AN:/ I know what you all are thinking. I have very important reasons for why it's been taking me so long. I've been doing research about the game. And since I don't have every game, I looked up cutscenes and transcripts and anything else I could think of that might help me write this story. Kingdom Hearts 1 was my strong point, but I need to make sure I have a very good sense of the game to write the in-between story that uses both Chain of Memories and 358/2 Days. And I haven't even beaten Re:CoM or 358/2 Days yet. Then I realized that some things I took a wild guess on in the first story actually had a lot of evidence to back them up in BbS. (Aqua being a hopeless romantic that knew about the Paopu fruit. Riku knowing for sure about the "outside world.") So I had to do my research for that game too to find out if I could think of any new ideas and to see if my ideas were canon. I got some ideas, and a few were confirmed. And I accidentally got side-tracked by the next story in this series.
Honestly, I didn't realize I was writing a sequel to the sequel of this specific story you guys are reading, until I saw instances of a mysterious figure that needed to not be so mysterious. . I fail, I know. I started writing the sequel to a sequel to a sequel that wasn't even past it's first chapter yet. Feel free to throw stuff at me. Oh! And, most of the CoM arc will not make sense if I have any say in this story-writing! *has a determined face until she hears a door open and close* Uhm, I need to go hide before my Muse ties me up and steals the story again. Ciao!
Finding Twilit Paths, chapter 2: The chances of being wrong are...
- The exact same time Althea and Ienzo enter Castle Oblivion, Thursday night, Basement level 1, common room, Castle Oblivion -
Familiar scents tickle Zexion's nose as he sleeps in one of the Common Rooms of Castle Oblivion. Familiar, yet unknown scents. He slowly wakes up, thinking the Superior is in the building. Then he realizes the scent is different. It has that powerful scent of Darkness, but beneath it is the distinct scent of Light and cinnamon and cedar leaves. A second scent nearby reminds him of Ansem of Wise but it's cloaked in Darkness. Then there's the scent utterly drenched in Light and warm coconut cookies and daffodils. Another scent is full of arrogant ginger, presumptuous snapdragons, and marigolds with magic thrown in. A fifth smells of overt protection and chrysanthemum. The sixth new-ish scent is one of jasmine and hibiscus with mostly equal parts of Light and Darkness. A curious feat to behold. And the last scent is what puzzles Zexion the most. It's impossible for someone to have the same natural smell as anyone else he had always thought. But for some reason, the person closest to the Jasmine/Hibiscus scent has Zexion's own unique smell signature. The awareness fully wakes him and he starts to divine the locations of the seven new arrivals in Castle Oblivion so that he could scry for them using the crystal ball in the center of the room.
- A few minutes later, entrance hall, Castle Oblivion, Thursday night -
"So...wanna take a bet on which door leads to the basement?" Althea says as she and Ienzo stare at the three doors in the entrance hall.
Just pick a door and open it, Princess. I don't see what you're fussing about. Ienzo rolls his Wyvern eyes at her indecisiveness. He rather finds her being silly. He can sense where everyone in the castle is easily- a plus of being a Heartless- so he figures that if she doesn't want to run into anyone in particular, she should just clear it with him. Then again, he thinks, she's asking for the basement door, so that probably means she knows where she needs to be and just doesn't know how to get there.
"Well I don't want to risk running into Sora just yet, especially in this place." Naminé might mess with my memories under Marluxia's orders if I run into Sora and get found out. Can't risk that, no, not at all. She twitches her nose in slight frustration and searches her pockets.
What are you doing? And Sora's through that big door. I can't exactly sense Donald or Goofy though, it's weird. Like their auras are being suppressed indefinitely...nevermind, I just sensed Donald-nevermind again, he disappeared. Ienzo says in a strange tone, trying to make sense of what's going on past the large and ornate door. He keeps sensing Donald and Goofy auras and scents flickering in the most curious manner. But theirs are the only scents and auras he can sense through that door. A few floors higher up are three sleeping presences, one of which is identical to Lea's but impossible since Lea didn't come with them and should have been pigging out on Myde's cookies and the surprise cake Althea made to belatedly celebrate her birthday. There's also a more demure presence near those three, one that was awake. Many floors beneath Althea and Ienzo is where Riku is doing whatever he came here to do. Another signature, one very similar to his adopted father's is nearby Riku. Halfway between there and here is where he senses two more signatures being utterly calm and probably being completely unaware of what's going on in the castle since they too seem to be sleeping. The first basement floor is where the last scent resides. It's exactly like Ienzo's own signature and is quickly moving around the floor beneath him.
