the character of novel loveliness. Petite and conservatively dressed, for her age anyway, she was visually unscathed; virtually no scratches or bruises, and not even a prominence of life's wire that should have puddled from where her head had impacted the ground before the rest of her. Were it possible to conceive any evidence of life within her, it would be possible to think she was perfectly fine and would awake any moment, as if from a bad dream that could be read in the horrific stare she was stuck in. Absolutely unscathed, Base held out some faint and foolish hope that he had not just watched someone commit themselves out of a crumbling world successfully. This hope was not a realistic one, nor was it very real at all. No rise and fall of the chest, nor any traceable movement of the body whatsoever, could be found about the person; not even a sliver of a possibility of life inert. For a moment of silent contemplation, Base studied the face and thought, very briefly, that he could have very easily known this girl in life, since her features struck a strange familiarity. Maybe he might have seen her, but would never have known her personally. Base was not so much socially awkward as he was socially repellent. He was neither hideous in image, and he was not particularly annoying in character. He was merely: different. The quality of difference from the masses, which Theate was never in any short supply of before today, radiated from the lifeless corpse in almost tangible pang of pain Base could taste

The pain of sorrow invaded Base's tattered soul as the perplexity of the reality at hand came to full fruition. He let out not even the whimper of a cry, but instead gritted his teeth and clenched his fists at the injustices caused by the ensuing chaos of darkness that had descended on his world all at once. It was at that same moment, as if an answer to his feeling of emotional-overload, with a flash of light, the greatest secret he had ever kept appeared in his right hand without his prompting it to. He looked down at the newly arrived weapon and sneered at it with disgust that had not constructed his features for a great while. He had no clue what this object was, just as he did not know why it was shaped like a giant silver and gold key. Currently, it did not bring the feeling of vigor and strength it once had when it first appeared to him a year back; it only brought sense of a burden he did not wish to carry. It represented a lie, which he had told by never telling neither his parents nor Uncle Dean of i- (!) His shot up and his heart sank as he thought of it. 'In this madness... where are they?' This was the first forbearing thought. 'What if, in all those screams still going on ... what if theirs is one of them.' These thoughts haunted him and froze him more to the spot than the chilling precipitation ever could. He threw a detesting glare at the handled weapon at his side, but this look of contempt faded instantaneously when he changed his focus down to the girl. Her blank stare was directed in no particular direction, yet was faced in a single direction, and inspired in Base all the fears the sight of death brought on. Crouching down close beside the departed, Base closed the lifeless eyes solemnly. The very least he could do for her now was to offer the courtesy of making death resemble its peaceful counterfeit.

At the same moment her eyes were forcibly shut, a blinding light suddenly about her person caused Base to draw back immediately as he watched the light condense and thicken into one place: at the very core of her motionless chest. The light softened to a dull flame-like beam that condensed even further and became a single object hovering over her torso. The object was a crystalline heart that slowly turned as it began a very slow ascent, as wisps of red smoke whirled inside it and tiny beams of light shot out from without. It swirled majestically and bright in the air, radiating a soft glow around it and emanating a soft tinkling sound as it rose. Once it reached somewhere around eye level with Base, it ceased to rise, but continued in its gradual rotation. From within it, Base listened intently, came a weak and disembodied voice seemingly from within that spoke with a feminine tenderness. 'Please... run...’ was all Base heard... or rather, thought he heard. He did not have long to ponder whether or not the occurrence's certainty was possible or impossible. The Heartless had taken notice.

Base did not know the sight he was faced with when he whirled around on his heel when suspicious chattering noises began to swarm behind him. Creatures of darkness had recently populated the streets, and in healthy numbers. The two opposing schools of thought herein on Decker Street as Base took in the new and strange sight, and both of them were, in fact, very different from each other: What was fact and what Base knew. The facts standing thus were the monsters were and would be well known as "Heartless"; there were sixteen in all. A dozen Shadows made up the ground force, with piercing yellow orbs for eyes that shot through the rain's fog, and four small bells of two different color-schemes hovered some distance above the physically lower Purebloods; one pair was green, a duo of Green Requiems and the other were red, and were Red Nocturnes. Then there was what Base knew: absolutely nothing, save that these monsters did not look friendly, and that their idleness there in the street made him extremely precarious. One of the ground-based imps took a step forward, as Base swallowed a heavy dry lump in his throat while he watched it. So far, it had been the only one to have made a move, but with every clumsy-looking, sweeping step, it drew closer to him and the girl. 'Either it or all of them were after either him or this girl', was what he summarized from the ambiguous intent. 'I can't let either happen.' Base gritted his teeth once more and readied his stance, his Keyblade all but forgotten at his side, and stared into the little yellow orbs occasionally shifting up at him. Closer, closer, and closer it came, yet still Base stood his ground between the beasts and the beauty. If he could save no one else, why not save the heart of the person he could protect to some degree? Still, there was at least one creeping thought that grew on him as the scouting Shadow leaped all at once from the ground and upwards towards his torso. He was faintly sure that very instant could be his last, and yet still he stayed; there was still a chance, after all, and he let that light burn down deep inside him. He was ready to face the darkness.

Chapter 2
Instinctively, Base raised the Keyblade up so that the shaft of the blade covered his face and at least part his upper body. What happened in turn, was that when the tiny monstrosity barreled its claws at Base, it made contact with the blade, and so with a sharp TINK! the attacker was launched backward headlong and defenseless as it fell to the ground to recuperate. It was back on its feet in no time; it's blank and mouthless face, identical to its compatriots, gave no character or even a glimmer of spite or in fact anything at all. It startled Base down to his core to see all the violent spirits so absolutely and unwaveringly apathetic. The overt unfeeling displayed itself yet another of the Shadows made its way for Base. This one clamored at his legs, causing Base to leap to one side while simultaneously strike at the second attacker with a low sweeping Keyblade swing. A sharp and shrill commotion came from the creature out of no particular orifice as the Key bluntly knocked it aside with thunk! Now, it is a point that Heartless are absolutely mindless as well as expressionless, and in so, they cannot be even slightly strategic or even know for a fact when they are in over their heads. However, two things had drawn such a healthy number of them to that particular spot: the Key, and the bare Heart. It was on this purely instinct-driven logic that the Heartless changed their target. A duo of Shadows then charged clumsily on their disproportionately sized feet, as they went around Base completely. Swiftly, Base closed off the short distance between himself and the coronary usurpers, and in so, cut off the path the duo were taking. It was suggestible that either one was insulted by the interruption or putting itself to its other task when it again lunged up at Base with its sharp black claw-like digits. Repeating the block maneuver from earlier, he confidently pushed the leaper off with yet another tiny TINK! as the Heartless was knocked back dazed and confused. While it lay on the wet cement, Base took this as his moment to strike; he lifted the Keyblade high over his head and brought it down upon the disproportionally large head of the senseless imp. With a satisfying squish, the Shadow dissipated into a sputter of ethereal black mist. What he was not aware of was the presence of yet another Crystal Heart climbing high above where the witless Heartless had once been. Of course, its partner-by-chance could not truly be surprised by the sudden disappearance of its fellow retriever, Base was not aware of this fact; the prompting brought on by instinct alone would pay to Base's favor though, in that without a moment's hesitation, he ripped the Keyblade with a single horizontal swing straight through the head of the unsuspecting Heartless that would have unexpected it anyhow. Like the other, it vanished in much the same fashion, and again Base was ignorant of an identical spinning heart already four feet above his head that disappeared into thin air as soon as it appeared a small distance above his head. His ignorance was not entirely his fault; the tinkling sound produced by both had been masked by profuse amount of rain, fountain sputter and the soft tinkling of the girl's heart as it slowly revolved on its center over the spot it had arisen from perfectly masked any traces of the presence of new strange crystalline hearts.

Base dashed over to the girl and made a stand, as he held onto his Keyblade with a tight grasp. He stared at the myriad of yellow eyes and downright seemed to defend the girl like a wild animal protecting its territory; if he had barked or howled, it would not be out of place from the look in his eyes nor not it is far from the scowl forming on his features. Slowly, so by degrees of chilling despair, his own heart sank in his chest as the multitudes of black Shadows double and then tripled in numbers. Their numbers conquered the tar-lain street and made the shade it had been green with envy as the Shadows painted the ground pitch black with their odious forms. They accelerated in amassing a great congregation and soon, Base could very well see he was being surrounded; the presence of the Key had become a beacon to invoke hunger in the ravenous and insatiable appetites of the Heartless that had taken Theate. Still defiant against the darkness, however, Base did not move; he would not move, and he refused to do so with every fiber of his being. Even as the sky began to roll with the most monstrous and ominous cloud he had ever seen, even as the Lightening began to clash and the thunder boomed with rapid consistency, as the Earth began to quake and the Heartless became the land and the edifices of the buildings, he still held his ground as the last flickering flame of Theate that refused to die, guarding what he was not sure he could insure the revival of. He stood there not to prove anyone's point, for whose point was there to prove? He stood there not for a conquest of lustful enterprise. He stood there because, somewhere deep inside him, it told him it was the right thing to do; it just didn't tell him any assurance that he would survive the debacle. Each unblinking moment that passed further suffocated such bleak hope, as the corruption that had taken the Earth began to wrap itself around his legs.

