Black Dreams Eternal... this was posted up here once, but I took it down because I was cleaning things up, and I hadn't put chapter one up. This is the prologue by the way. It's a roleplay game, but it's a Kingdom Hearts roleplay game, which means that it's perfect from crossovers. Which is a good thing, considering the cast of characters it has.
BDE is meant to be played and written like a story, and I am a mean Game Master if you don't.
Black Dreams Eternal : Prologue
Chapter written by: Tidus Li Xiang, Yasha Kaya, and Sora Crys
His head hit the table top with a thud-- and he imagined that the people around him could hear it echoing hollowly as he did so. Now, normally the young man wasn't quite so harsh with himself, but he felt he had every right to be like this.
He was in pain.
It was the worst pain he'd ever been in-- or at least, he currently thought it was the worst pain he had ever been in, because he couldn't think of a situation where he hadn't hurt so damned much. No idea why he hurt like this, either; because a bare month ago there hadn't been this pain...
But then, a month ago, he hadn't been here, had he? He had been in the End of Days-- a place that, even just thinking about it, could send a chill of fear down a man's back. Most assuredly not somewhere someone wanted to be.
But he had been. He'd been there for years, and now he was back. And now he was in pain.
"Good gods," Tidus whimpered, lifting his head only to bring it down on the wooden cafe table as hard as he could in an attempt to overpower the pain in his chest, "This hurts..."
He had been hoping that someone here, in this town could help him. Or at least, explain why his chest pulsed so painfully, sending tremors of pain through his body that had taken him nearly three weeks to learn how to focus past in order to even move.
And now, here he was... all alone. All by himself, at a table in Traverse Town, wondering what he was to do next.
A rhythmic clicking noise was heard across the 1st District's Square, as huge scaled draconic feet lazily made their way across the pavement. While wide, childish gold eyes stared at all the lights in wonder. The figure's upper half looked almost human, minus the claws and wings. Her lower half was completely covered in crimson red scales, and taloned dragon feet.
She giggled softly to herself, doing an odd hopping act with her huge scaly legs and feet to race across the square. Clearing the steps with one powerful leap of her draconic legs, she looked around the square again from the better view point, 'oooo'ing in slight awe at all the flashing neon signs.
But the childish look soon faded when she realized she was almost the only person there... Her golden orbs blinked at a blond laying next to a table, something was funny about him. A second later it clicked, and she remember the anklet tightly fastened around her right scaled ankle. The teen, she couldn't sense a heart in him.
Curious, she half-walked, half-waddled over to the table. He seemed to be in a great deal of physical pain and mental anguish...
And completely ignoring this, she grabbed him by the shoulders with both her oversized taloned hands.
"HI!!"
"Gah!" Tidus' eyes went wide as he was spun away from his attempts to cause himself a concussion, and found himself blinking up into the bright gold eyes of his... attacker? Well, she wasn't really attacking him, so he wasn't going to consider her an attacker.
Although... Tidus didn't know what to think as he took in the appearance of the half dragon girl who was manhandling him. She looked almost like one of his brethren... but she couldn't possibly be one of them; first off she was smiling to widely, and secondly she didn't feel like one of them.
She felt... similar, but not the same. Tidus relaxed slightly. Not a Sinspawn, then.
However, his relaxing from battle-state meant that the pain he'd been trying to fight off only came raging back to him, and he clutched at his chest in pain, barely managing a confused, "Uh... hi..." through it.
Dammit, he was really starting to hate this pain.
The draconic girl gave a fanged grin as the boy turned around, but opposite to her expectations, didn't run away screaming bloody murder. He did however, kneel over clutching his chest in pain. Her face went blank as she blinked for a minute.
The girl's grin returned, but wasn't as overwhelming this time, when she re-realized the problem. Her first thought that he didn't have a heart was wrong, he did.
And that was the problem.
She tilted her head curiously, crouching down oddly with her dragon-like legs to be more on a even level with the kneeling teen, her wings outstretched somewhat to help her keep balance. She very gently poked his chest with one huge claw.
"You, need a Behälter." she proclaimed with a slightly more knowledgeable tone then one would expect, seeing her previous actions.
Gently or not, when she poked his chest, her claw managed to tear his shirt somewhat. If he wasn't in as much pain as he happened to be in, he might have been angry about the damage to his brand new shirt, however pain seemed to be a big thing with him right now.
"Behälter...?" the word was awkward in his mouth, not exactly one he'd spoken before, and it was harder yet to get the strange word out through the pain. Thinking through pain had never exactly been one of his better skills, "...what's that?"
Maybe it was a medicine? Something to get rid of the pain that had plagued him for nearly a month now.
