Video Game: Kingdom Hearts SOS: The Road To Light

Raisor shook Stratos' hand as he introduced himself. Though being told he was great during the recent incident made him feel like smiling a little, since he wasn't really used to getting many compliments. He followed the group up the stairs and ascended the tower, trying to figure out what their next move was going to be. The problem was, Raisor couldn't help but feel like he'd been in this situation before. They had just escaped from an army back in Central Haven, which was supposed to be as the name implies, a haven, and that didn't work too well; now they were climbing the tower of some place they trusted. Raisor prayed his hardest that they wouldn't end up at the top and find something they didn't want to.

As he walked up more, Raisor noticed there was a portal to walk through, and he stepped on through. As he did, the walled hallway suddenly disappeared and the group was walking through a new space, with the stairs floating beneath them, and a giant space everywhere around them. Raisor wasn't even sure if they were still in the tower at this point. Following the stairs in front of him, he walked up a spiral more until another portal appeared before him, and he walked through. As he did, he ended up in a room with two doors on opposite sides. Raisor wasn't quite sure what was going on, but he supposed if they were going to travel through the home of a sorcerer, he might as well just take what was going on at face value and accept it. He kept walking more, going through the door and ending up back in the floating stair space. Raisor felt like he was going to get some kind of whiplash he he kept going back and forth between areas so quickly.

As he continued to climb, the bad feeling in his stomach began to feel worse. Most of the time he didn't get bad feelings, but when he did, they mostly turned out to be true. Though maybe that was just because he had bad luck, or it had to do with his past following him. Raisor continued on past another strange room, and ended up in an area with stairs that led straight up instead of spiraling, and figured this would be the last area to go through. He took one step at a time, each one seeming to be further than the other, and finally reached the final door to go through. As he opened the door and went through, Raisor made a slight "tch" sound, and knew their luck was never that good.

In the room where Raisor stood, everything was trashed and thrown about, like someone was searching for something. Books were on the floor and scattered, and the shelves were damaged and broken. In front of him stood a rounded desk with a chair behind it. The worst part of the room was what sat in the chair though. In the tall chair stood a stone statue that looked straight at them. The face was grinning for some reason, but Raisor could take a good guess at who the person was in the char. The one thing he couldn't understand was why he was smiling. One of the other keybladers walked up to the statue and touched it, but Raisor was sure it was real. He didn't want to think about why he was a statue, but with that grin, either it happened on purpose, or he was managing to keep a secret from the enemy before it happened. For all he knew, it was both of those things at the same time.

For Raisor though, it wasn't the room or the man in the statue that made him dread being in the room. He began to remember what happened in his past, and how his bad feeling about being in this situation before was on the mark. At that point, images flashed in his head from the previous event, and Raisor grabbed his head in pain and screamed. The memories were as clear as day and came back all at once.

Raisor looked around, and for some reason, he wasn't in the tower anymore but looked at a dark room with a bunch of people huddled on the ground. Outside, he could hear screams and things crashing and breaking. There were about twelve people, counting himself, all of them with fear in their eyes. Two of them, who looked like they were the oldest out of them, kept near the door and were holding weapons. Raisor remembered them, and tears began to form in his eyes. The two people looked at him and smiled, then the images disappeared and Raisor was back in the tower room.

Raisor wasn't sure why he had to remember that moment. He tried so hard to forget those memories, but every time he thought he had, they found a way back to him. Raisor got up shakily, and looked around the room. At that point, he noticed a shadow run behind him and into a mirror that was on the wall. He didn't notice what it was, but the one thing he did notice was that the creature disappeared through the mirror, like what they had all done in Central Haven. If that mirror could get them some place else, maybe they could figure out what to do there.

 

It looked like they made it to the top, apparently last too. He heard Ananta ask about his Master and he smiled softly."Ananta, he's a man unlike any other."He said. He admired the old Master and it was very clear why. He breathed in, putting his hands on the door."It looks like we're the last ones here, so let's go meet the master, Ananta."He said and pushed the doors open. The study was a mess, definitely not like he left it. His eyes widened as his knees grew weak, books scattered with wild abandon and ink splattered on the floor. He then saw Master Yen Sid, still and grey colored, just like.."No, Master!" He shrieked with horror, muscline past the others and hurried to Yen Sid's frozen side. He hesitantly touched the hand, feeling cold stone. His other hand touched the shoulder and his eyes widened, teeth grit and anger boiling, his eyes snapped to Hikaru, narrowed with restrained anger."Why is Master like this?"He asked, his tone was soft, though behind it laid unbridled rage, as if he was blaming Hikaru for his Master's state.