"GET OFF!" Base hollered and spat as he slashed his Keyblade blindly, feeling the darkness sap the life out of him; he didn't feel claws or teeth, all he felt was darkness start to constrict his calves and crush his feet under a tremendous weight of pooling darkness. The Keyblade, this time, did no good, and Base was forced to watch as the Darkness scaled his jeans. It coated him like a thick, rubbery cocoon of miserable invocations; he could taste the bitterness of cold on his lips and on his tongue. It was purely putrid a sensation in every perceivable capacity! Helpless to stop it, Base stopped squirming, but did not necessarily lose hope. He realized that this was the best way to go; he had died trying to do the right thing. All the times he had read of knights and heroes, watched the good guy win on-screen, and all of this came to him as a feeling of undying light that overbore the cold and burned with a fervor inside his steadily beating heart. He felt accomplished, as though he had done everything meaningful in his life right then and there. He felt like he had truly become a hero as the darkness wrapped its slimy opaque tentacles around his throat and coated his jaw bone, forcing his head toward the sky. The last thing he saw before falling asleep was the storm clouds that rolled above; the last acts of nature, albeit violent, in the defiled and imploding atmosphere of Theate City...

♫♪♪♫

Base's eyes reopened and he was back where he had last had them open, even though only for a brief instance. The surrounding area, although, was not the blackened and expansive street of Theate he had just revisited. He was not being engulfed live and whole by vicious creatures of the greatest turpitude. Instead, it was a small room. The bed in which he found himself in was a solid oaken frame of a silvery hue that was dressed with a fluffy blue comforter that was decorated with white and golden silken stars and one bulky Gibson moon in the center. Base looked from the floor to the ceiling with unrestrained wonderment as he beheld its intricacies. A puce carpet covered the floor as furnishing of all basic dormitory necessities adorned the open spaces, which lead to a cement-textured backdrop that was the shade of the pad of a tree frog's toe. The square and angled walls eventually molded together into a single dome not terribly high above his head as the vertices disappeared. A periwinkle wardrobe, a grey slanted writing desk with an attached flat side table sat across from each other and on either side of the bed, the wardrobe towards the head. A chair with a particularly Gothic-looking frame was placed in front of the desk; which was thoroughly black where the frame showed and which frame was placed in front of the desk; which was thoroughly black where the frame showed and which was cushioned with pneumatic coverings where the body of a person would go, and by the looks of things, Base presumed that particular person would be very comfortable sitting on those particularly plump cushions. All that remained in the room were a few wall lamps that looked electric, but had a strange fiery cast to their light, that had bowled coverings that matched the exact mystic style of the bed sheets and lit the room in a pleasant glow, and then there was the window. The window, across from the bed and to the right slightly of a grand fireplace, with a golden-framed mirror above its mantle place, that looked to be a perfectly circular shape and also gave off an air of having a blatantly out-of-date flaw: there was no pane of glass or anything else to be seen within the window; a total lack of a barrier between simplified ingress and egress! Base stumbled to his feet, unsteady on his own feet, as he caroused to the open window, nearly throwing himself out of its solid frame in order to get a decent view of the outside. What he saw amazed him spectacularly.

The sky was a mix of lightly shaded hues that looked like they had been blended together like a water-color painting, with shades of blue, purple, green and small spare wisps of red and grey floating about in a cloudless and sunless sky. Base looked down and nearly jumped back into the sturdy safety of his new habitat when he saw just how high above the ground he was. It was not merely the great either, even though I was stories and stories into the air. It was also the fact the land below, while so green, was also very limited; tall topiaries bordered the small island in most corners of the amorphous terrain, where they did not terminated in sharp cliffs that showed below them more of the sky that was above stretching down into the abyss. The building itself was as one that he had only read about in books and seen on film. The same color as the one that covered his wall was the color of the edifice of the tall, castle-like structure. Spire upon spires burst out of one another like the budding of a wonky plant, their tops capped with flat circular roofs that had slight raised points in the center of each. Some Spires sprouted out of the wide tower that started at the ground and worked itself up, while smaller spires erupted at odd angles from the other spires like numerous architectural sub-divisions. Taking in the whole of the view, Base eventually found out he was the center and largest of the spires, only to look up and find a half a dozen more spire extensions and plenty of room for the center spire to stretch into the all-expansive sky. Taking in all the wonder and fear these sights and thoughts provoked, Base began to recoil backwards from the open port. Not cautious of where he was going, creeping in a reverse direction, he should not have been surprised when he felt himself bump into something. It was the particular kind of something that caught his attention and sent his heart into his throat; he had hit something much larger than himself, covered in silken cloth that had the sturdiness, but not the texture, of cotton.

Base was lean; this point was well established by his peers in school. As far as height went, however, he was a not-entirely shrimpy 5'8". How much taller this person behind him could be felt in the great looming presence the unseen one held. Base gulped a dry lump of air as his mouth became arid with agitation, and he looked directly up into a pair of fierce and omniscient eyes that looked back down at him with the default look of disapproval the man always wore. It was only after a moment of studied reading of Base's facial features that his features lightened and the elder man, his grey beard long and flowing onto his aqua robe-covered chest, smiled as he made sturdy his arms together over his chest, and his hands were hidden behind wide, sweeping sleeves. Despite the afforded smile, the look came off only more grim as the wild smirk on his face bore a countenance of vast knowledge; knowledge that made his grin far too "knowing". Base nervously afforded a haphazard and uncomfortable smile in return as he stepped forward a little so as to give a little distance between himself and the strange visitor. 'Or... is he the host?’ Base thought.

"Salutations, Young Keyblade Wielder." The seemingly ancient man boomed softly with a voice as deep and powerful as the tide, but as light and airy as the clouds that sailed them. "My name is Yen Sid." He nodded his head courteously and pressed one hand over his heart as the other, with a wide, sweeping gesticulation, moved from one side of his body to the other. Within an instant, in a puff of ethereal grey smoke, another chair, much like the one at the desk, appeared out of thin air, right in the middle of the floor! "I am certain your mind must be buzzing with questions. Which is why, without delay, I will provide you with what I know and what I can tell you." He clapped his hands, the fierce look in his eyes back for a moment as he thunderously slammed his two palms together. At first, it seemed, this caused no spectacular effect as the chair's sudden arrival had made on Base's impression of the man who called himself "Yen Sid". "I will ask that you sit down wherever you feel most comfortable; rest assured, your questions will be answered." He sat with one, long fluid motion of his tall limber body with his enormous frame and aqua-colored coat. He calmly fixed his elongated pointy hat, setting it straight on his head that looked like the tailored love child of Base's sheets and Yen Sid's robes.

Base obliged silently, taking a seat at the foot of the bed, and faced Yen Sid. However, he was instantly silenced from what he was about to say when a broomstick walked into his room! It was a broomstick without a visible face, but instead two legs that formed out of divided hay bristles and arms that sprouted out of its oaken wooden frame. In these arms, on these hands, the enchanted object was carrying a silver tray in a raised position, with two matching teacups with saucers and a kettle atop it that likewise resembled the star decorated hat as well as the tea cups and their respective saucers. Yen Sid, without much deliberation, took the navy tea kettle and one of the two tea cups, making sure to take the saucer along with it as well. He held the teacup out in one hand as the tea kettle and saucer gravitated nearby. Without touching anything but the delicate handle of the square-rimmed tea cup, he poured himself what looked like a steaming pot of tea. Yen Sid kept his eyes closed this entire time, as though in contemplation of something much trickier than making things float, come alive or suddenly appear.

"I understand you are trying to rid your mind of the unnecessary wont of carbonated beverages." He spoke to Base with a great manner of understanding.

The truth was: he was right. Base had been trying to quite partial to Woyer Cola for years, but kept failing. The longest span of time he'd gone on the self-prescribed detox was seven months, which was in continuation when Woyer enterprises was taken over by darkness as well as everything else in Theate. The fact was, Base was a musician, and a devoted singer; he loved the rich, cool taste of his favorite brand of soda, but he also didn't like how it affected his voice if he drank too much. That's the way it was with him: he either did something too much, or virtually not at all. "Yes." He finally replied after he realized he had been ruminating. "That's right. How did you-" Here, he was cut off.

