Video Game: Kingdom Hearts SOS: The Road To Light

Man, Beuce was exhausted. It had been one hell of a long day. Especially considering he wasn't really sure when the day started. "God, this sucks. Like, i know we're in the realm of darkness and all, but i didn't think there would be THIS MUCH DARKNESS. You know what i mean? Like, in the realm of light, we have nighttime. Why doesn't the realm of darkness have a daytime? This is why people think destroying darkness means balance. Because this place just will not compromise." Needless to say, Beuce was not enjoying his stay in the realm of darkness. Kel was a pretty cool guy, but he didn't make for much of a conversation partner one on one. First they'd tried playing I-spy, but the only thing they could find was a lot of darkness and the path in front of them. Then they'd tried chatting about possible affections for the fairer sex, but Kel was a pretty mellow guy. Didn't really have much feeling towards any of the girls in their group. Come to think of it, lately neither did he.

"Man, at least in asmodae we had, you know, normal day and night cycles. Which considering we were on a broken planet that's actually kind of odd now that i think of it." Beuce cupped his chin in between the finger and thumb of his singular hand, pondering the oddity that was the hours on his late homeworld. He looked up. What he wouldn't give for some light- oh hey a giant pillar of light. "How long has that been there...?" He asked Kel, indicating to it. "I guess the guy in white didn't let us down after all." He set off toward it. If they were going to get anywhere, that would be a good place to start.

 

Ananta was holding her head and groaning. For some reason, she couldn't quite put her finger on what happened. She remembered seeing her comrades, but everything went dark. Only thing that was certain was that she was now in a really dark place that she could only assume was the Realm of Darkness. A path was before her and, not wanting to just stay in one place, she started walking. In the midst of her daze, Ananta must have changed her clothes because she was now wearing something way different than what she wore before. She honestly didn't mind since it was cute, but she wished somebody had gave her a warning beforehand.

Regardless, Ananta pressed forward and rubbed her eyes until they were accustomed to this darkness. What she didn't notice was the Shadow lurking behind her. As it lunged at her, a keyblade could be heard sinking into it's body and causing it to disappear. Ananta turned around quickly to see a purple haired girl grinning at her.

"Who are you?!" Ananta gasped, hopping back. She tried summoning her keyblade, but nothing came. Only the sound of failed magic echoed in this place. Not wanting to seem defenseless, she kept her ready stance in case this new person decided to attack her. All the while, Ananta hoped the girl wouldn't.

 

When Kaida had woken up, she had made the mistake of thinking she was back in her homeworld. But when her eyes focused in, she hadn't seen that guiding moon in the sky. Then her brain remembered what happened as Raisor and D'daear had woken her up and asked her if she was okay. Her head was still dizzy, and she was reflecting inward on Aux's last words to Hikaru and herself. Which probably made it seem like she was brooding, in a sense she kind of was. She couldn't protect anyone before they were swallowed by the darkness and she wasn't strong enough to get to Aux in some way. Physically or mentally.

Kaida up until this point kept flicking on her wristband, causing a little orb of light to show up temporarily, light the path ahead of them, and then dissipate. It was a relic she had from her home world shrouded in it's more welcoming darkness. The light helped them a little, or it helped Kaida a little. She went in whatever direction Raisor and D'daear suggested but all and all Kaida wasn't really paying attention to them, she just kind of kept walking. If they hadn't been here she would probably still walk in this aimless path. They didn't exactly have a direction either.

Kaida went to summon out the little orb again, she was paying so little mental attention to anything that she didn't even notice the beacon, which lit up in the opposite direction of her little orb of light.

 

Raisor continued to walk with Kaida and D'daear through the darkness, Kaida knocking her little band to light the path. None of them spoke a word, but he wasn't really sure there was much to be said. They had lost the fight, gotten stuck in the Realm of Darkness, no keyblades, and were scattered. If there was a point lower than this, he really didn't need to see it. He'd already hit his low point back home, there wasn't a need to hit one that was away from home too. He was still annoyed by how he didn't do much damage against Aux either. Raisor knew he wasn't going to do much, but it just made him feel like the time he lost his home, being unable to do anything to help anyone. The only different this time was that he actually tried, and still failed, which might actually be a worse feeling.