"I'm looking for a coin, genius. Luck is a good way of solving problems where I come from. Teenagers and children alike would usually resort to some sort of luck-based game to settle their scores." She comes up with nothing coin-like, but she does find the glass top to an old elixir bottle that she forgot to throw out or smelt down. And a black permanent marker. She draws a scribble on one side of the cap. "This'll do, heads is the scribble. If you call right, we take the right door. That okay with you?" The Heartless nods in response to her question but his attention is on the person beneath them quickly moving to a general area beneath one of the two small doors, the one on the left to be precise. Althea tosses the glass cap in the air. "Call it!"
Heads.
- Friday, early morning, basement level 5, Castle Oblivion, common room -
A pale and slightly sickly man with long, bland, blonde hair sits at a table not too far from his tall, bulky, short redheaded silent friend who sits on the couch. The two of them are in one of the two basement common rooms of Castle Oblivion. The blonde, Vexen, is reading the latest issue of Scientist's Digest and scrawling down notes in the margins and on a separate notebook. The muscle-man on the other hand was fiddling with a puzzle. He liked doing that. Its his favorite hobby next to searching for his Heart. His name is Lexaeus.
Both of these people are actually Nobodies, beings without Hearts. They are created when a really strong person loses his or her Heart to the Heartless. There are two classes of Heartless, the Purebloods and the Emblems, although the class names are actually quite misinforming. The Purebloods are born from Darkness itself and usually just want to raise their ranks because they're so lonely. The Emblems usually don't care about making more Heartless, usually they just want to get to Kingdom Hearts. But the only way for a Heartless to go to Kingdom Hearts, is for their bodies of Darkness to be dispersed by a weapon of Light, usually a Keyblade. Depending on how much Darkness the Heartless-to-be has in his or her Heart before they "die," a new Heartless may be able to choose his or her bodily form. Like Ienzo, Xehanort, and Riku. Otherwise the new Heartless will more than likely take the form of the Heartless that stole his or her Heart.
"Narrator, do you mind? I can't concentrate when you're going on about our universe. Please just direct." Lexaeus says without looking away from his puzzle.
Sorry. Where was I? Oh yes...
Zexion portals in and stands between the table and couch. He waits a moment, his arms folded behind his back, only speaking when he believes it clear that no one else will. "Hello to you too, Vexen, Lexaeus. Yes, I slept well, thank you for asking. We do seem to have a bit of a problem though." That catches his fellow members' attention. "As you know, Sora and company arrived last evening and Numbers VIII, XII, and XI have been playing with them. But late last night or early this morning depending on the way you view it, I sensed two new scents. One of them was Maleficent."
"That's preposterous! That old hag is dead." Vexen exclaims, putting his magazine down. Lexaeus just slows down his fiddling with the puzzle to pay more attention to Zexion.
"Yes, yes, our other visitor took care of that. It was a scent quite similar to our Superior's, and at first I thought it was he."
"What changed your mind? Was it actually quite different?" Vexen questions before getting up to look at the chore chart.
"Yes and no. The fact that he didn't come to see me for allowing Maleficent to find a way inside told me the scent wasn't the Superior's."
"So who is it?" Vexen asks while Lexaeus finally solves his latest puzzle and puts it down before reaching into a box by his feet for a new one.
"I don't know yet. I'll keep you updated, but until then, we shouldn't forget our chores. Vexen, if you would be so kind, what are Lexaeus' and my chores for the day?" Zexion changes the topic.
Vexen grumbles under the breathe how at least Zexion should know his chores, he always gets the same ones since he rigged the dial. "You have Forgetting and Patrolling, Number 6. Number 5 is dealing with cooking, cleaning, and communication today."
"Excellent, and how is the Replica Project coming along?"