"Will Hot Chocolate do then?" Yen Sid interrupted without malice.

"Truth be told, I'd love one. But, there's really no need for you to brew a new pot just for me." His own voice was quavering, even though Base's voice was characteristically strong and well-established. "I'd be fine with tea."

Yen Sid change expressions again, this time going from ponderous to humorous; there was much less hubris in this grin with his eyes closed ('Maybe it was those eyes that made it creepy?') than there had previously been. "You are a terrible liar, Sebastian Noble." Yen Sid opened his eyes as he stared directly at Base with a thoughtful inspection. "That is good." He chuckled and there was the creepy again, but his words still possessed a great deal of weight in truth as well.

Chapter 3
Momentarily, the room was silent.
“I am quite certain you are aware of the present threat of Darkness that looms, as it is the very same Dark power that has brought you here which is, I fear, devouring your world as we speak.” Yen Sid shook his head in dismay.

“My world?! Then how are we here? Is this some sort of Island outside the city? Maybe we can go back and we can look-.” Base rambled on in a state of panic, until a glance from Yen Sid quieted him.

“Ah yes. What you are not quite as aware about is the standing fact that there are many other worlds throughout the known Universe. Some of these worlds have been already devoured by Darkness, and several more have been invaded by powerful Darkness that threatens the stability of all worlds. There lies the utmost catastrophe: the worlds are currently out of order and time has been displaced. All those able to wield a Keyblade, regardless of age or background have been recruited to join the cause of rebalancing Light and Darkness.” Yen Sid nodded his head and stared directly at Base with that penetrating glare. “I had sent a letter of recruitment to your homeworld of Theate, but it would appear the Heartless and whoever was guiding them beat me in this endeavor. They attacked and took your world with little warning; this is most surprising.”

“What are the Heartless? What world am I on? Why is it surprising?” The questions came out of Base like water through a constant stream. Base was not usually this inquisitive, but the recent string of events had hurled him into an utter fit of agitation. All it took to ease the stress he felt was for Yen Sid to raise one hand, thus signaling him to stop with the questionnaire.

“You are in my world, the Mysterious Tower.” His voice had an ominous weight to it here. “It is surprising, because usually the Heartless or other creatures do not simply appear and take a world in one fell swoop; it is something that takes time. There is a theory I have, and it is that whoever was guiding them knew where to look for the Heart of your World, but that point will have to wait. What worries me most at the present time is the supremely dense population of Theate. There is no doubt this will allow the Darkness a great amount of “new recruits”, for you see, the Heartless themselves were once people, whose hearts fell to the Darkness. Should the Darkness taking Theate go unchecked, many will fall to Darkness unwillingly, regardless of the light in their hearts. This will spawn innumerable new threats that will spread like a virus throughout the worlds. The best way to put is this:” He waved his hand and a silhouette of light appeared on the floor. This glowing silhouette was shaped much like a person, and seemed to be based off the average build of a typical male adult. “So he begins: the denizen of a given world lives their normal, day-to-day existence, each with his or her own balance or imbalance of light and darkness; good and evil.” A small blot of dark matter appeared in the core of the miniature figure standing on the floor. “Light begets Darkness, and in so being, there can be no great light without great darkness, and vice versa. It is possible for a being to go through their whole lives living in this constant equilibrium. However…” The light borders of the figure shifted from an ethereal light blue to a dark purple wisp of smoky air. “It is possible for Darkness to consume the person, and in so doing, plunge him or her into absolute Darkness. The Darkness swallows whatever light may exist in the heart and separates from the body, thus becoming an embodiment of the Darkness that existed.” The figure split into two as the dark purple border grouped together and pulled away from the human shape, leaving behind a solid grey border and a similar tone to the rest of the body left behind to crash to the ground. The dark purple image resembled one of those yellow-eyed imps Base had encountered on Theate. “This is called a Heartless. It is a manifestation of the Darkness that existed in the Heart, and is an utterly bestial and unthinking entity. It contains within it only the Heart, and so cannot think, but can be guided by anyone well versed in Darkness. They are all joined together with a shared desire to destroy light where they find it, so they are often found in groups.” Yen Sid continued as the Dark Purple transparent Shadow twitched and scratched at empty air on the ground. “The stronger the Darkness, the more powerful the Heartless, and more ghastly in appearance it will be.”

“If they have a Heart inside of them, why are they called the “Heartless”?” Base understood everything else directed toward him, but the paradox still boggled his brain. Yen Sid had not thrown many disapproving glares Base’s way since the two met, but the one the Sorcerer shot him now was enough to stop Base dead in his tracks, and even chilled his blood a little.

Yen Sid cleared his throat and then continued. “This is only a part of the body that is affected when a person succumbs to the Darkness inside him. The body left behind is a hollow shell, which is devoid of any Light, Darkness, or even emotion; it is the definition of a “Nothing” incarnate. It is the remainder of the being that becomes a Nobody.” It was here the greyed figure shape-shifted and rose back up to a standing position, transfiguring wildly into a needle-limbed creature with a flat head and a wide zipper along the top of its head, which made the opening on its oddly shaped head look like a wide maw of darkness. “The Nobody is nothing but will, mind, and body; it cannot feel but it can think, which makes it more dangerous than even the most powerful Heartless. The more powerful a Nobody is, the more human-like in appearance they become, and the more capable they are of imitating real emotions. Do not be tricked into thinking they are even close to possessing any actually humanity. As of yet, this does not appear to be an issue, as there have been a total lack of sightings of Nobodies that are discernibly similar to living people.”

‘The Heartless have Hearts they can’t use, and Nobodies have bodies but no Heart… seems about right…’ Base said sarcastically to himself, but he still took in all the information given to him as the two separated figures started to dissipate as Yen Sid clasped his hand into a fist, his eyes closed.

“There is at least one more known threat:” Yen Sid’s fearsome eyes opened as another small creature appeared out of nothing, but this one looked so much more real than the others, Base was sent reeling back. Base soon realized however the beast was only another figure; another imitation. He sighed in relief. “These are the Unversed. These are strange beings, as they are manifestations of violent emotions alone. It is unknown by which emotions, or if every violent emotion spurned causes them, however, they are just as much a threat to the Light within a Heart as the others, though they do not seek out the Heart of the World.” He raised his hand and the final creature disappeared. “I presume you wish to know about the Heart of Worlds, and it is this information you are owed, as you are a wielder of the Keyblade. However, at the present time, knowledge of the Keyblade and the Heart of each World is far too sensitive for you to be fully aware of the facts in this matter. What I can tell you currently is since you possess a greater amount of Light in your Heart than Darkness, you possess the ability to use the Keyblade, which is source of great Power, and which you can use to combat the darkness. However, I know you are, at the moment, apprehensive of the concept.”

“You know I don’t feel up to this?” From this, Base received the impression Yen Sid could read minds.

Yen Sid smiled heartily. “I do, in truth, know you are ready to at the very least face the Darkness that stands presently. On the other hand, however, I understand that this is a terrible world to be suddenly plunged into, and if it were not for the last minute rescue I executed for you as the Darkness began to surround you, you would have likely have lost your life to the Heartless. While I give you a choice as to which path you will choose, since it was not your choice that brought you here but my own, I must stress to you the point that few Keyblade wielders I have known would have had the gall to stand between the Darkness and the Keyblade as well as an open Heart. For you see, they seek out both sources of great light, like moths to a flame. They fear as well as search to destroy the Keyblade wherever they can find a wielder.” His expression here became solemn again, as though he’d witnessed many of such a fall himself.

“I’m not a hero… because now that I look back, that was incredibly stupid a thing to do. A hero would do something, and not regret it later.”

Yen Sid nodded approvingly. “In essence you are right,” Then he shook his head, “Still, does this mean that you have reason to doubt your actions. Our Hearts lead us on the right paths, and in listening to our Hearts, the Light will protect us from any dangers our situations present.” He stated profoundly, and Base had to admit, the Sorcerer was very right, and visibly so; Base was safe and sound after listening to his Heart.

All the same, Base knew he wasn’t up to such a task. It was a simple truth he knew… or at least, one he felt was right. What business had he in such affairs? All this confliction of emotion unrested him and caused him slightly to swoon as the truth could not be found easily. Base searched and searched for the truth, but only found fear, and one fear in particular struck him the most. “What happened to that girl? My parents? Dean Waiter?” Base gave the fear a voice and it shouted the phrase “Truth! Don’t let that seep in!” inside his head.

