On the other hand, this is a very interesting chapter. I'm the kind of person who has movies playing in her head and tries to convey those visual imagery to others through writing, so bear with me and this strange chapter, okay? And yeah, I hate 'Sanctuary'. My ears bleed. I'm so disappointed in Kingdom Hearts II now. Sue me for the heresy. I dare you.
Thanks: I'd like to thank Lena-Jade for putting so much time and effort into editing this story. And my mom's getting pissed. Shit.
Copyrights: All characters and settings belong to Square-Enix and Disney except for certain OCs I will not mention because you'll find out about them in a few months. The storyline is mine. 'Passion' is by Utada Hikaru, and it is the opening version.
Warnings: There's a ton of cursing near the end. Trying to keep it real here; when people get mad, they curse. Don't deny it.
The Last Dream
Chapter 1: The Concert - Passion
Once, a very long time ago, Yuna performed the song, "REAL emotion" in the blitzball stadium. But she wasn't even the one singing it. Things were a bit confusing back then, but all controversy was set aside when Yuna began her unforgettable 'A Thousand Words'. To many, it was an incredible concert. To others, it was something so profoundly life-changing that they had never been the same again.
Once, a very long time ago, Yuna thought life on Besaid Island was enough; that wondering and dreaming about Tidus was enough. But her journey began when Rikku showed her a sphere. That journey became a part of a greater journey that was more wondrous, honorable, and terrible than her personal journey as a High Summoner.
"Are you ready?" Buddy asked calmly as he made a last few adjustments to the settings of the stage. "You think you can control that sphere of yours?"
He was referring to her Songstress dressphere, which was prone to shocking people with visuals. 'A Thousand Words' began as a simple song of hope through the pain and tears, but her clothes started doing something. That something was Lenne, and Shuyin, and the lost dreams of Spira, and the death of a hero, and the declaration of doom.
Would the sphere do something again?
'Let us hope not,' Lenne whispered as they heard the crowd roar from backstage.
"It doesn't matter anymore," Yuna said softly. "Let it begin."
She took a step forward just as Rupert yelled something into the telephone he was answering.
"What? What code? Are you insane?"
Breathe, Yuna. In and out, in and out. Become one with yourself. Let it begin.
Yuna stepped out onto the stage.
The world was dark. She couldn't see much at all except for the eerily glowing blue translucent platform she was standing on. Underneath it, she could see the huge machine with many arms and drums. Smaller platforms soared around her as it carried guitarists, drummers, and others who played the various musical instruments. Except for the one who was testing the strings, everyone was ready.
Yuna could hear voices shouting at each other, arguing from backstage. The voices belonged to Cid and Rupert, who were arguing about a code.
"The show has to start," interrupted Buddy.
'A show? This is no show. This is a performance.'
Performance or no, who knows what would happen if the dressphere starts reacting again. Bowing her head, Yuna took several deep breaths, thrust her head up and down, and stretched her arms.
An acoustic melody began to play as her Songstress Dressphere began to glow.
'It's happening again,' Lenne whispered in her mind. 'But the show goes on.'
People applauded, but began to mutter and gasp as the light from the circular platform and her clothes intensified, blinding everyone in the stadium.
'Now'.
And Lenne stepped out of Yuna and to the side, her clothes giving off hot light as well. Clasping hands, they closed their eyes and waited.
Let it begin.
""
A slender red-haired girl sits on the sand in the beach, piecing a star-shaped charm together from seashells washed up along the shore…
From a small island, three young teenagers stare off into the sunset, sharing their dreams, hopes, and expectations of the worlds that lay beyond their own…
'I need more passion than you know.'
High ivory white doors with stained window panes slowly close in the darkness…
And the one who wanted to discover other world left alone on a starless night. The red-haired girl watches as white balls of light float down all around her, and from a source far out into the ocean, stars streak across the empty black sky…
Omoidaseba haruka haruka
Mirai wa ('I need more passion than you know') doko made mo kagayaiteta
Kireina aozora no shita de
Bokura wa ('I need ore passion than you know') sukoshi dake obeite ita
(When I remember far, far back
The future was shining endlessly.
Below the pretty blue sky,
We were only slightly afraid.)
Against the harsh, eerie, surreal sky a castle looms ahead. Three voyagers approach from an endless road: a wizard, a knight, and a boy with wild brown hair…
Sitting alone, in a white room, a pale blonde girl weaves a tapestry of disorder and confusion, endlessly drawing visions and dreams and nightmares …
The three voyagers weave their way through the castle floors, facing two men and a woman in shady black trench coats …
A silver-haired young man and a mouse king force their way through the young man's troubled past, from three shadowy men in black to a witch crowned with horn, to a replica of the man himself, to a fallen king with silver hair, to a mysterious figure donned in red who holds the key to redemption…
Day after day, the red-haired young woman, with a brunette girl at her side, waits. Day after day they cling to the shores of the island, staring out across the ocean, waiting for something…or someone…
Within the keep of a great egg-shaped glass case with a base of flowers, a boy slumbers into a deep sleep of memories…
Along a dark road the silver-haired man and the mouse king meets the stranger in red, who walks on with his eyes set on the road to dawn…
On a sunny, uneventful day, something streaks across the sky. A shooting star. By this, the red-haired young woman knows the barriers have fallen…
And something was about to begin.