 

Glen had been strangely silent the entire time they were there. Thoughts were playing on his mind, ones that weren't particularly pleasing. Most people had made it through, had successfully escaped the wrath of the behemoth army, but not all. Among the lost were two people that had inevitably been left behind, Glen had noticed Etrius and Eon missing. He had never been fond of Etrius, but geez..being slaughtered by what seemed like a billion behemoths wasn't the kindest way to go, the keyblade wielder almost felt bad for him. And then there was Eon. Eon, who had seemed really distant, as though he had given up. Glen had tried to help him, but he'd failed. And now he was gone. The first person there that Glen had thought of as a friend, the first person to actually talk to him when he had joined the others. Gone forever.

As if that wasn't bad enough, now two people who clearly knew the stoned guy were suffering. Base, who from what Glen had seemed was somewhat cheerful, was now a weeping mess, and Kross was blaming Hikaru. He didn't know Hikaru, but if things were going to get any better than they were, blaming each other was not the answer. Kross had never actually yelled out at Hikaru, never directly called him out on it, but the look on his face..it wasn't exactly a friendly one.

Stepping over next to Hikaru, he decided to try and intervene. "Look, I don't know who the hell you are, and I don't know how you knew the old guy, but this guy here?" he asked, pointing at Hikaru, "he was with us in central haven. He helped save our lives, and he got here at the same time we did. There's no way he could be the one who did this. Nah, the one you're looking for..." Glen said, before changing the direction he was looking at. He shifted his gaze to the mirror on the shelf, and the trail of ink leading to it. There was one person that had been there before them all. "Went through there, and I intend on going after them", he spoke, pointing directly at the mirror.

 

The next person to enter the room was Kel, who was quite surprised at the sight before him. The room was showing signs of either a struggle, something throughly looking for something or even both. Books were pretty much thrown on the ground all over the floor. Various kind of objects and trinkets too were scattered about the room. All this destruction of a single room makes you wonder if the perpetrator even found whatever he was looking for, or did all the effort that was but into looking wasted.

Next thing that Kel noticed was when he took a step further into the room. First he heard a splashing sound as his foot made contact with the ground. The noise prompted him to look down towards the ground and see that he'd stepped in ink which made a trail leading to a mirror. Next came the stone statue of Yen Sid sitting in his chair, smirking at his fate. Kel might not have know what events lead to him turning to stone, but that smirk was likely his way of saying that everything had gone according to plan or something along those lines.

While Kel mentally tried to get a grasp on what had happened, Kross had turned to Hikaru and questioned him on Yen Sid's current condition, which Glen was the first person to defend Hikaru. "Easy there, like Glen said Hikaru was with us back at Central Haven. Heck I saw him riding a giant elephant during the battle against all those heartless so I doubt he knows any more about what happened than we do." Granted on the off chance that he did, it was something that would need to be explained soon. His eyes went back to the ink trail and the mirror that it lead to. Well it certainly was suspicious enough. "So the mirror either leads to a trap or the location of the culprit. A 50/50 chance. Eh, I've seen worse odds."

 

Ananta followed Kross inside, prepared to meet this Master Yen Sid and hear his stories. Maybe even learn something about herself or the keyblade. Walking inside, Ananta covered her nose. The room stank of ink and dust that had been kicked up from old books being scattered. Watching Kross, Ananta's eyes were fixated on the stone man sitting on the throne with a grin upon his face. Kross seemed to be in pain. 'This must be Master Yen Sid...' Ananta thought, standing there in disbelief. The way Kross spoke about Master Yen Sid, he made it seem like he was very wise and nearly invincible. Looking at Kross, Ananta saw hurt in his eyes and anger that was being suppressed. When Kross demanded questions from Hikaru, Ananta frowned. She was ready to speak when she heard Glen speak before her. Kel soon followed after. Her eyes glanced over Master Yen Sid once more and then finally stopped upon Kross' eyes. They had a rage to them that she hadn't noticed before. It frightened Ananta a little, knowing a sweet person like Kross was able to become so distraught. Then again, this Yen Sid must have been someone very dear to Kross, so it was within reason to be angry, sad, and unsure of others.

Walking forward, Ananta didn't notice the floor was covered in the ink she previously had smelled. Ananta sort of ran towards Kross, trying to get to his side and calm him down. She knew she acted very much like a mother, but she didn't like seeing people in so much pain. It really sucked, to say the least. As she neared the group, Ananta slipped and fell on her back. She sat up and felt the ink clinging to her newly found jacket. Giving a face of disgust, she shrugged the jacket off and let it lay on the floor. Kneeling beside Kross, Ananta put a hand on his and looked at him. "They're right Kross. You know just as well as all of us that Hikaru was there in Central Haven fighting just as hard as the rest of us. There's no way he could have anything to do with this. And asking him why this all happened is pointless, for the same reason, so all we can do is follow through that mirror over there and try to not get too worked up for the time being." she said, smiling softly at him. "Please calm down, we don't need anybody getting angry with anyone and causing unneeded conflict." she said. Unknowingly, Ananta had positioned her arm just enough for everyone to see the large scar on her arm. It looked quite bad, being that it was very red right now. The ink that was on her arm wasn't helping and was instead causing a sting to pulse through her arm. She swallowed the pain however, knowing her injury wasn't as bad as the others.