He continued to walk through the darkness, thinking back on his life before meeting up with everyone. There were thoughts of his friends, and if they were doing alright fighting on their own. Some days he wanted to leave the group to go home, partly because he felt like he needed to go back, and partly because he felt like there wasn't much use for him here. He had disappeared part way through their journey, and when everyone met up again, they all failed to save the world and were forced to retreat. He felt annoyed, but at the same time, angry. If he ever met who was responsible for all of these events, he was going to beat them down hard.

They continued walking when Raisor turned around on a whim and noticed a giant pillar of light.
"Guys, I think we should go this way." He turned around and began walking to the beacon, curious as to what it was and where it was coming from.

 

In undoubtedly the worst situation Glen had been in thus far, the ex-keyblade wielder had been wandering the realms of darkness for quite some time now with almost no hope of escape. He'd lost track of how long he and Hikaru had been trapped in there for, but if he had to guess he would've said probably a good couple of months. With each day, the spark of light grew dimmer within him, and hope seemed almost as existent as Disneytown at that point, nd yet they still pushed on. What other choice did they have?

"Hey Hikaru, what do you think the others are doing right now?" he asked. It was a question he'd asked just a few moments after meeting up with Hikaru in the realm of darkness, although he wasn't sure if his friend had heard him ask it. He liked to try and remind himself that the others were okay, he refused to allow that faint ray of hope to be extinguished, he wouldn't accept that the others were lost forever. If he'd survived, then surely they'd all be okay. He couldn't lose everything for a second time.

Trudging along, his feet were beginning to tire out and as usual there was no sign of escape. However, just as he was about to admit defeat he felt something a little unusual. A slight warmth. Nothing too powerful, but it was definitely there. That was impossible though, that would mean there would have to be-

A beam of light came crashing down from the heavens, cutting Glen off mid-thought as it lit up the area a fair distance away from him. With the light returning, so too did his enthusiasm. 'In the deepest depths of darkness, there will always be a light to guide you' his father had told him, but Glen had never thought it would be so literal! "Well, I think we've spent enough time in here. Last one to escape's a stinky black fungus!" he called out, before breaking into a run towards the beacon.

 

Spoiler: Drifting through Darkness

There was nothing around him. Just black. His eyes didn't seem to work. Or were they working just fine? Was this that was all that was left of the world they were in? Just a solid black as far as the eye could see. No. Black would imply there was something that was taking in all the light. This was different. If this was really all that was left then it would make sense. This wasn't black. This was nothing. An expanse of nothing as far as the eye could see. Stratos couldn't quite be sure if he was awake, if what he was seeing was actually true. He couldn't feel himself move any of his other body parts worked. He made concious effort to move his hands. But he felt nothing. He tried to move his legs, but it was as if there was nothing they were touching. He tried to speak. But no words came out. He tried to listen. But no sounds were to be heard. Was this what reality had really become? A black void where nothing could be felt, nothing could be heard and no one could be called. As this realization occurred to him, Stratos started to feel something. It was the sense that the was moving, closer to drifting then actual purpose filled movement. He started being able to feel his body as it was just aimlessly floating about the darkness; no where to go and no where to end up at.

And just as he started to feel as though he were drifting, that feeling started to change once again. This time, he was no longer floating about in any given direction. Instead it felt like the world around him started to move upward, or perhaps he was just sinking further downward. He felt as though he were being pulled by something, as if the darkness itself were a crowd of hands that were slowly creeping across the boy's body. That they were clutching onto him, a grip that was far too tight for any normal person to resist, and were dragging him down. As the grip seemed to intensify, the pulling increase, Stratos attempted to fight against it. But it was of no use. Not only did it feel like an innumerable amount of creatures were working against him, but it felt like his body was in water. There was resistance against every movement he made, everything felt absolutely sluggish and there was some kind of force other than that of the hands pushing him down. If the darkness were quite like an endless ocean, then this would be that water's current. Farther and farther it felt like it was dragging the boy towards its depths, never to resurface again.