Yen Sid merely bowed his grey hair head somberly, and this nonverbal method was all Base really needed to know in order to realize his fears had come true! He did not know the girl personally, but he felt sorry for her, surely. His parents though? He ached to remember the last time he saw them that day before leaving for school. He found the memory after much straining, and was disappointed somewhat to find how mundane and normal it was; no prophesizing utterances and no foreshadowing of a Goodbye for good. Still, in its normalcy, it was a beautiful memory, and for that instance, it kept Base’s heart from shattering into countless pieces. Dean Waiter had even been there in that specific memory, right there with Aiden and Sabrina Noble at the Noble apartment in Theate City. All the more reason to cling tight to the image, as Dean was practically family ever since the elder musician and owner of the “Dean’s List” music shop near Base’s former school had taken Base underneath his tutelage. At that very moment between words exchanged, Base did not know if Yen Sid was as good at reading hearts as he was at reading faces and/or minds, but he knew if the wizard could, he’d see Mr. & Mrs. Base close together, standing beside a nodding Dean Waiter, and what Base imagined that girl looked like when she was alive, and, likely, happy. They made an odd group together, but the sight of them, surrounded by the lively backdrop of Theate’s huge foundations, contented him beyond belief.

“I do realize, of course, the weight of all these events and revelations must be incredulously straining.” Yen Sid spoke out sullenly and teeming with deeper meaning. “I also understand why your tears for your fallen world have not quite yet been brewed.” Here, Yen Sid paused and seemed to enter a state of near meditation and deep thought, one of which even gave a glimmer of what looked like actual concern. “If you so wish to let out your frustration at this moment, I will perform the task of magically soundproofing this room from worldly ears, and, if need be, repair any objects that may be broken in any manner of emotional tirade. This is not to assume this of you; merely that there is good cause for such actions to be prompted.” His speech was without haste or retraction.

On the other side of the conversation, Base appreciated the gesture, but his reply came with a shake of his black-haired head, his hazel eyes glowing with wisdom beyond his years. It was the first time he regained his senses since losing them on Theate. “If what you say is true, and everything points that way, then I have to work to keep Darkness out of my Heart. If I act out of anger, then it will be like the Darkness is winning me over just a little bit. So, if I shout, it must be for the right reasons. It will be purposed that so whoever hears me will know the dying light of Theate is never going to truly die, and that all the suffering we cannot stop will not go without being avenged. I’ve always thought there’s a big difference between “revenge” and “avenge”, but I never thought I’d be faced with it. The bleakest spot of Theate, though, will turn into its brightest beacon, even though the city crumbles away.”

Yen Sid bowed his head reverently at the younger mage, for it was then the old Sorcerer realized the extent of the powerful magic of Light that existed in this particular boy. It was obvious Base was not exactly the Chosen One, but he was certainly notable in his devotion and understanding. Yen Sid stood up, his robes flowing like water as he did so. “You truly do possess an indomitably strong Heart, young Noble. As you wish.” He turned to leave, bowing his head once more, a little lower than when he had first entered. The chair he once sat in vanished in a similar fashion to how it appeared, as Yen Sid headed towards the door without rush. He placed his bony hand on the door handle and opened the door a crack; just enough for his foot to fit through. “You should be made aware, that few understand such grave matters at first grasp with such fluidity and maturity.” He gave a glance back as he opened the door wider to allow his entire tall and slender frame through the portal. It was evident he spoke genuinely, and it was in fact well felt by the speaker. “Perhaps though, you should acquire more rest. I will send for you when it is time to instruct you further.” In so concluding his statements, Yen Sid left the room, shutting the door slowly and calmly behind him as he crossed through.

“It’s my blessing and my curse.” Base uttered to no one but himself in reply to Yen Sid’s notion on maturity. Base then realized how completely alone he was, and why so. He’d lost everything that meant everything, and what’s more, anything to him. It was being in this new found kind of solemnity, even though he’d known derision and relative solitude all his young life that caused him to fulfill the promise of his cry for Theate. For the sake of the People’s pains, he let out an earth-shattering shout of personal misery mixed with the empathy for innumerable masses. It was not the obligation of saying he would that spurned the pain, but the pain itself that beget the fresher pain and shook the very core of his soul. He shouted out because it was a time when he felt he would either implode or explode from the excess of his sorrow and emotions, if he did not release it that one, very prolonged cry of anguish.

Chapter 4
Part 1

Upon Yen Sid’s apt advice, Base returned to sleep in the same bed he had awoken in, Sleep receiving him with a surprising lack of a rebuttal. Base had figured before dosing off that his relationship with Rest had been rendered irreversibly irreparable recently, requisite with his tumult. All the same, his dreams were not of the haunting variety, in fact, the exact opposite could be said to have taken into a halcyon wave rolling on a blanket of soaked sand that rushed toward his toes and all at once fled once it glanced them like a timid, but no less wonting, lover. He dreamed of dark alleys in a city much like Theate but with a much different feel and atmosphere; it was much darker there, but in the grimy bleakness, there was a strange Gothic majesty that outweighed fear. He dreamed of small, bright village that was certainly colorful to say the least which was presided over by a humongous white castle with navy blue pointed rooftops on its rooks and spires. He dreamed of places that varied so greatly, he wondered without cognizance how he stored such a vast array of imaginative places without previously visiting any in previous dreams. This was all the more shocking because his imagination was and always had been of such the over-active sort that he was often and at that time launched into a near catatonic state that his ties to reality had been severed in slumber. He had found momentary refuge.

The final vision he had was of a vast valley filled to the brim with music. It had expansive, rolling hills of white grass that whistled with the wind that gave off a constant and reverberating slow, slight high-pitched audible whine like that of a section of violins in polyphonic symphony, but was so low it became supplementary to the scenery rather than intrusive. From the top of some undeterminable mound of earth, Base could see a great deal spanned over the wide valley below, which was an extremely new vantage point to someone used to the all-encompassing man-made monoliths of Theate. A silky blue pond to the far right housed stalky pink birds that Base had never seen the likes of before, with thin, elongated sticks for legs protruding out of the water. To the far left, the white grass that seemed endless was being “painted” a vibrant, lively green by what either looked or moved like a vivacious breeze of the same viridian hue. In the dead center of the valley, in the flattest portion, sat a monster of a wooden vessel that seemed eerie in the fact in looked abandoned and unattended, but at the same time majestic in its scale and simplicity.

The hills and the valleys continued to play with a hauntingly serene melody that echoed with ethereal texture. He wondered where the source of the music could be and in wondering he self-discovered he was in a dream; it’s true that when someone realizes they are in a dream that they will wake up soon after; this is true, at least, on a typical basis. It was no less true in this circumstance as his thoughts of the source were the last blurs of a beautiful dream as his eyelids fluttered in unison into a renewed familiarity.

♫♪♪♫

With a struggling stretch and accompanying groan, Base tried to push the sheets off of him, but found he was drawing them over his person all the more as if he were magnetically attracted to the material. With a slow succession, his eyes began to return to purpose as curtains of his sight, the muscles in his eyelids seeming to contract involuntarily and beyond his power to stop. It was only when the sheets were suddenly and violently ripped from his grip and body that Base really woke up; and with a start!

“Really now, Merryweather,” Chimed a woman who talked like a bird tweets, with the same pitch, meter and pattern of speech or chirp, “We don’t want to frighten him!” She sounded like she very much wanted to defend the point, but also sounded afraid to utter it.

“Fauna is right, Merryweather.” This line was given by a brisker, more affirmative female voice that sounded weighted with authority, but proper and kind all the same. “Keep in mind: Magic is all very strange to the people of worlds like Theate.” She sounded bothered by what she said, because in the next instant, she added, “Oh, it was Theate that Yen Sid, wasn’t it?”

“Yes, Flora.” There erupted the twitter-like voice, more excitedly this time. “Theate. Right between Land of Dragons and Olympus Coliseum somewhere.” Her voice turned to sadder tone. “Or at least… it was.”

‘Was’. Knife allegories wouldn’t cut it to describe his sobriety upon hearing that one word. He was sullenly forced back into the reality he had fallen into when his world started to fall apart; literally. Sleep had eased his memory, but now that was gone, and he was back in that odd tower. As he looked about the room, things became odder, as he noticed a lack of speakers, but continued to hear the voices emanating from various sources of thin air in the room.

“I didn’t think we really could wake him without using magic!” This voice was new. It was discontented and female, but husky and flustered. Her voice was light and airy, but had such a grumpy undertone, it seemed safe to say that its user was not whining or causing some sort of stir.