Or maybe it was a toy. How could he possibly know, any ways? The 'advice' had come from a strange half-dragon girl kneeling in front of him on the stone pavement of the roads of Traverse Town, who's eyes sparkled with slightly muted, childish glee.
He was really hoping it was medicine.
The dragon-girl nodded when the teen repeated the word she had spoken, and grinned smugly when he asked what it meant. She hopped backwards from him, and straightened back up to her normal height. Flapping both wings out for balance, she precariously lifted her right taloned foot, and tapped it with her claws.
"My Behälter. Keeps the heart near, and the pain away.."
The girl lowered her crimson scaled leg back down, hopping back over to the blond again. She poked his chest again, but this time with the smooth backside of her claw.
"Your heart hurts, 'cause it can't live in you anymore, but it hurts to have it away too... That's why you need a Behälter!"
As soon as her serious speech ended, she grinned wolfishly at him. "See see?" She slowly stood up straight again, and held out a clawed hand. "I'm Yasha!", she giggled.
It... made a strange sort of sense, what Yasha was saying. It had been four years since he had actually carried his Heart within him; living in the End of Days generally meant that one had had their Heart taken from them. The four-- well, three, as technically he'd lived the majority of the fourth year in Spira-- years he'd lived there meant that his body had adapted to that climate.
"So... uh..." focusing through the pain was harder now that he had a possibility of getting away from it, "Where do you get one of these... Behälter thingies?"
Okay, so he probably shouldn't have added that 'thingies' on the end, but quite frankly, he still didn't have any idea what it was. He supposed, that if it was an anklet, like she had, then he could always hide it in his boots...
Oh, right, manners. She'd said her name, so he should say his, right?
"Tidus... my name's Tidus," and the blonde grinned the best he could through the pain.
Yasha smiled brightly. "Hullo Tidus!" She said happily, as no one had ever told them her name before, and the thought of one doing so made her bubbly. She blinked when he asked how to get a Behälter, and thoughtfully looked upwards. "Umm... Weeellllll..."
Yasha rocked from side to side, digging her claws in between the cracks in the stone. "You don't really...'get' one...you just kinda... 'make' one, yeah." She nodded to reinforce her own statement.
"You just... um.. stick your heart... in something." She nodded absently again, and waved to a shiny looking blue-ish sword, which was resting on a table next to the one Tidus had been attempting to kill himself with.
"Like that sword! It can be anything solid, I think.. just place your heart within it, okie?" She smiled again, her fangs poking out slightly.
Tidus blinked a few times.
Well. That seemed... relatively easy. Except... how did one remove one's own Heart? He wasn't exactly a Heartless... he might have been, at one point, but that kinda got trashed when he was all but kidnapped by Sin.
Sinspawn couldn't remove the metaphysical Heart that was more like a soul, than the 'heart' that came to mind with the use of the word. The Heart wasn't a physical part of the body, after all.
Although, given the way it hurt, maybe he should revise that statement.
In any case, he managed to pull himself upright enough to heft the Brotherhood off the other table. It was a good enough idea, putting his Heart in the sword-- he did take it everywhere, after all.
"So, uh... how do I do that, Yasha?" he frowned in confusion, "How do I put my Heart in my sword?"
Yasha tilted her head to a side for another minute, thinking. She finally shook her head, clicking her claws together. "I know ONE way of doing it....".
Before Tidus could reply, Yasha leapt forward and thrust her claws though his chest. She latched onto a very familiar feeling within him and yanked hard on it, pulling his Heart right out of his own body. There wasn't any marking left that she had even touched him, much less pierced his skin.
A sparking ruby red Heart floated within the cage Yasha made around it with her claws. She leaned over towards the sword Tidus was holding, and flicked his fingers out of the way. She made a small crack in the 'cage', pushing the Heart into the handle of the blade.
It finally disappeared into the cold metal with a last sparkle of light, and Yasha doubled over, panting, Keeping a Heart from floating away once it was out of a body was very difficult, and draining..
"..There."
Tidus gave a choked off cry as he felt her claws go through his body, disappearing into his chest. Eyes wide, he was frozen to the spot, wondering if the dragon-girl had just killed him...
Then she had removed her hands, and he could see the crimson glow of what he assumed to be his Heart-- he had seen it twice before, so he was pretty sure that the glow came from his Heart-- as she cradled it.
The pain was gone.
The thought shocked him, and he found himself just blinking in surprise as Yasha brushed limp fingers off of his sword. Curiously, he watched her push his Heart into the blade, and distantly realized that she was making him one of those "Behälter"... things.
Upon this realization, he found himself, surprisingly, not dead. Weren't you supposed to die when your Heart was taken, in this realm? How... curious.
Although, it might have had something to do with being Sinspawn, or even with the Behälter, itself. Either way, he wasn't dead, the pain was gone, and Yasha looked like she had seen better days.