As he continued to sink, the boy kept trying to struggle against the current, but realized that he was too weak to do so. Since they had left the wasteland, everything had felt off. He had felt all of the power that he accrued over the journey slip away. All the skills he had picked up, unusable. Possibly even forgotten. All of his strength was completely wiped. His heart was reset and with it, any hope of him fighting back against this darkness. No. That was a lie. Stratos knew that he had never actually been strong to begin with. He was weak, weaker than everyone else who had been there. He was in no way strong enough to match literally anyone in the squad that he was apart of, every last one of them being able to carry much more force behind their blade than he. He was nowhere near as fast as anyone, each and every other person in the group likely being able to run laps around him. He was not the sturdiest, though he could outlast others, there were definitely people who could take a hit far better than he ever could. His only saving grace was his magical aptitude, but even then, it wasn't like it had any way of matching the strength of the physical bruisers in the group, and there were many more who were far better at magic than he was. He had thought he could make up for that difference in learning newer abilities. The commands that the teammates he had made were using always seemed to work out great for them, so perhaps if he could use them then it'd work for him too. Of course, they never did. They were the same in use, but overall their effect was different. It was something that he couldn't ever hope to match. And if he couldn't hope to match his teammates, then he'd likely only ever stand to hamper them in their progress. And if he was only a burden, than it'd stand to reason that he should just fade.
...
...
...
No. That wasn't quite it, was it? If he were always this weak, then perhaps he was exactly where he needed to be now. If the husk of his former self was as strong, as apt and as useful then his old self was, then perhaps he could do something about it this time. He had been weak. His whole life he was nothing but weak. But now, his whole life didn't matter. Everything that he had worked towards was erased. Which meant everything that made him weak was gone. If he was only filled with things that made him useless, then perhaps this time he could try and become something more. He had been weak yet attempted to copy those far stronger than him. That alone was not the issue. The issue was that he had only thought that going through the motions was what the technique work out for him. But his heart was never properly synced up with them. He couldn't use things that weren't truly his, because he couldn't begin to understand how others did so. The weakness of his old heart had made everything he did a far cry from its original. It fooled him into believing he was stronger than he actually was, without having to make any effort into actually becoming so. Simple imitation was all it took to become better than what one was. That attempting to reuse the same motions of the greats, without any adjustment or adaptability on one's own part was what would make him equal to them. As such, he needed to embrace his heart's reset. And if he were to do that, he couldn't just give up here and let himself be devoured by oblivion. He had to keep pressing on. Even if the journey was tough, he hadn't given up at any point prior, and so now was not the time for it either. And so, as his heart reconciled with this, he felt the pull of the darkness start to loosen. And soon, he felt as though he were drifting more and more, until finally he had as though this time he were rising. With such a feeling going through him, soon, the nothingness around him finally seemed to be filled with something.

Under his body he felt something cold. What it was was completely uncertain. Stratos was sure that, given the fact it felt his entire body was sprawled across it, it was some kind of ground. Though, what kind of ground he couldn't actually be sure. It was like it had the hard feeling of stone, the chill emanating from it. But at the same time he felt as though it had the same kind of give one might expect from dirt. He was very unsure of what exactly it was, as it seemed far too foreign and unfamiliar for him to really make sense of. After trying to discern where exactly he was simply by touch, the boy then realized that his eyes were closed and if he were to figure anything else out that would need to change. Slowly, and with seemingly more effort than one would normally need, the boy opened his eyes to see what was above him. Darkness. A very unnatural darkness. Or perhaps it was far more natural than what he was used to. It was one that seemed to swirl across the sky is a myriad of different colors, and though for whatever reason the boy's vision was not obscured by the lack of light. As he looked to the sky, he was then reminded of the dark orb in the sky that had swallowed all of Disney Town not moments prior to his awakening. At least, that's how long it felt. If this darkness was similar to that one, then there was no doubt in Stratos's mind where he ended up. This was the birthplace of the enemy they had been fighting for so long, one that he had only ever heard rumors or stories about but never actually saw with his own eyes. This was the Realm of Darkness.