“Well Dear,” The brisk voice replied, dignified, “You’re certainly right about ‘not thinking’.” Base didn’t know if she had a tongue and hard palate to ‘tsk’ with, but she did produce the same all the same because it was with vocal register that the sound weighted towards. She repeated the sound several times over as though surveying something, if she had eyes to survey with. Meanwhile, Base was happy with the fact he’d checked the wonky, tilted wardrobe in the room for some night wear and found a pair of pajamas that fit the décor of the room; yellow stars and moons against a solid blue background. The pajamas themselves were rich in design as well as comfort, which spoke for the strange ancient luxury of the atmosphere.

“Master Sid used magic in front of him, so I don’t see why I can’t.” Merryweather rebutted indignantly.

“He used magic near him, yes, but not on him. Also, … er… well… you aren’t Yen Sid.” Base had figured this voice to be “Fauna”, as she put everything delicately. “There’s a stark difference, I think.”

“Oh!” Merryweather returned, with her feathers more than ruffled. “Flora is just too full of herself to realize I did well!” At that same moment, a stout, short and plump woman, with a rotund face under a pointed blue bonnet, wearing a blue belled dress that completely hid her feet as she hovered down to the floor appeared in the room out of thin air suddenly. “Well, he’s up, isn’t he?” She produced the same voice as the last one spoken; Merryweather. In her boisterous fit she managed to knock her tethered hat askew, casting the wide brim over her eyes and exposing the black hair on the back of her head.

“I’m not in the mood to argue, Merryweather.” In popped a similar apparition, but with the same outfit colored red, and her face was slight longer, although, similarly as plump. She had grey hair under her red pointed bonnet and at that moment of arrival, bore a distempered expression. Following her entered another supernatural guest adorned in green, with a much thinner and cheerful face. Her hair was also grey and as cheerful as she looked, she appeared just as much concerned over the current situation. “Oh my… here we go again…” With a motherly care, the green-adorned apparition corrected Merryweather’s witchy bonnet tentatively, as though the one in blue would snap at her like a yippy dog.

“Oh, do stop fussing over her, Fauna; she may fix what she upsets.” The red one stated matter-of-factly.

“Yes, Flora.” The green one, Fauna, said to the red, Flora. “Sorry, Merryweather.” She apologized kindly to the blue one.

“Thanks anyway.” Merryweather replied, shooting Flora a nasty look at the same time as she spoke.

Meanwhile, Base was beside himself with the sudden realization of how odd this really all was, and this was even covering his nervousness in the face of three strangers all at once. How strange these strangers were as well! At least Yen Sid had approached him alone, and had quickly and easily eased the tension by rapidly, but calmly, going into explanations. “Who are you?” Base leaped to his bare feet, the carpet oddly warm to the pads of his feet.

“Why, we’re the three good fairies, dear.” Flora smiled brightly. Base managed to return a haphazard, lopsided grin.

Fauna saw both smiles and couldn’t resist putting all their elated expressions to shame in comparison to her own. “Yes, that’s right! And Oh! We have some gifts for you! Isn’t that wonderful?” She cooed.

Elsewhere in the room, Merryweather crossed her arms and pouted. “I might just take mine back.” She said to no one, but then turned to Base. “It’s not you; it’d be because of them.” Flora and Fauna stuttered nervously in response, unsure of what to do until Base acted the Gentleman and approached Merryweather personally. All three of the good fairies were incredibly short, perhaps barely above five feet tall each.

Base bowed courteously and spoke to Merryweather directly. “I’d like to thank you for waking me when you did. I can be so difficult when it comes to waking up and getting out of bed you see. If it hadn’t been for your…er…method, I probably would have been irascible.”

Merryweather wasn’t entirely fooled, as she crossed her arms and cocked an eyebrow, sizing Base up. “I know you made that up… but thank you for at least having the nerve.”

“Quite a vocabulary too.” Fauna noted. It was true, when Base took notice to the fact. On Theate, his intellect around most his own age had typically spawned a thought that he was pretentious, but that was simply the only way he knew how to conduct himself.

“Anyhow!” Interjected Flora. “Now then, let’s see to those gifts!” Her words made Fauna fly into a gleeful jitter as Merryweather drew closer to the other two in the middle of the floor. Flora waved a small stick she drew from her sleeve, and waved it about to loosen her arm while the tip of the wand sparkled with multi-colored brilliancy. Base was surprised by the display, but only temporarily, as he was already adapting to the quantities of oddities now trickling into his life. “Who’s first? Fauna? Merryweather? Oh, I suppose I might as well.”

Part 2

Fauna could not contain her joy very well at all. “Oh!” Tweeted Fauna, “I do so love gifts!” She clasped her frail hands together in front of her gleeful face. “And it’s so much more delightful to give than to receive, you know.” A dreamy haze fell over her expression while she stared off into space.

“We know; you’ve said it a thousand times before,… you fuddy-duddy.” Merryweather sat in a corner of the room and plopped down. “Now simmer down before you float off!”

“Oh… Thank you, dear.” Fauna realized very suddenly that she was, indeed, starting to involuntarily float into a hover without direction. The fact that Merryweather had used a sarcastic tone on her was lost on her completely. “Flora, do you mind if I go first?”

“I don’t mind at all, Fauna, not at all.” Flora bowed to the side as Fauna readied her wand. In a burst of light that followed a flick of the wrist, Fauna conjured up a small box, which was wrapped in forest green paper; with a dark green bow fashioned on top. Giggling away, she bestowed the gift to Base.

Base was still unsure of what to make of the three, but they had obviously been sent with some purpose, and they seemed to come with good intent as well. He continued to play the Gentleman for the moment, smiling as he said, “How nicely wrapped.”

Fauna was pleased to hear it; she reeled with delight. “Well, yes, I did wrap it myself. Thank you.”

“Humph!” Merryweather’s bemusement burst from her corner. “Wrapped it with magic is what you really mean.”

“All the same, I do appreciate it.” Base replied, meanwhile, he tore away the trimmings to reveal a small tome; a teal, leather-bound notebook with shiny green stationary. Base flipped through its vacant pages until he noticed Fauna was fidgeting with what appeared to be worry.

“We were told so little about you, so I’m quite sorry if it’s not decorated to your liking.” Fauna apologized emphatically. “It’s a journal, for whatever you’d like to put in there. I like to keep a personal diary myself.”

To be honest, Base did not care nor notice that the notebook lacked any particular decorations. “Could you decorate it with musical symbols? I would like to keep my ‘composer’.” Base guessed accurately that the request would prompt Fauna back into a state of contentment, as she leaped at the opportunity hastily.

Shortly after, Flora glided over to Base with yet another gift-wrapped box; this one was a pale red with a dark burgundy bow. “My book next!”

“Flora! You’re not supposed to tell him!” Fauna blurted out, horrified.

“You’re absolutely right, dear.” Flora replied, and Base could only help but notice they said “Dear” far more than anyone else he ever knew. “Here you are, Base.”

Base took the gift and unwrapped it, noticing it was a good deal bigger than the previous book; the last one has been hardly the size of a normally-sized book, whereas this one was about the size of an atlas or dictionary. The surprisingly synthetically-fabricated hardcover was the same burgundy as the bow that had covered it; a leather strap tightly hugged the width of the heavy tome, and a golden latch with a keyhole sat neatly on what appeared to be the front cover. Base could guess it was the front cover, because it read “P.I.” in ornate gold letterings. When he attempted to pry open the latch, Flora quickly stopped him.

“Oh no, no yet; that book may need a bit more of a… oh… what’s that word…?” Flora racked her mind for “that” word, which she produced moments later, “Tutorial! Perhaps you should leave it here for safekeeping.”

“Well, won’t I be here anyway?”

“I’m afraid not, dear. Yen Sid has requested you come to his study.” Flora instructed.

Based erred. “Umm, I don’t know where that quite is.”

“Well, then there’s only one way to fix this problem.” Flora took a deep breath and whipped out her wand once more. “He’s going to be here for quite some time, girls. I believe a map is in order.”

“I don’t see why not.” Merryweather huffed exasperatedly and took out her own wand.

“Circle up girls. You know the formation. And there we are.” The three fairies tapped their wands together in the center of their circle, and with a flash a glowing orb broke in through thin air. A glittery bubble, which contained the image of what looked like a treasure map floating inside it, hovered in midair between the three. It was the most phantasmagorical spectacle Base had yet seen, and it sent him stumbling back a bit as soon as he saw it.

“What is that?”

“Just touch the orb, Sebastian Noble, and you will automatically learn to find most rooms within the enchanted realm that is the Mysterious Tower. It’s a manifestation of the world we’ve summoned to help guide you. There’s usually one locked away somewhere on each world, but they tend to be only responsive to those who are equal in regards to leading and being led by light.” Flora instructed.