 

The very second Karina responded, he whirled around quickly to face her. For just a moment, he nearly made some wisecrack about her homeworld, nearly challenged the girl to a fight, he nearly said something to inflate his own ego, but he didn't. Instead, Glen took a very, very deep breath. "Karina, we just lost some friends back in that fight. Eon, Etrius, and Seiza, just to name a few. They might actually be alive if you weren't so useless that you decided to pass out in the heat of the fight. Then, when we get here, Base and Kross see someone who they clearly cared about turned to stone, and you pick now of all times to do this? If you want to be a stupid little *****, go ahead, but do it in a place that people don't have to hear it, they've suffered enough. You said before that I'm immature, but the only child here is you. Go back home, Karina, before you get somebody else killed" Glen said, his voice calm but it was easy to see the anger in his voice.

Taking a step over to the mirror now, the keyblade warrior turned back to face everyone. "That mouse might not be the killer of that guy, but I'm betting he knows something about it. I'm done arguing here, it's not accomplishing anything. Stay here if you want, but I'm going to get some answers" Glen said, before diving into the mirror behind him.

 

"I was thinking that we should approach the situation carefully. Glen just jumping head long has changed that a bit. We can't leave him to whatever's waiting on the other side." Base approached Karina as she wept on the ground, and he did so without fear. In his heart, he wanted no one to suffer; it was a deep pain inside him that drew him to ensuring the mental stability of others. When he heard the barrage of insults end in Karina's emotional explosion, Base dared to sit beside her. He did not touch her, but only spoke with understanding and patience. She could growl at him like she had at Ananta. Base would understand it. When Theate fell, he shouted an ground shattering yell that drained him of every sense of feeling he had, and he saw that same presence existing in Karina at that moment. "For what it's worth, you aren't worthless. I never give idle compliments, and I know no more powerful, capable warrior than the one I am looking at right now." He said it with determination and inner strength. He knew how tough Karina was, but knew that she was breaking and if no one dared... "I dare to try and pick up the pieces when everyone else is afraid of getting cut on the sharp edges. I can't begin to understand you, but I can do everything I can to make sure that I am not another thorn in your side. I accept you for the calloused, rough heroine you are. I accept Glen for the pain he can sometimes be, but he is as well an adept fighter. I'm sure he is, but I've never fought with him."

He gave her a serious look. "I've fought with you though. And I know. If there's any danger waiting on the other side, I know that you can take it head on, and I will fight beside you without a moment's delay." He then spoke to his apprentice, since many had gathered in the room by that point. "D'daear, I don't ask you to follow where I go, but know that I trust in your abilities as well. Whatever happened to you all recently, I know you handled it without me." He smiled. It was an emotional moment, and he tried to keep himself together. "Karina, if there's any hope for any of us right now, it is the epitome of usefulness that I see: a powerful warrior."

He stood. "We're all capable of handling whatever comes our way, but our only hope comes as our hearts are tied. In many ways, we never leave each other's sides, though we separate and take on our own worlds. One of of us knows someone we don't personally, and that ties us all together as champions of the Light. Right now, through error, Glen is going to need more light to aid him, because something tells me that he's not going to be able to come back right away if he got himself in trouble." Base was a born leader, without even knowing it himself. He merely spoke what he felt was right, and he said it confidently. "This is going to look really stupid, but it's something I have to do. I wouldn't ask anyone to do what I wouldn't be willing to do myself." And then, calling his Keyblade ready to his side and pacing himself, he jumped through the mirror after Glen and the Mouse.

OOC:

20/45 Experienced

 

Well there was an awkward feeling left in the air after the incident between Karina and Glen. Seeing as how Kel was actually on Land of Dragon when the incident that she's mentioned occurred, he'd expected just an insult to be his retaliation. Instead, well everyone heard what he said. They also heard how Karina responded to it, which in the sense that he was depressing like majority of the people here had a depressing background. To that extent however was up for later debate. Still as Glen went ahead and went through, Kel's mind drifted to the 3 aforementioned people.