The boy felt a feeling of dismay and weariness flow through him as he realized this, but soon shook his head in an attempt to rid himself of those thoughts. This was the Realm of Darkness, sure, but he had managed to find his way into here from the Realm of Light. It wasn't exactly of his own volition, nor by anything he could consider natural, but the fact that there was a bridge between the two did exist. And so, he just had to find that bridge again to get himself out of here. In order to do that, he needed to move from where he was and get walking. That required the boy to get up on his two feet, and when he tried to push him off the ground, he could barely push himself up. It was then that his brain finally caught up with something else that had happened. In addition to just feeling weak in general, Stratos felt a wave of pain shoot through every part of his body. Letting out a grunt and a groan, the boy quickly fell himself collapse back down whenever he tried to push himself back up. In the end, Aux had really done a number on him, and he still had to recover from it, but he couldn't just sit around doing nothing either. And so, trying to force himself through the pain, the boy eventually managed to stand on his own two feet, and look to the black horizon. He wasn't sure what to expect, but he knew that there was the answer to him getting back. With that, the boy started walking.

-----Present Day------

He wasn't exactly sure how long it had been since his journey here started. Time was incredibly difficult to tell in this world, because there was no day or night. There was just awake and asleep. And it wasn't like he kept how many times he had done the whole sleeping thing since he had been here. Were it not for the fact that his soreness had faded, he wouldn't have thought it was unreasonable to think no time at all had passed. But, that was irrelevant, what was relevant was trying to find his way out, or secondarily, the other (former) keyblade wielders. Over the course of his journey he met up with Luna, who was similarly by herself and trapped here, and so the two had ended up journeying together with each other. Meeting back with her had managed to make Stratos's blind hope start to feel a little less so, as if the both of them were here, then the others likely were too. And if they all were, then surely they could all figure a way out together. As he thought of getting a way out, the boy instinctively flicked his wrist in an attempt to summon his keyblade. Of course, it did not come, but this was a habit he had found hard to break since his journey started. Upon the reminder of this once again, the boy's hand clutched tighter into a fist in slight frustration before returning to normal.

As the duo walked further and further through the realm, Stratos the darkness seemed to be pierced by something. A pillar of light, unlike anything he had seen in this realm before had shone through the veil of shadows. Having not seen such a thing in who knows how long, Stratos took a bit to register that it was actually light, until his widened in realization. In the midst of this endless darkness, it was like a beacon cat that showed them the way. Clearly something had to be there, and if the others really were here, then they could be gathering there as well. Pointing to it, he looked back at Luna and said, "hey, look at that over there. I think our best bet out of here is right there." Turning back to see the pillar, he started to pick up his pace in order to get there much quicker.

 

Spoiler: Fantastic Failures, and Where to Find Them

Steel clung tightly to his ward as he tumbled through the darkness. He had long ago ceased his cackling in favor of trying to make sure he and D'daear weren't separated. Though as he spun and collided with various debris, it quickly became apparent that his aims were simply too high. Steel cursed his formless self as he collided with a particularly large chunk of... something, and he lost his grip on his companion.

"No!" His shout left his mouth rather garbled as he quickly reached out with his hands and grabbed D'daear's own. Now spinning out of control, he tried to pull the younger boy in closer, but to no avail. There was chaos all around them as the world threatened to rip them apart, just as it had all their friends. It was succeeding too: Steel could feel the black sludge that currently made up his feet start to blow away, and the sensation kept crawling up his legs. He couldn't keep himself together for much longer.

Sebastian would have been able to; he was solid at the very least. He probably wouldn't of screwed up like this. Steel though? At this point all he could do was be flung about in the void. If darkness was like the water, than he had managed to leap into a whirlpool: a raging current that seemed to want not more than to toss him in circles as it dragged him downward... along with his friend. Whom was likely to be torn from his grip at any moment.

D'daear was probably terrified. Or feeling Hopeless. Or Both.