"...Thanks," he murmured, hefting his sword and sliding it back into the straps across his back. There was a strange warmth in his chest, unlike the burning and the pain that had come from his Heart physically being there.
Shaking his head, he set his hand lightly on Yasha's shoulder, careful about touching her wing. He didn't know if it was like a butterfly's or a bird's, and didn't really want to cause her any damage, when she'd just helped him.
"Hey, you okay, Yasha?"
Yasha gasped quietly, her breathe coming in short bursts. She managed to look up with a tired smile when Tidus laid a hand on her shoulder. She couldn't ever remember someone caring about her, it was a very nice feeling, being cared for...
"I'm...I'm alright!.. It's just hard to do that, Heartless are just supposed to absorb a Heart, not move it... or transfer it. Hearts are very unstable out of a body, so you have to give them some of your energy... or they'll collapse..."
Yasha shrugged lightly, stretching her wings out as she pushed herself back up. "I'll be okay in a little bit, just gotta regain my strength." She spun around on her hind claw and beamed to Tidus.
"Are you Okay now? Can I come with you? I'm-a-bit-lost-and-I-don't-know-where-to-go-and-I-don't-know-anyone-and-it's-not-really-fun-being-all-alone-is-it?" She managed to blurt out the last part in one whole, jumbled, completely incoherent sentence.
"Uh..." he blinked several times, trying to make out what, exactly, she'd just said, before screeching to a stop on the first part of her response.
"You... you're a Heartless?" He was rather of the opinion that such a thing was impossible-- she hardly looked like a Heartless! But then, he didn't really look like a Sinspawn, did he? And who was he to say he was perfectly unique in the multiverse? There were a lot of worlds out there...
Shaking his head, he banished any negative thoughts. So what if she was a Heartless? She'd just helped him, and that made her A-OK in his books!
"Sure, you can come with me!" his mouth spoke without him, and he mentally scratched his head. Where had that come from? Casting his mind back over the rest of the admittedly short conversation, he came to the conclusion that his subconscious had decoded her words and decided to answer for him while he wasn't paying attention.
It wasn't that unusual of a situation, he thought with the tiniest of sighs. It actually happened quite frequently. Sometimes, that was a good thing.
Yasha's golden orbs widened to an impossible size. "REALLY?!" She cried happily, and proceeded to jump up and flap her wings blithely. "YAAAAY!!" she squealed childishly, hopping around in some sort of odd-looking dance of sorts.
Yasha finally landed particularly hard back on the stone, and started flapping her wings with excitement, babbling cheerfully. "This is really really great great great! You're my friend now! I don't remember having any friends before, so you're my first, this is really really great great great! I don't ever remember being this happy before, this is really really great great great!"
Yasha then turned around back to Tidus, and grinning a more then just a little unsettlingly, did an action that can be described with only one word, she glomped him. "THAAAANK YOOOUUU!!!"
"Ack!" was about the only thing Tidus managed to get out of his lungs as the draconic and hyper one glomped him with the force of a semi-trailer going off the side of a cliff at a hundred miles per hour. Or, at least, that's what he would have thought it similar to if the island born youth even knew what a semi-trailer was.
Trying to breath was becoming something of a problem, so he did the only thing he knew how to, in order to survive in such situations.
He took a tip from his days as a blitzer and held his breath. He could do this for ten minutes-- longer, if need be. It certainly helped avoiding suffocating to death in the girl's grasp.
It was no wonder she'd never had friends before, some distant part of his mind thought, although not cruelly. Her hugs might have driven them away.
He was really hoping she'd let go soon. Or for someone to come along and inform her that she was crushing his spine with her hug.
The doors to the first distract of Traverse Town were pushed open as a young man stepped into the square. A crown of chocolate brown spikes went in all directions from his head, a little longer and wilder from what they had been so many years ago. The brunette surveyed the square with tired sapphire eyes, forcing a smile onto his tanned face as he began to walk, the various chains hanging from his clothes jingling as he walked.
How long had it been since they'd closed the door? A day, a few weeks, months? How long had it been since he'd closed the door on his best friend? How long had it been since he'd held her hand? How long? He wasn't so sure anymore. He wasn't sure of much of anything anymore. With a sigh the brunette flopped down onto a bench as he waited for his two companions to get back from getting food, his smile shifting to an empty look, so foreign on his features.
It didn't really make sense, once they sealed Kingdom Hearts, traveling to other worlds should have been impossible, yet for the past few weeks they had been traveling other worlds in search of Riku and King Mickey. Didn't that mean the Heartless should be able to travel to other worlds once again? But aside from the occasional rogue Heartless, none had bothered them. The teen supposed he should consider that a good thing, but the lack of the shadow's made him uneasy.