Etrius, who he hadn't seen nor heard anything form since they even got to Central Haven. Eon, last he saw of him, he was going through some bird related issue. Didn't help that they weren't in the same group during the initial separation so he too was unaccounted for. Finally that left Seiza, who as far as Kel knew was working on the mirror for the duration of the heartless battle and had miraculously managed to stay out combat for the entire fight. Still that didn't explain where was he now. Going through the mirror should have been relatively easy for him given his position.

At the of his inner accounting for everyone, there was only 1 person that Karina could be considered responsible for and while that probably wouldn't do much to improve the situation, the person in question was Eon. Who pretty much was a meat shield. So as long as Arma didn't some how come back, he should be fine. Who was he kidding, going off the assumption that eon had gotten left behind, it would take a miracle for him to survive that mess all by himself. It was better not to think about that and hope for the best.

Now that just left the problem of Karina, who definitely would be a risk to leave in the current state she was in. Before he approached, he placed Luna down next to the mirror, if she could walk then there was nothing stopping her from getting up and doing whatever she pleased. Now that the potential reason for him to get hit in the crossfire was out of the way, Kel simply hopped that it would work as he approached Karina. "Well that certainly was unexpected. Now I may not know anything about your past aside from that outburst, I guess you could...come back to my home world when this is all over, you'll...likely fit in well there." By the end of that statement, Kel was awkwardly rubbing the back of his hand. He'd basically just invited her back to his home, which was very out of character for him compared to how he was prior to the heartless battle and while he was too late to take back what he said, he could only hope it wouldn't come down to his father not only catching wind of this, but seeing it as well. Fortunately he wasn't planning on heading home anytime soon, despite the current state his world is in.

 

While Glen was right on Hikaru not being the culprit, there was a bubbling anger rising in Kross's chest from a simple phrase stated by Glen himself. 'I don't know who you are or how you know the OLD MAN' Old man...old man? Glen didn't know a thing about him either. His lips peeled back in a snarl, ignoring Ananta's words, he let his anger guide his words."That old guy was my master, he was the one who picked me off of my feet when I was at my all time low, he was the one who taught me the ways of the keyblade. He took me in when my island was torn apart by the darkness..calling him an old guy is an insult to his memory..He wasn't just some old guy, he was like a father to me."He said in a hoarse whisper, his voice wet with rage and sorrow. His arms tensed, he was so tempted to summon his keyblade and strike down Glen for saying such things to him. His eyes were set in a piercing glare. His shoulders shook and his teeth grit, it was as if he was holding back something from escaping his very being. Glen left and he looked down. His fists clenched tight that blood dripped from his palms. He was so angry, whoever turned his Master to stone would pay in full. He heard Base's speech and he looked down. While it was true that he was very cross with Glen for saying such things, rubbing salt on the wound if you will..he was still Kross's comrade. He watched as Base disappeared. He was conflicted, help Glen or let him seal his own fate? He looked to Ananta."I can't leave Glen and Base to fight by themselves, I'm going."He said and reached into his pocket. He pulled out a hi potion and put it in her arms, looking at her."I'm going after the one who did this to my master..no my Father Yen Sid."He said, hurrying to the mirror. Just before he went there, he stopped and looked at Karina."I'm sorry." He said shortly and he took a few deep breathes, closing his eyes and taking the leap-of-faith into the mirror.

 

After Stratos had shook hands with Raisor, he went into the room that was going to be another juncture for another large point of drama. Though he didn't know it at the time, this was going to be going to be the place where all the **** was going to go down between people he had basically met twenty minutes ago, who were going to be his comrades for the rest of this journey. Hell, one of them might be his comrade in the next three hundred years or so. As he walked in he saw the odd scene that followed. That being that holy crap there was a man sized statue. He was pretty unsure as to what that was about, but apparently from what he had gathered from everyone else was that...he did this to himself. Aside from stopping a wall from crushing your friends, he had no idea as to why a person would actually turn themselves into a stone statue. And so, he continued to stand there, when Glen said he was going to go after someone who he thought was the culprit. It was then that apparently that culprit was a mouse, and Karina had retaliated at his suggestion with insults. Well she seemed to be...probably back to her old self. And that was apparently really... charming.