Despite the instructions, Base still had reservations as far as the orb was concerned. He noticed a spiky red “N” above a red arrow at the top of the map, and the depth effect made the object all the more vast-looking and ominous. Apparently, his fears were apparent, as Fauna smiled pleasantly at him.

“Don’t worry. It won’t hurt.” She reassured.

“Okay…” Base motioned closer towards the newer gift. “But I want to point out: that usually is the biggest lie ever told.” Against his better judgment, he touched the orb and, as soon as he did, the entire thing burst at his touch; like a glass crystal ball smashed to the floor, but in midair. Its ethereal contents threaded together and flew directly into his outstretched fingertips, disappearing into his skin. “So… just head up now?”

“Not without my gift you don’t!” Merryweather protested.

“Merryweather is right. You’ll need it where you’re going.”

“Where am I going?”

“Somewhere too soon for me to explain this to you.” Merryweather answered with a moan and a groan. In Merrweather’s possession was a neatly made blue messenger’s bag with the letters “S.N.” in a spiky golden font with a metallic luster stitched on the top part of the satchel.

“But you must. He’ll have far too much to carry where he’s going.”

“Yen Sid’s-?” Base started to ask, but was cut off by Flora.

“Not quite, dear. You’re here for a very special purpose to be sure, and sooner or later, you’ll likely have to prove yourself in one way or another.”

Before Base had a chance for a rebuttal of the remark, a new presence entered the room. “Begging your pardon bu- WHAT?!” A squawky, almost unintelligible voice came from the other side of the door. The tone was meek at first, but quickly exploded into confusion as a white, feathery head popped into the room; an orange bill hung agape from the face beneath a pair of two big blue eyes the size of saucers.

“Yes, Donald?” Fauna replied.

“Oh!” Realization dawned on the anthropomorphic duck, and he chuckled lightly with a wheezy lilt. “Sorry, but I was sent to get uhh…” Donald read from a card in one of his feathered hands. “Sebastian Noble.”

“Ohhhh!” Merryweather was positively flustered. “Now what?”

“Write a note, dear.” Flora replied nonchalantly.

“I’ll what??” Merryweather was bewildered by the casual statement. “How am I supposed to explain it better on a single piece of paper? Flora!”

“You’ll manage.” Flora said curtly. “Now scoot! We must let Base prepare.”

“Prepare for what?” Base’s question went unanswered as the Three Good Fairies made a hasty departure.

“Good luck, dear.” Each said in unison before they were gone, and Donald waddled fully into the room.

“Are you ready yet, Sebastian?” Donald asked.

Base nearly passed out. He suddenly felt the sinking feeling that the fight with the Infernal Engine had been enough to kill him. Was his entire life flashing before his eyes? At least... parts of it. So much had happened since then, so why did he go back to that moment of his life when he first arrived at Yen Sid's tower? Base shook the sudden mental overload out of his mind before noticing Karina had already dashed off ahead of everyone else. He knew the Horseman from one excursion already. A great deal of mystery surrounded the steed and the rider. Base plagued himself with questions. Why Alice? Why Belle? Not one to shy away from battle, Base made quick work of catching up to Karina.

"On your left." Base confirmed to his female ally as he pulled up to the left side of her. He nodded to her, and then was silent; he only focused on their goal: to catch the Headless Horseman.

 

Beuce gripped his new keyblade tightly. He could feel the raw OP coming from it. "Thanks Merlin! I'll use this to show up the other keyblade wielders!" He turned to Wart, feeling somewhat sorry for him. He walked over to the poor kid and put a hand on his shoulder. He knew the pain of losing something precious. Something they'd only just obtained that would lead them to a better life, only to have it slip from your fingers. "I know how you feel..." He looked off to the side, the wind blowing in his hair. It was a sorrowful and brooding stare, off into the horizon. "I too lost something once..."

Spoiler: Sorrowful Flashback of pain and tears

I was born a poor black child. Life was hard in those days, a poor kid alone in his mansion with only the company of everyone he knew and several attractive women and only millions of dollars to his name. How's one to get by? Those days were hard, but there was one memory that stuck into my memory far far more than the rest. I was at the doctor's office for a checkup on my fourth wall displacia, hearing voices in my head usually isn't a good thing. I was sitting in the waiting room, awaiting the doctor to see me, when all of the sudden a thirst like no other washed over me. As parched as i was, i managed to navigate my way down the completely straight hall and at the end of it was my salvation. The bright lights of a soda machine illuminated the poorly lit hall. I rubbed my hand across the plastic image, then removed the proper money from my pocket. After inserting it into the machine, it took the bill with a whir. My finger trailed down along the machine until finally it reached the desired beverage. Fizzy pop, the nectar of the gods. A quick push of it caused me to wait in anticipation.

But...something was wrong. The machine clunked and rattled, but nothing emerged. After a few seconds, it stopped. I checked the slot, void of fizzy drinks. I stepped back from the machine, a look of shock on my face. The machine had taken my dollar, yet left me with nothing. The fizzy pop...It was gone. At this point my thirst had reached a new high. In a fit of despair, i collapsed to my knees. I pounded my fist against the machine again and again. Tears streamed down my face. With each punch to the machine, my rage and sorrow built up until i was finally unable to contain it any longer. I let out a massive cry of desperation. "FIZZZYYYY POOOOOOOOOP!"

Beuce wiped a tear from his eye, the flashback had brought back memories that were...better left forgotten. He looked to wart. No. He wouldn't let it happen to another poor soul. Never again would someone go through the same pain..."Don't worry wart. We'll get back your fizzy pop! I mean, your sworda! I mean..." Beuce sniffled. "My fizzy pop..."

 

Spoiler: Flashback (#ORIGINALIDEA)

She sat alone in her room. It was routine, but she couldn't shake the feeling of emptiness. Family was relative, and hers was as small as it got.
That shouldn't get to her. But it did. She heard coughing coming from the kitchen and she marked her spot in the textbook before checking it out. What she saw was no surprise.
"Mom, I told you I'd do it later. You need to rest."
"Honey, you shouldn't have to worry. I can do it."
The coughing began again. She turned away to try and hide the splattered blood covering her palm. She played dumb, but she knew it wasn't getting any better.
"Come on, you won't feel any better pushing yourself. If you want food, I can get it."
She began to lead her mother back to her room, letting the silence surround them. The truth was staring her in the face, but she refused to just accept it. She put her back in bed and made sure she had her water and meds. Nothing anyone gave her made a difference, and everyone said the same thing: a few months, a year if she's lucky. After that...
Sometimes, she wondered whether feeling was really the better option. It seemed so much easier to give up. But her mother wasn't. She still wore that same smile. She moved back to her room and kept reading the book. It was old, and she didn't know how she'd managed to find it, but after that announcement the mayor had made about needing warriors, she needed to know if other worlds held the key. After all, none of the trouble would be worth it if she would just end up alone anyway.

She ached all over, the memories flooding back despite her desire to let them fade. Suddenly, she felt something wet in her ear. Her eyes flew open and she looked over only to find Pascal with his tongue in her ear. She sat up quickly, fighting the tiredness in her limbs and he almost seemed to smile. Maybe because she hadn't knocked him to the other side of the room after he revived her. Cat looked and saw Glen and Kaida talking before she threw her Keyblade towards Vanitas' feet. She saw him with Rapunzel over his shoulder... fighting off Maximus? When had he gotten there? Just what was going on in the tower? She caught the eyes of her teammates and nodded before following Kaida's lead and tossing her own blade towards Vanitas. Maybe the element of surprise was all they needed.

 

Spoiler: Flashback #1

Luna sat under a tree and looked toward the sky. Her mother walked up to her and smiled. "Is this spot taken?" Luna looked up at her mother and slightly giggled. "No. That spot is free if you want to sit down." Her mother sat next to her as she looked toward the sky as well. They remained there for a few moments until her mother spoke. "Luna?" Luna turned her head toward her mother as she called her name. "Yes? Is something wrong?" Her mother shook her head no as a smile ran across her face. "I heard a young man confessed his love for you. And that young man is a very dear friend of our family." Luna blushed as a shocked expression ran across her face. "No! Where did you hear that!?!? Um..... I have no clue what you're talking about!" Luna looked toward the ground. Her mother giggled as she watched her daughter explain herself. "Ok then, if you say so. Just know that, if you truly love someone, make sure you protect them with your life. Love is something that the darkness can never touch or destroy. Love is something very powerful and can overcome any obstacles no matter how difficult it can be. Okay?" Luna nodded her head as she listened to her mother. "I heard that young man is coming over for dinner so maybe you, him, and your father and I can discuss this." Luna blushed as she sighed. She nodded her head as she stood up. "Hey Mom?" Her mother looked up at Luna. "Yes?" Luna smiled toward her mother. "Are you up for a spar?" Her mother giggled as she stood up. "Anytime you're ready to fall flat on your butt!" Luna laughed as she started walking. "You're on!"