Another thing that made him uneasy was he had heard that many people whom had their hearts returned to them still didn't become fully human, they became a sort of half-heartless half-human, and they had been without their heart for so long it hurt them to have it within them. But this made him feel more guilty then nervous. He should have sealed Kingdom Hearts faster, should have done so many things he hadn't done. Every person he saw with a "Heart Behälter" as they called them, every person who remained with heartless features, every one of them seemed to represent his failures.
"Sora, don't ever change." She had said.
A broken smile spread over the teens face, a bitter, fragmented version of the real thing. "Kairi...what would you think of me now?"
He looked around the square, and it was only by chance that he saw them. A blonde suddenly being tackled by a dragon like girl. How odd...the girl greatly resembled a Wyvern.
Wait...a WYVERN!?
The brunette jumped to his feet, black sneakers clicking against the stones as he ran over to the two. He summoned a key-shaped weapon into his right hand, gripping the dark blue handle.
"Hey, you! Get off him!" The brunette commanded, sapphire eyes narrowing.
It was then that he got a good look at the teen the Wyvern-girl was glomping. Sapphire eyes widened and he almost dropped his weapon.
"T-TIDUS!?"
Managing to get out of Yasha's grip wasn't the easiest thing to do in the world, but at least she'd loosened her grip slightly when Sora had made his rather abrupt appearance. The blonde blinked at the friend that he hadn't seen in four years.
Well... he hadn't exactly seen any of the other people from Destiny Islands in four years, the alternate versions of Wakka and his father not being included. Still... this was Sora. One of his best buddies!
Tidus grinned a bit lopsidedly at the other boy, "Er, hey Sora! Long time no see!"
Yasha blinked surprised as someone shouted something behind her, loosening her grip somewhat.
"Er, hey Sora! Long time no see!"
Yasha blinked again, still looking confused when Tidus spoke. She let go and hit the ground with a thud, landing on her huge scaled feet easily. She hopped around to look at this 'Sora', it was someone Tidus knew well and liked, so they had to be a good person, right?
Yasha only saw one thing, and only had to see that one thing to immediately recognize the person and react. Her eyes went as wide as dinner plates when she spotted several soft brown spikes, that some people might actually consider to be hair.
"YUMMY HAAAIIIR!!!!!"
There was about half a millisecond's time between Yasha's gleeful cry, and her tackling the spiky hair mass to the floor.
"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!!!!!!!!"
"GACK!" Sora cried as he was Kamikaze tackled with about one hundred pounds of dragon girl and knocked to the floor, the keyblade ending up about a yard or so away.
He gagged as he attempted to pry the girl from his waist. Unfortunately for the brunette, she had an iron grip, or something like that.
"Miss....you're crushing my lungs..." He informed her in a strangled voice.
Tidus blinked, slightly stunned by Yasha's sudden attack on his friend, then grinned brightly. At least he wasn't the only one who had to suffer through Yasha's hugs from hell. But...
"Yummy hair?" that brought a few snickers out of the blonde boy, "Cute nickname, Sora. Where'd you manage to pick that one up?"
He'd heard some of Riku's nicknames for the brown haired boy, and they had been rather amusing, but this was stranger than any of those. Although, he'd doubt he'd use it, since he didn't particularly want to find out what was so 'yummy' about Sora's gel-soaked hair.
"Hey, Yasha, I think you're about to kill my friend with that hug."
Yasha continued squealing with delight, until she heard Tidus comment she was killing the spiky haired one. She fell off, jumping back to her huge taloned feet, performing a back flip with her wings outstretched, before hopping around Sora.
"Yay yay yay! I thought Yummy Hair went away a long long time ago!" She pounced down on the still-dazed lad, giving him a vicious hug before hopping back to her feet and repeating the odd hyper dance from before.
"I thought Yummy Hair diieeed! I'm so glad Yummy Hair's okie-okie!" She finally stopped moving at the speed of a whirlwind, standing above Sora, clicking her talons and flapping her wings in un-concealed excitement.
"If Yummy Hair is okie-okie, then we've still got a shot at this!" She cried out in earnest happiness. She scooped up the Keyblade with her claws, and handed it back to the Keyblade Master, smiling brightly.
"I'm Yasha! You don't remember me, but me so so glad you okaay! The worlds still need a hero, and the Key a Wielder!"
Sora blinked slowly, attempting to process everything the dragon-girl had said. It didn't help that she'd spoken it all a mile a minute either.
'I THINK she said something to me..'
He looked down at the keyblade the girl had tossed to him, before looking back up at her, completely dumb-founded.
Yummy Hair? What the heck?
"Huh? Er...how do you know me?" Sora asked, raising an eyebrow. "And...uhhh...What are you talking about?"