It was then that Glen got really pissed off at her. Like man, he went off the chain. After accusing her of being useless and all that, Stratos knew exactly what was coming up. Dear lord, why. He had been through this sort of thing...like three times...in the past half and hour. Nope. He was done with this. Karina broke down, just like he knew she would, and then started crying about how she couldn't go home because she knew her father would kill her the second she did. Stratos knew that she probably wasn't exaggerating, given what she had said prior in the fight against the one thousand heartless and what she had told him about her past. It was then that everyone went to her aid to cheer her up, which was good to get the opinions of others other than just some probably preachy boy and a guy who she blamed herself for him missing a limb. He then just casually said, "I've been through this a bunch of times before, and I can't say anything I haven't to reaffirm you of your strength, so you've just gotta let that get into your head. Anyway," he turned to the mirror and started walking towards it, "we've got no idea what is on the other side, but we do know that three of our own have gone through it. So, with them lacking a proper support over there, I gotta go and make sure that everyone's fine." Truth be told, he kind of wanted to leave this place as fast as possible with the awkward atmosphere that had been generated here. He had thought that Karina's response to Glen's thoughts on the culprit was unwarranted, but Glen went a bit more overboard. And so, he had no idea what to do about this, but he was probably going to have try and calm Glen down as well. With that thought in mind, he stepped through the second portal he had been in the last five minutes.

 

A long beige tower loomed over them, with a forest closely hugging the structure. It was like nothing he had ever seen. Wonder struck the boy for a moment before D'daear's face lit up when he noticed Base's presence exiting the building. After exchanging greetings, and the obvious of everyone's current predicament, a stream of green life giving energy surged over everyone's head. It was like someone had squeezed a lemon or something over them. He gave a quick scan over the others to see that the lot of them felt re-energized, fully healed perhaps; which was a good thing for what came next. With Base leading most of them, blue irises expanded when the sight of stairs became apparent upon entering a strange tower. Jaw gaped slightly at first, but closed when Base started up the stairway to...who knows where. A part of him wanted to speak when he was asked to, and he did for a while. When it was apparent that Base's head was else where, well...D'daear thought it best to just keep silent. Perhaps the Mentor was dealing with something just like everyone else here. There was no point in dumping his own problems on top of someone else's. One foot after the other they walked up with what seemed like a never ending flight of stairs. He could have promised anyone that the building didn't look THAT tall from the outside.

The other keyblade wielders were minding their business, engaging in conversation which made him smile. It felt like they were a group of school children following the leader on a field trip. A few of them ran up the flight of stairs in a race, which he couldn't help but feel instigated the youth in him to follow suit. However, he stayed put as he looked up at Base whom was still in thought. " I wonder what's bother Base?" he pondered, working up the courage to ask. It fell through as they reached the end of those elongated stairs. After passing through a few doors, they reached the final one. What lay on the other side left the purple haired youth to wonder. A man made of Stone sat at his throne with nothing but the remains of chaos littered throughout the room. a most notable detail was the black streaks of an unknown substance. Base went straight to work, examining the strange liquid. D'daear took it upon himself to step out of the Base's side to scope out the entirety of the room, making sure to avoid stepping on the puddles of whatever it was; seeing as Base was also being cautious. A quick glance to the opposite side, and he found Karina nearing the stone man. He watched as her curiosity called to her. Minding his own business, he looked away to further investigate. It only took a minute for the identity of the strange black liquid to come to light.

"Ink" muttered D'daear's mentor. The youth turned to Base, raising an eyebrow in question. "Ink?" he regurgitated, watching Base hone in on a book. It was almost like he had been drawn to it. The Mentor quickly went about examining, reading off of it.

"As Master No Heart prepared the onslaught, Yen Sid grinned. He turned himself to stone and told the man he would never reach the secrets he had within. Upon this setback, he still searched tirelessly around the room to no avail of the book he so eagerly sought.

The man in armor left unsuccessful, but only moments after, did a young and small mouse jump from his study's mirror into the scene. Curious and swift, his appearance sparked a hidden room to appear. The mouse entered the secret room and left with a book in hand before running back into the mirror."

Now D'daear felt confused, and just in time as more people gathered into the room. He quickly changed the focus of his attention when a small figure darted past Base. It bumped into him before heading to what looked like a mirror. D'daear was able to make out the obvious details just before it leaped into it. Rounded black ears, a tail as thin as a string, and in its hands a book. The Mouse jumped through the mirror, leaving D'daear shocked. Turning his head towards Base an unsteady hand aimed at the mirror. The last thing Base had read had just come true.

"Did...did you just read a few seconds into the future!?" he blurted out, shocked at the precision in coincidence. What he spoke had been overpowered by the sudden string of words as everyone began to speak, specifically Kross whom sprinted past Base, probably stepping on the ink that lay scattered about as he was clearly too focused on something. "Master!" the keyblade wielder shouted, running to the statue. Although still trying to grasp what had just happened with the foretelling Base had uncovered, The name of whom Kross was referring to as, "Master, came to light, which tugged at his curiosity. Seeing the pain in Kross, he relented to the train of thought, and focused on Kross. "Yen...Sid?" he murmured as blue eyes moved to Kross. It was a name highly used by Kross when he referred to his master. D'daear let his blue eyes fall to the stone man. How was he supposed to react? The idea that a man was once flesh and blood, and now turned to stone was hard to swallow. Eyes gazed at the corpse in bewilderment, almost horrified. He recalled the passage Base read.