Luna ran toward the Beast and stopped in her tracks as she saw the horseman take Belle away. She saw the Beast was injured. The next moment she saw the group run toward Belle's original home. Luna stood there as she looked backed toward the Beast. Love can overcome anything. I just hope Belle and Beast's love can overcome death and this darkness. Luna ran after the rest of the group.
She caught up to rest of the group as she saw the horseman and Belle in her field of view. " GET BACK HERE! LET BELLE GO NOW!!" Luna yelled toward the horseman as she felt another dark presence up ahead. Mom, grant me your strong light and help Beast and Belle. Please! Luna continued running as she grabbed her necklace.

 

Kaida had run to chase after Vanitas before his portal closed and she let out a quick, "No!" she stared at the empty place where it once was and gritted her teeth in anger. This was her job, it was her job to protect the princess and she had failed. She followed Maximus and saw the keyhole and stared at it for a moment before she felt her keyblade resonate with it. She stared at the keyblade for a moment longer before she pointed it towards the keyhole and watched light shine from the keyblade towards the keyhole. The blade stopped shining it's light and the keyhole shined brightly for a moment before it disappeared as quickly as it had appeared. She tensed up and wanted to scream, but instead she just threw her keyblade at the ground and it disappeared as well. It didn't reappear back in her hand because she refused to allow it to and she just stood there filled with anger and stress towards herself. If she was the type of person that cried, this would be the moment she would.

 

Cat sat and watched as Vanitas disappeared, Rapunzel slung over his shoulder. She wanted to run after them, but she was still exhausted. All she could do was sit there. She saw Kaida's blade react to the world's keyhole and looked away, too ashamed to think about having to move on. Her hands became fists and she hit the ground beneath her, unwilling to accept any of this. "How can this be? We're supposed to protect people, not let them get captured! ...it's not right."

 

Beast lay before them, wounded and weak with shallow breathe. The night sky let on a down pour of rain, from the cluster of clouds that loomed over them as the group watched Belle comfort Beast. The bond between the two was clear as stagnant waters. Belle held Beast close, soothing him with her soft delicate voice. It was a bittersweet moment, one that D'daear just had to accept. The keyblade disappeared in its usual display of celestial light, leaving his hands free for him to place behind his head. He wasn't too happy at everything that had just occurred, what with Gaston's demise, and Beast getting hurt. This was all new to him, this gloomy scenery, and yet somehow he was able to endure it as if he had been accustomed to it through countless moments just like this one. Blue irises followed Belle's form as she walked back into the ballroom, scudding for bandages. Soon enough, he let the attention fall, drifting into his own mind-scape while taking steps towards the railing that bordered the stone balcony. Dull. That's how he felt now. He placed his forearms on the stone railing, letting his shoulders droop as he leaned forward, staring down at the ravine below. The cloudy sky flashed with lightning, with the earth trembling soon enough. Why was he feeling this way? Just moments ago he was enthusiastic, and willing to take on anything thrown his way. So why? Perhaps it was his first time seeing someone...disappear from existence, or could it be that he was disappointed at their failure at protecting the Master of this castle. He gritted his teeth, eyebrows furrowing in frustration. "Why am I feeling like this?" ethereal thoughts manifested, beginning to question. This feeling, this emotion...it was all so new to him. It was sadness, nor disappointment.

The home-world that was his own. It was a world where peace was constant, and undisturbed. Where everyone got along just fine, without fears, or worries. Everything was fair, and everyone cared. A Utopia unscathed by the troubles that echoed throughout the realm of light. Things like this never happened where he used to live...used too.

D'daear willed his right palm to face up, inevitably forcing the radius bone to tilt his forearm as well. He stared deeply into his palm, wondering just where was this new life taking him. A another bolt of lightning lit the dark skies, the sound reverberating loudly through everything.

Suddenly, loud noise emanated from within the ballroom. It was a cackle and persistent heels galloping, approaching rather fast. It was enough of a commotion to stir everyone behind him to life. He came too, fast enough for his eyes to catch sight of a dark portal arise from the ground, blocking any attempt of him possibly identifying the source of the commotion. Kross came to action a tad bit too late, his keyblade slamming against a now empty floor. Soon Luna began to shout over the balcony, the desperation in her voice clearly visible. D'daear removed himself from his self-pity for the moment, snapping into action. He followed Luna's gaze down to the courtyard, where evidently the other group was. Another void of darkness had erupted just in-front of the other group, where the culprit emerged. It was a rider on its steed, riding off with Beast's beloved. Wide eye'd, D'daear groaned, clentching hands tightly on the railing. This visit was just going horribly wrong.

----------

It was only a while before the group had apparently finally merged, with Vincent now taking the initiative to stay behind to tend to beast. D'daear stood in the midst of them all, watching Krowley stare deeply into a magical hand-held mirror. It seemed he had found their next destination. The young keyblade wielder curled his hands into a tight fist, brows furrows with determination in his eyes. Giving a nod of acknowledgement to Krowley, he was ready to head out towards wherever it was they needed to be. Hopefully, they could save Belle.

 

Kaida calmed herself down the best she could, there was no use in holding a grudge. What's done is done and maybe she could repair it but she didn't know yet. She walked over towards Maximus and looked the horse in the eyes and asked him, "Are you alright, is the darkness still hurting you at all?" The horse gave a sad shake of the head to say no and Kaida sighed, "I know you're sad but I'll try a-"

*BEEP* *BOOP*

???	Dawn? Come in. Didn't recieve your last report. Everything alright?

​

Kaida froze and let out an irritated growl and walked away from Maximus and held up the watch on her hand and mumbled before she pressed a button, "Don't call me Da-"

*BEEP*

Kaida	Define alright? Because um... yeah, define alright?

???	Play what! Dawn, you fought to do this alone. If you come back with a mission failed, I don't know what Orion will do.

Kaida	Look I- I don't know about you all but something went on here that I don't remember you saying was going to be a problem! The princess is...

???	Pause! I don't know what's going on there, but Mizu and Ecplise haven't reported back there either... If this is a wide spread problem, it could have something to do with the belt robbings.

​

Kaida	I have a question, Replay. Were other wielders sent to back me up? There are three here that... they helped me out I won't pretend they didn't but I thought I would be informed if others were authorized and they seemed to be here for a completely different reason.

Replay	Better rewind that for me since I know we didn't send any reinforcements. You wanted to do this on your own, and we respected that. Have they given you any trouble?

Kaida	They were too conspicuous, pulling out their keyblades left and right and speaking about outerworld matters in front of the residents of Corona. They were basically meddling away.

Replay	Not really professional I see. Eject outta there and bring them with you. Can't afford to have them in other worlds untrained.

Kaida	Alright, I hope they comply. Anything else?

Replay	Just be careful out there.

​

*BEEP* *BOOP*

Kaida let out a sigh and turned towards Cat, Etrius, and Glen and spoke sternly, "Okay, I know you three probably do not want to but, I need to ask you to please come with me. As soon as things get sorted out I'll make sure they send you back to whereever you need to go... is that alright?"​

 

Spoiler: Anoder FLASHBACK!!!

Steel could sense that sometime in the future, numerous allies of his were having flashbacks all at once for some inexplicable reason. He decided right then and there that the next few moments would be his flashback. Now he just needed to make it as relevant to his actual past as possible. He calmly observed the rain falling all around him, before quickly running to the nearest gazebo: As much as he liked the rain, he had something very important with him that he needed to keep dry. As he ducked in however, he promptly crashed into a young woman, and they both fell to the ground scattering papers everywhere.
He sat up rubbing his forehead in pain. Worried about the letter, he rose to organize the papers. He did not forget his manners however.
"My Apologies." He stated as she let out a soft moan of pain.
"No, It's alright." She began to aid him in picking up the papers, only to pause when she brushed her hand against his paw. He continued though, knowing full well nothing was particularly wrong. She picked up the one object they had both gone to pick up in that moment: the letter. She slowly opened it up and began to review it's contents. He sighed as she grew distracted with reading and decided to just have the papers gather themselves into two neat piles based on what belonged to whom. With a simple wave of his paw, this was done. He gave the girl a few more moments to read, when she seemed to be done though he made quick work of interrupting her thoughts on it. "Excuse Me?" She turned her head to him quickly with a look of shock on her face. He paid it no mind however, and continued. "I have to deliver that letter, Aura." He smiled. "Isn't that why you gave it to me?" The girl's shocked expression remained, but she handed him the letter.
"Of Course Steel."
He smiled as he helped her up, knowing she couldn't see the form he was really in. Instead, she saw a boy with dark blue hair around her age. He had hidden himself from his future allies too; though not in quite the same way. For one thing, he was in a very different form. For now though, he was just glad that since he was not a 7 foot anthropomorphic wolf in her eyes, she would not have to deal with the offending smell of wet fur.