Yasha clashed her claws together, in what was probably an attempt at clapping, but looked much more frightening.
"From Hollow Bastion! I was the Wyvern that kept knocking you off the castle!" Yasha said cheerfully, "Remember? The one that kept head-butting you right off that ledge?"
She spun around on her hind talons, giggling. "What am I talking about? What am I talking about! I'm talking about it! Your journey hasn't ended, because it's barely begun! The Prophecy, Keyblade Wielder, the Prophecy!!".
She leaped up to the top of the stairs again, and turned to face them. Her wings were completely outstretched, and she actually looked serious for once, making an over-all impressive appearance. "Remember, you are the one that will open the door to the Light.."
There was only one word to describe Tidus at that moment.
Confused.
"Prophecy?" he wondered, brows dipping in confusion as something within hummed, seemingly mocking him by saying 'I know something you don't know'. But why would he know, but not know, something? Argh, this was confusing him.
So was this whole Keyblade thing. It wasn't like he knew what had been going on in this realm for the past four years, so he had an excuse to be behind the times.
The last time 'fate' and 'destiny' had been brought into an equation involving Tidus he'd ended up a Sinspawn. Quite frankly, he'd like not to have to go through such a change again, although the adventure had been fun...
"Sora, what the hell is Yasha talking about? What's this prophecy deal?"
Now, Sora's reaction to Yasha's first response would be "You were REALLY annoying, you know that!?" But that was before he heard her second response. After that, all feelings of annoyance were cast aside, to be replaced with feelings of dread, deja-vu, joy, fear, and something else....something he couldn't quite place.
The journey he had fought so hard in and grown so weary of, no where near over. So there was more ahead? Would it ever end? The prophecy, the one from his dreams....
"The prophecy..." Sora murmured, a far away look in his sapphire eyes.
"The closer you get to the light..."
"Sora, don't ever change..."
"The greater your shadow becomes."
"Falling...falling...into darkness..."
"Keep your light burning strong."
"They'll keep on coming at you, so long as you continue to weld the keyblade."
"And don't forget..."
"Every Heart return to darkness!"
"You hold the mightiest weapon of all."
"I don't need a weapon, my friends are my power!"
"Remember, you are the one that will open the door to the Light.." The voice from his dream? Yasha? Kairi? Riku? Himself?
Sora's eyes shot open, the teen unaware of when he had closed them, nor aware that Tidus had spoken to him, or that he'd been staring into space murmuring for the past two minutes.
"What about the prophecy?" He asked.
Yasha sighed dismally at Sora's question, her wings falling down low, the taloned tips lightly touching the ground.
"I...I don't really know..." She made a noise akin to a whimper, "There's so much I can't remember... So very much, I lost so much important knowledge..."
Yasha shook her head, pulling her wings back close, and jumped back down to the square again, her golden orbs peering at Sora curiously. "But, I think, the Heartless will prove not to be the true enemy..".
The dragon-girl giggled slightly, gently rocking on her claws again. Her eyes looked glossy, and her head was raised to look at the stars above them.
"And I think... there'll be a chance.. to make it all better, a chance. Remember it and never lose it.. And you'll get back all you've lost, and all you've fought so hard to try and attain.."
"Uh... guys?" But Yasha kept talking over Tidus' worried look. Something about the Heartless not being the true enemy, but really, that wasn't what he was worried about right now.
No, he was more worried about that strange... thing... glowing in the middle of Traverse Town's first district. All his questions about this prophecy, as well as Yasha and Sora's strange conversation fled his mind as his eyes locked on the thing. A chill ran down his back, and he literally had to fight to keep his less-than-human side from bursting fully free.
Threats to his safety generally had him going full Sinspawn, and he would really rather avoid destroying yet another set of clothing by shifting into a form he wasn't all that familiar with. Instincts had a bad habit of taking over his mind at that point.
Besides, Tidus preferred his human form to his Sinspawn form.
"Guys," Tidus growled, reaching for the Brotherhood. No answer, "Guys!" he barked, finally catching their attention, "We've got trouble."
The glowing thing was not a glowing thing anymore.
It had gained form-- humanoid, but not completely, like Yasha. It was tall, about twelve feet in height, and lanky, reminding Tidus of a scarecrow. Shadows curled about it's form, obscuring the body from sight, but golden eyes glowed from the darkness of it's face.
A Heartless.
Yasha jumped a little, giving a small, startled squawk when Tidus screamed at her from behind her. She whirled around to face him, then turned again to see what he was looking at. She again did something between a screeching hawk, and a dragon's roar, upon noticing the strange dark being.
Yasha hissed loudly at the other Heartless, her golden eyes flashing with rage. She flapped out her wings to their full size, and brought up her huge clawed hands in front of her, falling smoothly into a battle stance.