"Hey!" He called out above the noise to ensure he had the others attention. "It looks like... we're gonna have to split up for a bit." Steel could feel himself fading a little faster now. He'd have to end this quick. "We'll get through this, so hang on to hope alright? I know it can be hard sometimes; even a bit scary. All the same, you'd have a pretty hard time saving the world without it..." Steel squeezed D'daear's hands tighter for just a moment. "...You'll need something to pick you back up when you're inevitably kicked down."

He let go.

Steel closed his eyes as he flew away, not wanting to see D'daear's face as he disintegrated into nothing before the other boy's eyes.

He had failed.

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Spoiler: Guess I'm Walking

Steel was surprised to wake up.

Despite his words, he had very little hope that he would be included in the "we" he spoke of. Groggily, he sat up and took a look at his surroundings. There was a path, that much was clear. Other than that, things were... uncertain. He could see perfectly fine, despite the lack of light. It was as if somethings had a sort of outline or color, even without the light. Likely because it was the Realm of Darkness, and it presumably had it's own laws, just like every other world.

He took a quick look at himself: solid. His old plated gloves and boots were back even. He ran a his hand over his mouth and pulled it back for examination. Clean. No darkness there. His scarf fluttered despite the lack of a breeze, and he tried to understand what was going on. Was something... holding him together? With a brief sigh, he decided that it didn't matter. For now, he was still here.

"Guess I'm walking." He muttered as he stuck a hand in the pocket of his hoodie jacket.

He picked a direction, and headed off.

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Spoiler: I Should Have Known...

That had been quite a while ago now. He didn't know for how long he had been walking, but he didn't really have a reason to stop. Nothing had really happened so far... other than that he had way too much time think. About everything. Including his meager base of existence.

He had been such an idiot.

His own irrational behavior combined with his knowledge of space time distortions and memories of his own nature should have made him realize long ago...

...That he wasn't Steel.

Or at least, not the River Guardian of Alpha Pison.

This was a... different him. He was having a hard time figuring out the exact point of deviation though. It likely happened before the letter; the world outside of his was filled with keyblades and other forms of magic that... well, knowing what he did now, it seemed unlikely that they existed in his Alpha timeline. For much a time, his mind was filled with puzzling and figuring, attempting to make better sense of this mess. He wondered if the alternate Base and Horace were the keys. They were still there, though they were being silent, and he couldn't help but wonder if these were just new forms and additional memories for beings that had always been there...

Steel laughed.

Had anyone other than those two ever actually been there? Or was he simply delusional? Acting on memories of a time that had never been? Yet he had still done all these strange things. Things that logically would have only been possible if he were at least a little like the Guardian. The question was: In what ways?

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Spoiler: Twisted Amusement

Eventually he had come across Karina.

It just had to be her.

He'd be honest: He found her annoying at times. Though he had nothing against her personally. All the same, he was just not looking forward to finally having to interact with the dreaded Karina... and having every word spoken thrown in his face.

Still, hadn't he done far worse than her? Than simply pushing people away?

Hadn't he murdered?

He had always had a soft spot for her anyway. She reminded him of Aura. So he lent a hand and... was surprised at the result. She was apparently the exact opposite of Aura; the girl who followed him only verbally, and was dragged kicking and screaming the entire way. she only trusted him because everyone else did, and even then she wasn't entirely sure he hadn't mind controlled them or some such nonsense. Then here was Karina, who actively hated pretty much everyone...

...And she was following him. He wasn't sure how to respond to that. First real interaction. No words. Was that the secret? No words? He supposed they could be annoying sometimes, but...

He wasn't delusional enough to believe it had anything to do with him. She was without hope. She had made that clear before she had left for the darkness. It was actually interesting, now that he thought of it: the only two people who jumped into the darkness with almost no hesitation, without giving much thought to fighting, had ended up together in that darkness and were now silently walking through it.

Everything about this situation was just so freaking hilarious.

Humor.

Steel thought he was just pretending all this time, but no, OK he just really did have a super freaky and twisted sense of humor.

---------------------------------------------

Spoiler: Further Observations

It was pretty silent. The only difference between now and earlier is that there was another person there. The two had been walking for awhile when the beacon appeared. Surprisingly, it was Karina who spoke up.

"Light? Where do you suppose it's coming from?" Steel silently stared at the pulsing light.