"As Master No Heart prepared the onslaught, Yen Sid grinned. He turned himself to stone and told the man he would never reach the secrets he had within...."

"I'm sorry...for your loss...Kross..." he spoke gently, trying to sympathize with him. Eyes never left the statue as he squinted in thought, trying to make sense of things. Placing a thumb to his teeth, he began to bite nibble on the nail. If the end of the passage Base had JUST read had come true, then perhaps the rest had already too. The passage clearly stated: He turned himself to stone...

"Or...maybe I'm not sorry..." he thought, out loud.

"Why would Yen Sid purposefully turn himself to stone? Could...he potentially bring himself out of it?" he pondered. Eyes widened in pardon as he realized how thoughtless he had been, what with Kross being next to him and all. "uuh, not that I meant that in a bad way!!" he shouted in embarrassment, looking up to find Kross already away from the statue and heading towards the mirror. Perhaps did not even hear him? Boy, did D'daear probably look weird talking to himself; IF anyone even noticed. Letting out an eye closing sigh, he turned to Base, following up the train of thought with the other name mentioned. "Master No Heart...". So much had been going on while he had his little moment of thoughts. Base was consoling Karina, before turning to D'daear and giving him an encouraging word. Although D'daear was still in investigation mode, The youngin's eyes lit up, and returned Base's words of empowerment with a smug. "I believe in you too, Base!" he spoke back. The tall Mentor finished his speech, and soon jumped through the mirror before D'daear could even inquire about the name(Master) mentioned in the passage. Looking to those that hadn't left, he asked with restrainted enthusiasm.

"Who's Master No Heart?"

 

Gritting her teeth as she listened to Glen speak, Ananta had a feeling she wanted to punch him. And maybe hurt him or not even be nice to him. But those thoughts were dark and wouldn't help anyone. So Ananta shook her head and calmed herself down. Looking up, she watched and listened to Kross' speech. The fact he was able to find such comfort in calling Yen Sid his father was nice. Ananta wished everybody would just stop yelling and being rude to each other over petty things. Things didn't seem that way, as Glen continued on and caused Karina to have a breakdown in front of everyone. Glen didn't even try to stop and see what he was doing. He continued on his merry way and disappeared in the mirror. Base followed after and so did Kross, leaving Ananta behind. Karina was still on the floor, crying, and Kel was trying his best to give her some comfort. Stratos was here as well, only for a moment before he too disappeared in the mirror.

Clutching the Hi-Potion in her hand, Ananta moved herself closer to Karina and sat there. As she did, she saw the glare that Karina shot at her. Ananta didn't blame Karina not wanting to hear from Ananta at this time. Especially since the past conversations they had. Karina was obviously not wanting to be doted on. Ananta couldn't help it, however, and she sat there and stared at Karina for a good bit. D'daear spoke up, asking who Master No Heart is. Truth be told, Ananta had no idea who it was and she surely was not in any mood to try and think about it. Turning to D'daear, Ananta shook her head and turned right back to Karina. "Give me glares all you want, Karina, that won't stop me from trying to understand you. With that outburst from Glen, he hit a sore spot. Hearing you say those things...kind of reminds me of my own childhood. No, my father didn't want me dead. He loved me dearly...something that you never got to know. I'd trade my father for yours, if that meant you didn't have such a harsh life." Ananta said, not sure if what she was saying was making any sense. "But, as I said, you sound a lot like me when I was younger. I hated everyone and thought that hating them was easier than trying to ignore the ones that caused pain. But, I always had solace in somebody. Somebody I trusted quite a bit. The sad thing is...I don't remember them now...I don't even know if they really existed..." she sighed.

"But, even if they might not have existed, I still found comfort in knowing they made me feel better. Karina...tell me...do you have somebody that makes you feel comfort? If you don't, why don't you let us be that comfort? We may all be different, but we all share a common bond. We all have keyblades and we are the only ones that can defeat the darkness in the worlds. It's our duty to make sure nothing happens to those who walk the path of light. We do it as best as we can...sometimes we aren't able to save them all, but it's better that we try than sit here and argue with each other." Ananta finished. She reached forward and placed the Hi=Potion in Karina's hand. "Use this. Maybe it'll help you in the future. Just, try not to push everyone away. Take Kel's offer. You don't have to return home. You can stay away from there and go live with somebody else, or wander the worlds. Do whatever you want. You aren't obligated to do what you think is detrimental to you." she finally stopped talking. Ananta was prepared for Karina's backlash.