"And remember, just 'cause they might not be the true problem, doesn't mean they aren't the current one!"
Sora's eyes grew wide as the Heartless rose from the ground, golden orbs seeming to stare right through him. His fist clenched around the keyblade handle.
"But...Kingdom Hearts is sealed! They shouldn't be able to reappear…" Sora gasped.
The smoke around the Heartless cleared, revealing their more humanoid form, antenna swept back behind their heads, hanging almost to their torso. They clicked their claws together, as if anticipating the battle ahead.
Sora's eyes narrowed and he brought the keyblade into attack position, shifting into his battle stance. "Well..." He began, a grim smile appearing on his face. "Lets take care of the current problem then, ne?"
Tidus gave his friend a tight-lipped grin, "Ya gotta remember, Sora-- there's always a backdoor." None the less, Tidus gripped the hilt of the Brotherhood a little bit tighter, feeling the warmth of his Heart within the weapon.
It had been awhile, he thought, before launching himself at the shadowy form before them his furisode swinging around him in a slightly distracting manor, since he'd physically fought someone or something.
Well... Heartless had to be easier to beat when they weren't in the End of Days right?
His blade swung down and through the Heartless-- damage caused, but none visible. He hated foes like that.
The shadow-beast twisted around him, going for the most obvious target-- the one holding the Keyblade.
Tidus blinked in shock for a moment, when he was completely ignored in favor of his brown haired friend, "...the hell...?"
Sora cocked a brow at the Heartless jumped towards him, loping along in a graceful way compared to their less humanoid cousins. His black gloved hands tightened around the handle of the keyblade.
How long since the last time he'd fought these things? Same as the closing of the door's date, he had no idea. He just knew it had been awhile. Not that it mattered.
Time seemed to slow, the shadow beasts stopping, almost as if waiting, their golden eyes unblinking and emotionless as two orbs of sapphire stared back.
Sora snorted slightly. "Fools."
Then it all broke lose, the Heartless jumping forward and the keyblade slicing cleanly through the air to meet them. Several more Heartless were already forming from the ground as the first of their brethren vanished in inky black smoke.
Sora pivoted on one foot, spinning to meet his next set of attackers and bringing up the keyblade to parry the duel set of claws aiming for his chest, then pushing them back and slashing the keyblade down, then dodge rolling over the cobblestone street to come back to his feet and bring the keyblade down on another shadow, then stepping past another strike and going through the swarms like a whirlwind of man and steel, if steel was what the keyblade was made of. He relied on his old combos, left, right, up, down, stab! Left, right, up, down stab!
He dipped under yet another set of claws and winced as what felt like three icy daggers tore into his back. He twisted around and struck his attacker, finally slowing to a stop as he whipped some sweat from his brow.
Suddenly more pools of darkness appeared around him and he let out a small cry of alarm as several icy claws slashed at his unprotected flank. He twisted to fend them off. The leg he was pivoting on, however, was awkwardly bent, making turning a bit harder. He noted this with a wince of discomfort and stepped forward with the other leg to try and pivot. This had taken several seconds, however, and by this time many Heartless were swarming him, slashing at his arms and legs and reaching for the heart of keyblade master that they sought.
Sora grit his teeth and shut his eyes tightly. "ARS..." He began to glow shades of gold and red. Some Heartless moved back. Most stupidly continued.
"ARCANUM!" Sora howled, rearing back and bringing down a flurry of blows upon the Heartless attacking him, golden energy streaming from him and the keyblade, becoming a crimson and gold hurricane of blows.
The energy eventually wore off and Sora slid to a stop, breathing heavily as the crimson and gold aura vanished. Clouds of inky black were all that remained after the attack. Sora let out a breath and stood, looking around the first distract to see what had happened with Tidus and Yasha.
Tidus had been watching, with a fair amount of awe, as Sora unleashed his attack on the Heartless. Even when he had been on Spira, he hadn't seen anything quite like it-- and that was saying something.
He couldn't believe that this was Sora-- the boy that, four years ago, was pretty much his equal in battle. Were they still equal? He knew he'd improved some-- well, a lot-- from his journey with Yuna and the others, but still... his fingers clenched around his sword, and he winced as one of the arriving Heartless raked Sora's back.
Yet he did not move, still stunned into inaction by his friend's viciousness-- at least, he didn't move until claws sunk through his leg and he gave a short howl of pain. Only then did he realize that he, too, had been surrounded by Heartless, and there was no more time to think. Now was the time for action.
"Heh," he grinned, although 'grin' was probably too nice of a word to be used for the bearing of his lengthening teeth. Beneath his skin, he felt Sin's power settle, confident that this battle would not cause any harm to one of it's few remaining hosts, and Tidus launched himself into a whirlwind of strikes. Left, right, parry, strike, downwards slash, followed by a vertical strike to catch one beneath the chin, and force him into a flip to get more room. Again he struck, a foot lashing out to catch one off guard before bringing the blade around in a horizontal strike from right to left.