"No. i was in excellent condition last I checked. My Replicas of myself are still failures for some reason but I recently found a magic-imbued pendant with traces of someone's DNA. I'll use that for my next experiment. Also I want you to see if you can detect who the pendant belonged too." Vexen says pulling out a plastic bag with a necklace in it. It has a short thin silver chain with many enchantments to keep it clean and indestructible. The pendant is of a silver Chinese Lung dragon curled around a pearlescent orb, also with many enchantments to keep it clean and indestructible.
Zexion takes the bag and opens it, letting his bloodhound senses detect the owner. "It belongs to the anomaly. You might want to use the necklace itself, the scent is so heavy on it that I wouldn't be surprised if he left part of his Heart in it. And as I've read over your previous reports, the only difference I can see between your failings and successes is that your failings were based on someone with no Heart and whose Heartless is possibly dead."
- Basement 12, Castle Oblivion, an hour later -
Riku wakes to the Disembodied Voice telling him he's being lazy. Riku mutters angrily to himself and then sighs and looks around the room. He managed to find the bedroom he and Althea shared while staying in Hollow Bastion, but he didn't find Althea. Didn't he say I'd meet people from my memories? Riku thinks, looking at the bureau that his roommate always kept her healing augments in. He at least expected to see Althea, but he's seen no one but the Heartless and Maleficent so far. And he's not even sure they're real Heartless. They don't have that stench of Darkness he thought they would.
Riku doesn't know when he got his new-found ability of scenting Darkness, but he figures it has something to do with Althea or Amani, the jinnīyah they shared for a time until both of those girls got trapped in Hollow Bastion. He also expects one or both of them to knock him over the head and call him an idiot when he sees them again. Then again, he expects Sora and Kairi to do the same.
Riku shakes his head to clear his thoughts and goes over to the bureau and searches it for any items he might be able to use, pocketing them as he finds them. For some reason, he felt so much weaker that he should have been. A Shadow almost killed him before he found his old bedroom. Something like that hadn't happened in months. And there's the other reason why Riku doesn't think they're actual Heartless. Even though he technically died, the Heartless should have still listened to him and recognized who he was, but they didn't so he ran away from every Defender and tried to deal with the Shadows, Wizards, and Tornado Steps quickly. He also ran from the Wyverns, but not because he couldn't defeat them, but because he would be uneasily reminded of Sentinel. A kind of pet Heartless that hardly ever left him alone when he first arrived at the real Hollow Bastion.
Then Riku is on his way and out the door, being immediately surrounded by 5 Shadows. Both parties stare for a moment. Then the Heartless try jumping him and Riku rolls underneath them all. Then he turns around and immediately slices through the Heartless closest to him a few times, moving to the next one when the first has turned to Darkness dust and smoke. A third Heartless tries attacking while he's distracted, but Riku throws the second Heartless at the third and slices a few more times. The last two Heartless double-team him and he jumps back at that exact second. They bang each other's head and fall in a pile on the ground, Riku swiftly finishes them off.
...You're still lazy, it would be easier if you just stopped fearing the Darkness and embraced it. The Disembodied Voice says at the end of his battle
"Oh, just shut up! I didn't ask you how to handle my crappy life, now did I?" Riku yells angrily into the air and shakes his fist. The Disembodied Voice stays silent for the rest of the day while Riku fights his way through his memory and eventually he heads back to his bedroom.
- Floor 2, Castle Oblivion, same time Riku wakes up, Friday -
Sora glumly stares at his ramen cup, while Donald and Goofy gulp their own food down eagerly. Last night, after leaving Traverse Town on a strange note, a black-cloaked guy wanted to fight them. Then, a new guy dressed in the exact same way but much more skinny and that Axel at first thought was a girl interrupted and said he wanted to fight the trio. The first guy went away and the second introduced himself. His name, he said, was Axel. The trio didn't defeat Axel, they just got humiliated. But that's not even the worst of what happened last night.
Sora finally takes a bite of his cooling soup and looks at his friends. How can they be so calm knowing that we're forgetting things that were important to us? I almost forgot that I died...or did I almost die? ARGHH! I can't remember! And I can't ask Jiminy, his journal is completely blank. Almost as if he didn't take any notes at all.
"Sora?" Goofy questions cautiously, noticing that Sora's not eating with his usual gusto. Sora shakes his head vigorously and smiles at Goofy, putting aside his somber thoughts in favor of good food and even better friends.
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