 

Beuce was fairly surprised when he entered the room. The damage to it was obvious, and there was no question some aside from the old wizard had been there. There was a trail of ink on the floor, but he didn't bother following it. Instead, he walked up to approach the throne of the room. In it sat what appeared to be a statue. However, Beuce knew full well it was no statue. It was the master himself, turned to stone as though a gorgon had placed its spell on him. However, the most peculiar thing about it was that he was smiling, as though taunting the uninvited guest. 'The room is utterly destroyed. It looks as though Yen Sid didn't even get out of his chair, so a struggle is unlikely. If it wasn't caused by a fight...then the likelihood is that they were searching for something.' Beuce said, thoughts racing in his mind. He couldn't figure out why he was smiling if someone had turned him to stone to stop him from interfering with their search. Unless...

"There is no killer..." He said under his breath. "He did it himself." He concluded. They were looking for something, and he could tell them where it was. So, he wouldn't let them get the secret from him. 'It's not impossible if he's the skilled wizard people make him out to be. There comes a point where you transcend the need for spells in general. With concentration, you can achieve nearly any desired effect. Obviously the more outrageous the effect, the more it takes to pull off. Something like "I now rule all worlds" would be borderline impossible, but a single, isolated effect like turning an object to a different material. Especially if the object doesn't resist. In outright combat, regular spells are often more effective as it takes immense concentration to pull of something without a catalyst to focus that specific effect, or a spell. Still though, reaching that point pretty much dubs you as a grandmaster of magic. Not many are capable of standing against you at that point.' Beuce said in his head, trying to deduce the situation. "But if he reached that point, then what kind of monstrous power could the intruder have to make it so he couldn't simply fend him off..." He didn't want to think about such an intimidating person existing, although he likely knew roughly who it was. At least, in concept.

"If we're fighting the apprentices...Who's the master?" This was the first thing he'd actually said out loud rather than under his breath or in his head, so most wouldn't have heard much before that. However, he didn't get a chance to get a response before drama started to break out. Karina had insulted Glen for assuming the first thing they saw was the killed, and it being a mouse no less. He responded with harsh words. As he spoke them, he knew exactly how Karina would reaction to them. Tears began to flood her eyes as she yelled that she couldn't go back to her homeworld, lest her father kill her for it. Kel offered to let her stay on his homeworld. He wished he could make the same offer, but he too had no homeworld he could return to, although for a very different reason. Not so much that it was a forbidden zone which would be his death to return to, so much that if he did go to it, he'd find that it wasn't there at all. There was no point in getting angry about it. The man responsible was already dead.

"Where does he get off calling you useless? He did next to nothing the whole fight! You did your job and half again." He said, speaking to Karina, but not looking directly at her, but instead the mirror. He looked down at the crying girl on the floor. He knew what it was like to have nothing to go back to, and honestly felt sorry for her. Although, her situation was likely worse than his. She must feel betrayed. Her own family is the reason she can't go back, and her world still exists, as though sitting and taunting her that she could never go back. "I know words might not help much to ease the sting, but they're right. Come on, I'm pretty sure i have a promise to keep." He said sincerely, offering her his left hand. He gave a smile, ready to help the girl back onto her feet and walk through the mirror with her. She'd survived the fight, so on the other side, whatever awaited, he'd tell her the meaning behind those words. 'Because we're the same!'

 

Sitting there, Ananta watched and listened to Beuce as he spoke to Karina. Then, Karina herself talked. After that, it seemed like she blocked everything Ananta had said and instead decided to try and punch her. Reacting quickly, thanks to a slightly higher speed stat, Ananta was able to cast Aero in time to stop Karina's fist just short of her face. Her fist caused the gust of air to blow around everyone, causing ink to splat everywhere and on everything now. Luckily, it was mostly on the people and walls, not the books and other objects in the room. Blinking and sighing, Ananta stood up and looked around at the room. Scratching her chin, she began to think of a way to clean up the ink. Looking over, Ananta saw a bucket against a wall. Reaching the bucket, she knelt down and conjured up a few Blizzard spells in the bucket. Then, a well place fire spell melted the ice and left water. Looking around some more, she found a mop not too far away and so she grabbed it. Plopping it into the water, she silently began to clean up the ink.