The familiarity of the battle was nice, but taxing as he realized that it had been far to long since he had battled something enmass like this.
Still, he was not deterred, slashing through one enemy, and using the momentum of his blade to continue through the next. When one got to close, he would again bounce into the flip that had been his signature move as a child. He rained blows down, trying to get out from being in the center of the attacks, and towards the edge, paving a way of fading smoke and shadows as Heartless after Heartless were mauled and destroyed.
It took longer than he wanted to, in order to escape the mass of enemies, but certainly not all that long to someone who could have been watching. He could hear Sora's voice, calling out some attack or another, but he wasn't focused on that. He was focused on destroying the Heartless that remained before him. Amazingly enough, no others were coming up out of the ground, or appearing randomly. No, there was now a set limit, and quite frankly, he was damn glad for that.
Tidus' eyes danced, positioning himself for his own attack, "Energy Rain!"
Damn, he was thankful for his adventures on Spira, were his thoughts as he unleashed the attack, destroying what Heartless remained before him, but somehow, a sinking feeling rippled through him. Somehow, he just knew the powerful attacks and abilities he had uncovered in Spira were not going to be enough.
Sighing, he let the Brotherhood drop, though he didn't release the hilt and the warmth it spread through his hand. He lifted his other hand, catching the bottom of his furisode with a gesture of long practice, and began wiping the sweat from his brow with the edge white sleeve.
Turning, he locked eyes with Sora for a moment, before looking for Yasha.
Yasha's attention had immediately been diverted from Sora and Tidus as soon as the Heartless mass had begun rising from the cobblestone ground. With an inhuman shriek, she kicked the nearest Heartless, her taloned foot flinging the shadowed monster right into a brick wall. It raised it's head upwards in a voiceless scream as it's body melted away, a Heart appearing where the dark creature once was.
Eyeing the Heart, Yasha spread both wings out, at the same time knocking back two Heartless that had lunged out at her. "Requiem of Souls!" She cried out, her voice still laced with draconic fury at the sight of her own brethren.
The Heart disintegrated almost instantaneously, and Yasha's wings began to glow purple slightly. Grinning, she charged into a Heartless, punching it in the face, and knocking it into another. She pounced on the both of them before either recovered, plunging her claws right though their mid sections, both screeched and died in a explosion of black and purple energy.
Both Hearts within Yasha's claws also disappeared like the first, and the glow surrounding her wings strengthened considerably. Yasha gave another draconic screech, and kicked away a Heartless that clawed at her. Batting another with her wings, she finished off the first opposer with another well-aimed kick. A scream was heard from the second one as she delivered another smash kick.
Yasha gave a yelp of surprise as several Heartless piled on top of her at once, swatting them off of her with her now brightly glowing wings. With a growl, she charged at the Item shop, jumping onto a crate with one leap, and clearing the roof with a second. She spun on her hind talon, jumping right off the roof as soon as she hit the shingles.
Yasha spread both wings to their full length, catching the faint breeze in the square and floating on the air with wings illuminating a purple-ish glow. She glared down at the foes filling the first district, and a whisper passed though her lips, "Dragon's Kiss."
The glow enclosed within her wings flashed, lighting the entire area as it was released. The energy lanced down, skewering all the Heartless within her view, similar to Tidus' Energy Rain technique. Each Heartless fell with a single hit, and the Hearts imprisoned within the monsters rose up skywards.
Instead of the normal red heart laced with black ribbons of darkness, these hearts were pure red and gold. Yasha's talons clicked against the pavement just as the purple light within her wings diminished completely, and the Hearts she absorbed following the others, and also strangely pure of any taint.
"Whoa!" Was Yasha's only exclamation as she fell back on her behind with a slight groan. "Somebody remind me next time not to do that when I just made a Behälter before-hand!"
Tidus had rushed over to the dragon-girl's side almost the moment she had fallen, and found himself laughing at her statement. She was alright just... tired. Good thing that.
"I'll try, but if they pop up that quickly again, I can't exactly keep you from fighting, now can I?" he was grinning widely, despite the painful lacerations that decorated his body-- mostly his unprotected face and shoulders-- from the brief scuffle between the three of them and the Heartless.
"So..." the blonde began, glancing over at Sora, before helping Yasha back onto her feet, "What do you guys want to bet that this 'back door' didn't just open on it's own?"
From personal experience, Tidus had long since learned that there was some reason behind everything, even when you really, really, really didn't want their to be one.
Sora gave an absent nod, a far away look in his sapphire eyes as his grip tightened on the keyblade.