Steel quietly arose from the shadows behind the group making a point not to grab too much attention. He fell into step behind them, leaving a brief cloud of confetti in the wake of where he had resurfaced. It was very colorful, but he couldn't quite remember why he had done that just now. He shook his head as he ran after the group. They had too hurry if they wanted to try and rescue Belle.

 

Cat looked over at Kaida. She heard half of the conversation that had just taken place, and it made her uneasy. Of course their alliance with Kaida wasn't going to last, if anything it was doomed from the start, but they'd just failed in protecting someone who needed them. And suddenly, that didn't seem to matter to her. She'd seemed so adamant about protecting Rapunzel before and now she seemed focused on evaluating them as wielders. "You knew Rapunzel was a princess... didn't you?" She fought the aching in her body as she stood herself up. Even if she wouldn't get a choice in leaving, she was going to be damn sure they'd at least get some answers. "Even when we were hearing the stories, I put it together, but you were hiding it from the beginning." She moved closer to their enigmatic partner. "Forgive me if we're not as 'experienced' as you seem to be, but don't you think you should've tried to share that kind of information sooner? Maybe it could've made a difference." She turned away. There wasn't much keeping her together at this point. She was a wreck. This outburst probably wasn't helping any part of her case, but she tried her best to keep her voice even. Whoever was backing her up seemed big. There was no point in making unnecessary enemies. She sighed and took off her hat, promptly crushing it in her fist to relieve some tension. "I'll go with you, that's fine. I just need to know that I can trust you... to some extent, at least."

 

Kaida listened to Cat intently and crossed her arms and spoke, "I'm going to paint a picture for you. You are on a mission to protect a princess from a threat, an unidentified threat that nothing is know about. Then, three keyblade wielders you have no knowledge about appear around the princess you are aiming to protect." Kaida closed her eyes and shook her head, "I couldn't tell you information because up until it was too late to try and tell you, I still considered you a thread. It was better to be safe than sorry." Kaida opened up her eyes again and looked at the three, "My purpose, the order's purpose, is to maintain order in the worlds. And the princess was a key part... but now... I've..." she cut herself off and her face went back to a serious expression, "I just need you three to come with me."

 

His fist clenched in anger over Vanitas fleeing, Glen simply stood there silently. Vanitas didn't even leave because they were threats, or because they would even slow him down, he left because they weren't worth his time. They weren't threatening enough to be worthwhile fighting. Was this the power of darkness? How could he possibly compete with that kind of strength?

He snapped back to reality as Kaida began talking directly to them. So she was from the Order too, just like Blaze was. His mind, once again, went back to thinking about his past. His suffering, his loss, and his will to change that. "If you're from the Order, then you're from the future too. I'll go with you, but on one condition. Once this is all over, once we've helped you, you don't take me wherever I want to go. You take me whenever I want to go. You take me back into the past. Deal?" he asked, extending his hand in a completely serious offer.

 

Etrius began to regain consciousness slowly, in time to hear a couple of his comrades bickering. He lifted himself and grunted in pain. He had lost. Though loss is usually a learning experience, there was nothing to learn other than the fact that Vanitas had captured Rapunzel, and there was no sense getting angry over it. He overheard Kaida being in the order as he walked up to them and listened quietly. While Glen was making a deal with Kaida, Etrius sauntered over to Cat, asking her, "You alright? saw you take a bit of a beating...." He paused, then resumed, "Well, all of us did."

 

Cat heard Etrius wake up and try to start a conversation. Admittedly, she wasn't really feeling talkative. "I'm fine, all things considered." She was far from it, in fact, but she didn't want to worry her teammates when they had bigger fish to fry at the moment. She could only focus on what Kaida had told her. So she was part of some world-saving order? She remembered something that Glen had mentioned and figured that it'd be best to consult Etrius about it. "Wait, what's all this about the future and the past? Is time travel really a thing?" She kept her voice down to avoid drawing attention about it, but it was really confusing her.

 

Kaida was staring at them, confused by what they had meant by from the future but there seemed to be some serious emotions coming out of the idea of time travelling. Kaida stared at Glen's extended hand, which is she shook she would be agreeing to have him time travel back but.... her problem was she couldn't promise something like that because she did not have the power to. Especially since the belts were stolen. Kaida looked Glen straight in the eyes and answered, "I will do my best to do that." and she reached out and shook his hand.

Kaida looked towards Cat and Etrius and smiled, "Are you two all set?" and without waiting for an answer she replied, "Then let's head out." Kaida walked a couple feel away and was about to activate her armor when she felt a hoof land on her shoulder trying to stop her. She turned to see Maximus looking at her intently, seeming to have the intention to go with her. Kaida shook her head and said, "Sorry I cannot take you." Pascal looked at her and crossed his arms and she replied, "I-I'm sorry! I appreciate all the help you have given us but... we'll bring back Rapunzel I promise. I'll see you two later."

Kaida went to walk away but the horse continued following her to the point where she decided to just activate her armor. When her armor was fully activated she used summoned out her key glider and she mumbled, "Stubborn horse." She looked back at Cat, Etrius, and Glen and yelled, "Well come on then!" and she flew off into the sky to exit the world.

Cat learned the summon Maximus
Etrius learned the summon Maximus
Glen learned the summon Maximus
Kaida learned the summon Maximus

 

Cat glared at Kaida as she smiled at their group. Nothing she did was going to be able to calm her down. What finally did cheer her up, however, was Maximus and Pascal. Their genuine care for Rapunzel was heart-warming. She finally loosened the grip she'd had on her hat and put it back on. She chuckled softly before Kaida put on some kind of armor and mocked them before flying off. The horse and chameleon looked downtrodden, and once Kaida was out of the picture she moved over to them. She stroked Maximus, but couldn't bring herself to look him in the eyes. He looked at her though, and he could tell that she felt guilty. He neighed and Pascal hopped off of him onto her shoulder. She looked to the chameleon, who was punching his open palm, and smiled. "Don't worry. When I find that masked creep, I'll crack his helmet for you guys." They smiled at her and Pascal hopped back onto the horse's back. She summoned her blade and looked up. As much as she didn't want to go with Kaida, there really wasn't a choice in it for them anyway. "I swear, I'll bring her back." She threw her blade and it transformed into her glider. She sat on it as it hovered in the middle of the room and gave the pair one last smile. "Just make sure Flynn doesn't get into trouble while I'm gone, alright?" Maximus seemed a little sad, but he quickly put on a serious face and nodded. She smiled and with that she flew off to follow their mysterious escort.

 

Glen gave a short nod to Pascal and Maximus. He wasn't going to make any promises to return Rapunzel, but he had every intention to try and get back at Vanitas. The dark powers he possessed made him an enormous threat though, and surely the wielders would need some kind of ridiculously good ability to get back at him. "Dark-boy's gonna die" he said rather grimly. He glanced quickly at Etrius. "Other dark boy, not you. Don't worry, no plans to kill you right now" he said with a short chuckle. Tossing his keyblade into the air and turning it into its glider form, he leaped up and landed on top of it and began following the others. I can't help get the feeling that we're forgetting something, but what? Oh well.. he thought as he glided.

Meanwhile, at the bottom of a dark cell..

Flynn Rider pulled at the chains that bound him to the wall by his hands. He strained against it, but to no avail; he could not get free. "But i'm telling you, I'm not Flynn Rider! I've seen the posters, his nose is much bigger than mine!" he yelled out desperately. There was no response to this, as the guards seemed to be ignoring him. Giving up hope, he slumped against the wall allowed himself to fall to the ground and sit down. "Guys...I can live without my satchel now. Just come back and get me out!" he called out. As he expected, there was no response, they seemed to have left him behind. "Guuuuuuuuuuuuys?!" he yelled out once again.

 

Etrius had disregarded Glen's comment of "Dark Boy", but was a little peeved of Glen having later plans of killing him.
Currently, Etrius was sane enough to know that this mission couldn't be weirder, and even though he was knocked out long enough to not know what the hell was going on, he knew deep in his gut that questions must be asked later. he threw his Oathkeeper into the air, it turning into glider form. He jumped on, and caught up with the rest. When he caught up, he asked to Kaida, "Ok Kaida, now that we have true introductions established, whats our next course of action? After all, we did let Coward McMetalhead get away. Not to rub it in to you guys," He looked back over to Glen and Cat before turning back and continuing, "But if we're going to catch him, and his cohorts, we gotta prepare ourselves in some way."