"I don't know." Could it be a trap? No... Their enemies weren't that... weren't that what? Arrogant? Dishonorable? Deceitful?

It could definitely be a trap.

Still though, they probably thought of light as beneath them, so their arrogance was actually a little reassuring here. It was entirely possible this was their ticket out of the dark realm. He turned silently to Karina, who was staring at him silently. It seemed that she was waiting on him to make a decision. He stared back at her silently for a few minutes as he considered the options.

There wasn't much more than a straight path. Any other roads that would come up would likely only lead them backwards, or in circles. They didn't have keyblades anymore, so they couldn't fly out obviously, and that honestly took away a lot of different options in a place like this. Where else did they have to go? Honestly, they had already been walking forward for so long. If they ceased now because of the possibility of it being a trap, that only left either waiting here, or going back.

Neither option sounded appealing.

"Well..." Steel said as he broke the prolonged eye contact. "We don't really have anywhere else to go. I mean, with this path, we we're probably just going to wind up over there anyway, right? Only difference now is that there might be a trap and/or exit over there."

He also briefly considered that whether or not it was a trap, the heartless could always wind up getting them first, but he left that thought unspoken. It was also surprising that the heartless hadn't already attacked, but he wasn't complaining. It did however, make him take a quick suspicious glance at their surroundings before he continued walking.

This Job was gonna be the death of him.

 

Kel had been pretty out of it ever since arriving in the Realm of Darkness, his hesitation from back with the confrontation with Aux had brought back some unwanted memories. Said memories would have left him feeling noticeably irritated if he wasn't doing a good job of hiding it so no one would question him. That said it made him even quieter then normal (which is saying something) as Beuce tried his damest to strike up a conversation. I-spy wasn't a good idea with all the darkness, romance would've been the last thing on his mind even if he was in his usual mindset. It was a nice gesture though and did help to ease his mind off things.

Kel gave Beuce a simple shrug to his response, his home world fortunately wasn't a broken planet, though thinking about it how did that work? That aside it did have a normal light and day cycle as well. Then he noticed it as well, the bright pillar of light clearly out of place compared to all of the other darkness that surrounded them. "No clue, but looks that way." Kel followed behind Beuce as he headed off towards the beacon. Hopefully whatever was waiting for them at the beacon would prove to be of assistance.

 

Xara was startled by the sudden yelling and stepped back with her hands in the air. Her keyblade vanished from her hand and her eyes were wide.

"Whoa, whoa! Take it easy! I'm not gonna hurt you." Xara stayed her distance just in case she had in. "M-My name is Xara," the purple haired girl stammered as she placed a hand over her own chest. "I got that letter, you know, the one that was calling everyone who could weild this um..." She scratched her head. "Keyblade? Yeah, that! And it was asking those who are willing and ready to fight for their worlds to meet them at this 'Place of Departure'? I think?"

She sighed, shaking her head as she placed her hands on her hips. "I dunno... My memory is a little fuzzy. Last thing I recall I was in this world where I turned into a raccoon... Or a rabbit. Some kind of animals. There was this archery tournament, and we had to help this Robin win it, and then bam..." Her eyes looked around the dark swirls around them. "I ended up here somehow. I dunno how long though. And you're the first person I've ever seen since I got here. How much time has past?" She asked, raising her eyebrow. "Are you with this SOS group that the letter was talking about?"

 

While Steel held D’daear in his arms, the violet haired adolescent thought about how useless he had become. Aux had battered and beaten the crew the last time outside of Beast’s castle when Belle needed them most, and now when DisneyTown needed saving all they could do was fall prey to their great reliance of the keyblade. They were defeated. Once again Aux proved to them how exaggerated the gap in strength there was between them. With no keyblade to fight with they were all meant to be taken apart by this hulking mass of muscle and darkness. D’daear’s abdomen still pulsed with the pain that Aux had inflicted on him earlier.


No such thing as a happy ending is there?

Is that something we’re supposed to earn?

When hope begins to rise, darkness is always there to challenge it

Without strength to fight back, what hope is there?

There’s no point to any of this if they’re always steps ahead of us

Is there truly strength in deep darkness?