"Yeah..." He turned to face Tidus and Yasha, the dark look still lingering on his face. "It couldn't have just opened on its own. Something must have happened. Something about the prophecy you mentioned, Yasha." He closed his eyes. "The journey's not over yet, like you said. It's barely begun." A smile came to his face.
'Maybe...I'll find what I've lost...maybe…'
The smile became a grin. "I'm going to find out what's going on. Will you guys come with me?" He asked.
With a wry grin and a laugh, Tidus threw an arm over Sora's shoulder, "Why wouldn't I? I haven't seen you in four years! We've got a lot of catching up to do, you know. You going to come, Yasha?"
He paused though, as a thought struck him, and he scratched at his chin, "Hey, how are we going to figure it out? Go places at random?"
Yasha grinned, bouncing to where Sora and Tidus stood. "Of course I'm comin'! I said I'd follow Tidus, he's my friend now! And I get to follow Yummy Hair too!" She giggled.
Yasha paused, and blinked cutely at Tidus' question. "Aren't cha just gonna follow to where the most Darkness is, for starters at least?". She blinked again, and sweat dropped a little. "Ummm... you guys can sense out the darkness, riiiight...?"
Sora blinked slowly. "Uhhh....no...I don't suppose you do? Cause...you're a Heartless...YOU can sense the darkness… right? Cause if one of you can, we can use the Gummi Ship to get to wherever the darkness is."
Sora grinned and pointed to the doors leading out of Traverse Town. "Its right over there, if one of you can sense the darkness, then we can use the Gummi Ship and fly to the nearest world."
"Right then," Tidus dropped his arm from Sora's shoulders, "What are we waiting for? The sooner we get this done, the sooner we can get back to rebuilding our lives, right?"
Sora nodded slowly, casting a glance at his blonde haired friend.
How long had it been? Four years? It was almost funny, standing before him was practically the same boy he had known during childhood. Sure, he was taller, more muscular, and well, older, but he was still the same cheerful guy he knew. He still fought pretty much the same way, he still acted the same way, he was still Tidus.
Then he looked over at this girl, half heartless, whom he'd just met. The Wyvern who kept knocking him off the tower, eh? She seemed awfully cheerful for someone who had her heart stolen and was now currently a half dragon creature. And she called him 'Yummy Hair'. That wasn't TOO weird....
Then again, he'd only met them about ten minutes ago, so who was he to be making assumptions, right?
But still...they seemed so, cheerful, and they had probably been worse off then he'd been. Who was he to go around sulking when there were so many people who were probably being turned into Heartless, or suffering because they were forever stuck as half heartless. It was his duty as Keyblade Master to end that, right?
How many people stuck like that, and why? How many people might remember his fights with them, if Yasha remembered that his hair was 'Yummy', did others like her remember what it was like to fight against him? How many people remained half heartless when they should have been restored? How many had he failed, now? Would the numbers just grow?
Sora shook his head, attempting to clear his thoughts. 'No time for thinking, you can do that later.' He told himself. 'Thinking is bad.'
'Once this is done, then we can go back to rebuilding our lives.' Sora thought, despite his attempts NOT to muse on everything. 'Yeah...maybe when this is done, I can go back? Maybe.'
Sora grinned. "Alright then, lets go!" He said, pumping a fist into the air.
Yasha grinned and did a bouncing sort of jump when Sora pumped his fist. "Yatta!" She giggled, clicking her claws together. She could tell already, this was going to be something big, and very very important...
Yasha's golden eyes glimmered with ill-concealed excitement. She couldn't wait! This 'Gummi Ship' thingy sounded fun! She wondered if it was anything like how the Heartless would travel...
The dragon-girl grinned, her companions were going to be fun too! Yummy Hair, and Chicken Hair over there too, also called 'Tidus'... Tidus had called Yummy Hair something else too, but she liked her name better. She giggled to herself, glad that this time, she was fighting for the right side...
"Alright!" Tidus grinned, and pretty much bounced his way to the Gummi Ship, sure that Yasha and Sora were right behind him. It didn't take him all that long to figure out how to get into the contraption, and he settled himself into the pilot's chair.
Not that he actually knew how to operate it, of course. He made a cursory glance to check to see if his two partners were in the Gummi Ship, before he began to randomly hit buttons, "Hey, Sora... how do you start this thing?"
When the engine started up abruptly, he grinned widely, and hit a few more buttons. Never let it be said that Tidus was intelligent enough to realize that what he was doing could, quite possibly screw them over completely.
Which is why he didn't realize he'd done anything wrong until he'd already hit the button for the warp navi and sent them rocketing away from the world that Traverse Town resided on, without a set course.
"Uh... oops?"
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End Prologue