 

A frown came over D'daear when Ananta shook her head to his inquiry. Looking up to the others, it seemed no one had any idea who Master No Heart was; according to the lack of responses anyway. Placing a hand on his hips, he gave a frustrated sigh whilst averting eye contact. However, Beuce caught his attention briefly, watching the one armed man investigate the crime scene. It was great, and brought D'daear some relief when the man spoke his mind on what he believed occurred here. It seemed very few knew that Yen Sid was the one who had outright turned himself to stone; had they looked into it a little further they might have discovered it...or maybe no really cared. "Good. So I'm not the only one paying attention to detail." he thought, being aware of the different method both Beuce and himself used to acquire the knowledge. Dropping his hand away from the hip, Karina's tears finally caught his attention. He turned to the disturbance that was Karina and Ananta. Watching the woman cry like that, he wondered what could have made her react that way. Pity welled in his heart, despite her attitude when they were in Beast's Castle. "Ah shoot... I'm getting distracted..." he muttered to himself, breaking away his focus from the two. Ananta seemed to have a grip on the situation anyway. Giving the room a quick scan, it finally dawned on him just how messy the room was. Sure, he had noticed it, but he never really gave it much thought up until now. Wanting to find something in this mess, he went about collecting pages; including the ones dripping with Ink. Brows furrowed, and raised, furrowed, and raised at the question revolving around the ink. There was so much of it, splattered on the walls, floor, books, pages. "Why is there ink all over the place...? I mean, I get that perhaps a bottle of ink spilled, but to be scattered about...like THIS...? What gives?" he questioned out loud, paying no heed to anyone at the moment. Thoughts were merely making themselves audible. Perhaps he was thinking too much on an irrelevant detail. He began placing the papers in a pile near a corner of the room, adjacent to where Yen Sid's stone body rested, and next to a huge plank of wood with stubby legs protruding out of it. What he wanted to do next was to take a look at the novel Base had picked up moments before seeing the mouse.

However, as he got up from putting the papers away, he felt something splatter on his back. It was cold, and wet which immediately evoked his sense of touch. Not to far in the milliseconds did ink begin to claim territory around the room. He squirmed in surprise, feeling creeped out by the sensation on his back. "What the-!" he uttered, turning to see Ananta. Annoyed blue eyes looked back and forth between Ananta and Karina as went into the final stages of their argument. It seemed it was a mild dispute, seeing as the two had finished talking to one another and were going off on their own to clean the room. Shifting his line of sight away from them; mumbling his annoyance away, he saw Yen Sid's stone body was now covered with ink spots. Rolling his eyes at the matter, he refused to clean that up, especially as he now had a personal problem to tend too. He turned away from everyone while holding on to the back of his shirt in an attempt to see how bad the stain had been. Twisting the torso while tugging at his shirt, blue eyes could barely make out the stain. For a few minutes he tried scrubbing off what he could with his hand, even going as far as to dip his hands in the Bucket Ananta was using when she was not looking. Not even water helped, in fact...it made things worse. With a sigh of defeat, he gave up and just let his eyes wander on what to do.

With the cleaning up currently going on, it didn't seem like there was much to do. Heck, Karina and Ananta seemed to be doing most of the work here. "There's got to be something else I can do...I mean before we all leave this place..." he murmured, completely having forgotten that a few had already jumped through the mirror. Perhaps he just trusted their competence. D'daear walked around the study, trying not to get in anyone's way while looking for something to do. The Ink and floor was being cleaned up. Books and tomes were being picked up, and basically the mess was being handled.

Thankfully it didn't take him long to find something productive to do. Of course, upon wandering into a specific spot, he noticed something. The large plank of wood with the stubby legs wasn't what he had initially thought it to be. Raising a brow, he moved in closer to it. Hands began to feel around the edges while eyes fondled the details. A dark emerald frame was visible behind the wood. It didn't take long for him to realize that it was no abnormally large plank of wood, but a table. Eye lids retracted to further reveal the awe in D'daear's eyes. Without thought, he went straight to work. With all his might, he tried to tug at the massive table that was able to blockade the dark emerald frame. Shifting the tables center of gravity, he managed to maneuver the table back to it's upright position with a loud SLAM! as the bottom of the tables legs made contact with the chambers floor. However, the table was too heavy for him to move it out of the way alone. Try and try with all his might, he could not get it to budge the way he wanted too. So, he improvised and attempted to push while placing both feet against the Dark Emerald whatever it was. Using both legs and arms, he began to push the desk AWAY. The desk skidded against the floor for a few inches, perhaps even a three feet.

"YES-!" he shouted in momentary victory before falling to the floor flat; from the lack balance. Groaning, he picked himself back up, and leaned back against the Dark emerald frame with arms dangling to the side. Back felt the heavy frame creak a little, while ears caught on to its sound. Raising a brow in wonder, he pushed off the frame and turned to see that the large dark emerald colored frame now had a small perfectly symmetrical gap between it's other half. Curiosity drew the boy's hand like the steady pull of a magnet. With a gentle enough push, he opened the emerald door.