D’daear, get up or you’ll be late…!



A consciousness shakes awake.


Hhnngghh…. I can’t see….


No wait I’m wrong… it's just really dark…


Pitch black… it’s as if I’ve lost my sight…


Eyes struggled to pry open from the powerful sleep that chained D’daear to rest and lay still. Through the sliver of eyelids, all he could see still was a deep blackness that beckoned him to remain there, to feel content with his sleep. Bare arms cringed at the touch of a cold surface which bedded the young man’s form. Slowly they maneuvered so that palms can grip at the floor to push the torso off the ground. The first thing that became obvious was how much effort it required to lift himself off the ground. The rise immediately punished his head with a daze spell, as if he wasn’t supposed to be getting on his feet.

"Wh-whe… wh-where am I…?"

He placed a hand on his head as if trying to hold the world steady from spinning. Being surrounded by pitch darkness made it even worse for him to gain balance.


“I guess Aux never heard of foot powder…” he jested badly, remembering his foot being placed on his skull.

With irises barely opened he began to scan his surroundings. With an environment dressed in blackness, it made it rather difficult to locate a direction for him to start heading towards to. The fact that there was no moon also didn’t help the search. The thought of it being night time had occurred to him, but for there to be no moon or source of light anywhere made him skeptical to the idea. It was cold, damp, and the feeling of being watched was very strong the moment he got up.

“Where am I supposed to go…?” he inquired rhetorically, obviously not expecting an answer. It would in fact have been creepy if he did receive a response.

D’daear…

Attention quickly diverted to the area behind him, entire mind now on edge. Eyes focused deep into the darkness, trying to locate the source of that sound. He wanted to speak, but he was a little frightened. His name was spoken once more, this time his eyes setting themselves on a figure off in the distance. Hand quickly motioned to summon keyblade out of habit, albeit nothing happened.

“H-hello?” he called out.

Acquiring no response yet his legs were moving mindlessly in the direction he was facing. By the time he reached the spot where the figure was, it had vanished. Having disappeared into the darkness.


------------------------------------------

“So where exactly is it that we’re going…?” he inquired the group.

D’daear followed the leader or rather the ball of light that was illuminating their path for them. It had been a journey of words being exchanged followed by a period of silence. Rinse and repeat. None of them knew for how long they had been walking for. It felt like hours, but who would know for sure. It was becoming dull, and the time wasted in walking only gave way for insecurities to surface and have their way with D’daear every now and then during the silence. Suddenly Raisor points out the large beam of light in the opposite direction to which D’daear would stop and turn to have a look see himself. Eyes were staring directly into the light, indifferent to the bright rays that protruded through the darkness.

“Where’d that come from?” he asked for the sake of asking.

He took a look back at the orb of light that was illuminating their path, and then back to the giant beam of light off in the distance. It had appeared out of the blue and now it was there lighting the area brightly. If they had to choose a general direction, bets were on the giant beam of light. Without question, he followed Raisor now instead of the orb of light, motioning for Kaida to follow suit.

 

Ananta was relieved when she heard Xara's explanation. That at least meant she wasn't an enemy. She was an ally, at best, right now.

"Oh, you must have met some others like you...like us." she said, returning to a neutral stance, clearing her throat. "But, right now, we're the only ones in this place as far as I can tell. I...I don't know how much time has past, honestly. I don't even know how long I've been separated from all my friends...."

She smiled sadly before sighing. "Who knows if it's been years, weeks, days, or even hours...."

Ananta scratched her head and nodded to herself. "Since you know about the SOS thing, you must have met Hikaru. He's our....er....leader of sorts?" Ananta worded that weirdly. "I mean, I guess he's the leader since he knows so much compared to the rest of us."

Scratching her head again, Ananta began to try and summon her keyblade. "Oh...still can't summon it..." she mumbled to herself. She shook her head and looked up.

Off in the distance, there was a pillar of light, shining bright in this bleak darkness. "What's that?" Ananta questioned, starting to walk forward. She stopped and turned to Xara. "My name is Ananta. Perhaps we ought to head to that light."

 

"Alright, lets go. No use standing here. Quicker we get to an exit, the quicker you can ditch me. I am sure you don't care to hang around any longer than you have to."

There it was. The self depreciation. That was supposed to be his shtick. Really, too much had changed with that letter. Now he knew.

He knew why Aura had always been mad at him before...

But he'd opened too many cans of worm's already.

The point was it was just annoying to hear. Perhaps it would be better to just be silent. Nearly anything he said would likely only lead to an argument. Infuriating his partner wasn't on his list of things to do right now, and hadn't he already gone over his own faults? Yes, they may have different stories and different coping methods, but they were similar. He had no right to talk.

So he took a deep breath, and he sighed rather audibly. He simply kept walking as he calmed himself. He would be silent, because he didn't want to waste any time on an dispute. In the end however, he couldn't stop the sentence from slipping out.

"Be careful, or I might possibly stick around just to spite you."

Sarcasm.

Brilliant.

Maybe he could pass it off as a joke.

 

Kaida almost didn't follow them for a second, but she knew she was going to. She felt a little hesitant about following the light for a moment, but it was better than following her's, which was ultimately leading them nowhere. She followed automatically, keeping in a normal pace behind the two of them. A couple of times, out of habit, she hit her wristband for light, which they didn't need anymore. She apologized whenever she did and tried to continue on. Eventually she stopped doing it.

But she needed to say something, she needed to do something. But she was sulking in her own mind and she couldn't stop it and it bothered her. So she pulled out a block of wood out of her bag, it was one of only two she had left from her pouch, and it was small. The knife she had was dull and she didn't have anything to sharpen it with. But she needed to whittle. It had been so long since she'd calmed herself down by putting her mind into creating something. She was able to walk and whittle, she'd done it many times before and would do it many times again.

As she whittled her best during her walking, Kaida finally got the courage to ask, "We're all gonna get through this... right? We're... this isn't the end... is it? We're not gonna be stuck here forever are we?" Kaida sighed and felt her pace slowing down as she began forming a circle with her cuts of the knife on the wood, rounding out a corner, "Not that you guys are.... particularly bad company. But I'm sure you guys don't wanna be stuck in this place forever either... but..." she stopped cutting the wood and flipped the knife to a safe spot for a moment, "I... am worried we might not get out of here... I feel like in some way I've failed so hard and can't come back from this..."

 

Spoiler: Adrift in Darkness and Reconnect

Black. Pitch black. Everywhere. In every direction there was. That was all she could see as she floated through. Luna floated through the darkness for what felt like an eternity. All she kept in her thoughts were her parents, her brother, her fiance, her kingdom, her home world. even Mira. She closed her eyes as she recounted countless memories from her home and her adventures within countless worlds. Happy memories, sad memories, memories of anguish, and even more. "I failed everyone. Am I to float in this eternal darkness as punishment for my failures?" Tears had began emerging from her eyes as they cascaded down her cheeks. She suddenly felt a surface right on her back. Her eyes opened up in surprise as she lifted herself up. Luna looked around her new surroundings. She looked at the sky and had an inkling on where she was. She walked around until she came up upon a cave whilst caring some resources she found along the way. After setting up a camp she heard footsteps and and turned around, only to find Stratos.

The next day, they set out to walk to find anything that might help their situation. As they begun their trek, several thoughts had consumed Luna's mind. A certain memory comes back to her several times.
Luna's face was covered with tears as she held on to a stranger's hand. As she was holding on , a portal of some sorts had appeared right under the stranger. Words had been exchanging back and forth between the two. The stranger smiled back at Luna as he shook off her hand. 'NOOOOOO!!!!!!'
"Hey look over there! I think our best bet out of here is right there!" Stratos pointed toward the beacon out at the distance. Luna had continued to revisit that same memory over and over again as if it was on repeat. One question had popped in her head over and over again. Can he really be out here somewhere? Her mind had wandered off into many distant thoughts as Stratos continued on toward the beacon. Luna had remained in the same spot clutching her necklace in one hand and the other hand grasping her other elbow continuously wandering in her own thoughts with a worried and pained expression dancing across her face.