Natsukashii iro ni mado ga somaru
(The window was bathed in a nostalgic color)
Eyes close, the world of dreams…
A blond teenager sinks into the dreamscape and lands on a circle of stained glass. And behind him, five white monsters arise…
The smile of a teenage girl with wavy brunette hair and brown eyes. The smirk of the suave blond young man. The cheerful happy-go-lucky grin of the portly black-haired teenager. The sharp, piercing eyes of a middle-aged man. A tall lithe man in black…
A blind-folded silver-haired man wearing a black trenchcoat…
A wizard. A knight. A young brown-haired man clad in black. And in his hand is a huge silver key…
The sorrowful smile of a red-haired young woman. She is waiting, always waiting…
Mae wo muitereba
Mata aemasu ka
Mirai wa ('I need more passion than you know') doko e demo tsudzuiteru 'n da
Ookina kanban no shita de
Jidai no ('I need more passion than you know') utsuroi wo mite ita ina
(If I keep on looking forward
Will I meet you again?
The future continues anywhere.
Underneath a large sign,
I want to watch the time change.)
Two Wielders of the Keyblades. The Master and the Guardian. Every frontier they open up, every world they face, layers and layers of the forgotten peel away the closer they seem to get to the Door…
In the mists of the worlds caught between life and death, the Princess of Heart and her friends seek the key to the past, for the past answers the future…
The blindfolded one, the one seeking light in the darkness, fights for redemption of his past sins, gaining unknown powers along the path to salvation…
But times change. Under the gray skies of a lost world, two people briefly meet, unsure of each other and their feelings. They go on their separate ways, but the future shakes, and foresight becomes obscure…
Before the might of Hollow Bastion, a man returns to his past home, where a great shadow of a dragon and a firebird await to test his resolve. Every step he takes brings him closer to his home, and every battle won gives him a new strength and a new power…
A showdown awaits between the Master and the Society before the doors of the past and memories. He and his allies seek to stop the Society before they succeed in unleashing the unholiest evil upon the Universe…
My heart's a battleground…
'I need more passion than you know…'
Running, always running, against time, against the Darkness, against the Light, against all the obstacles…
A dance of flowers…
A waltz in flames…
Kingdom Hearts…
The Door In-Between…
A battle for memory…
A fight for the truth…
A door cast away by Oblivion…
A door locked by the light of the moon…
Sora.
Aozora.
Riku.
Kairi.
The Advocate.
Axel, whose mission is accomplished…
And all is left up to the showdown between Sora and the man from his forgotten past…
Nido to aenu
Hito ni basho ni
Mado wo akeru
(Towards the place with people and places
I will never see again
I open this window)
Time races against him as Aozora flees through the ring of fire. If he is but one second late, all will be lost…
Black boots. Slow, uneasy footsteps. Mic in hand, a graceful young woman walks across a makeshift stage and faces the people and cameras. Despite her trembling, her smile is as firm as her resolve of giving the ones who lost their homes and their lives to the growing Darkness hope …
She raises the mic to her lips…
Aozora stumbles out to the balcony…
The Heat Unlocker plunges forward…
Omoidaseba haruka haruka
Mirai wa ('I need more passion than you know') doko made mo kagayaiteta
Kireina aozora no shita de
Bokura wa ('I need more passion than you know') itsumademo nemutte ita
(When I remember far, far back
The future was shining endlessly.
Underneath a pretty blue sky,
We slept endlessly)
Each crimson droplet from a shower of blood becomes little glowing pinpoints of light floating away into the dark sky…
Sora, his eyes wide, his face paling as the blood drained from his body gazes into the eyes of his murderer, his father…
The Heart Unlocker spins away, smearing the ground before it vanishes into nothingness…
Riku stares up at the sky, his blindfold torn away, while Ashita and Yuri watch in awe, shock, and horror at the images playing across Twilight Town's night sky…
Before her eyes, two white feathers fall as her connection to Sora is lost…
Yuna and the ghost of the past, Lenne, whispers words of lost love…
Brought together in the moments before death, the brothers exchange last words before Sora fades away into the glow of stars…
Her lonely heart is too broken to cry, for one is dead and the other has not returned. She is alone…
Tearing her gaze from the people down below, she turns her head to see, a broken Guardian, now burdened with the task of the Master, appearing…
In sanctuary, a love consummates at the brink of war, and the years pass…
Year after year after year…
Aozora no shita de…
Under the blue sky…
Rain. Endlessly pouring rain.
Darkness collected into a cloak shelters him from the downpour in the deep of the night. Strands of hair sways to the storm winds, obscuring his face…
A tall lithe girl, whose long red hair is bound back in a braid, turns with a slight smile. Her purplish blue eyes glimmer with life, then fade…
White feathers of a white wolf swirl in a maelstrom, and the wolf steps back into the night…
A hoodless person whose eyes are towards the sky as the rain comes down on his naked face…
Eyes.
Silver.
Gold.
Filled with vengeance.
It is begun.
""
A tall, blond man heavily decked in armor scrambled for his comms. link as others in the audience glared at him for the rude interruption at one of the many entrances scattered at uniform level and length throughout the blitzball stadium. When they saw the badge on his chest as he grimaced and frowned towards at them, however, they quickly turned away.
"What the fuck…" Ashita growled as he stepped out into the hall. "Commander speaking,"
"Commander sir, Leah9 reports. We're blocking off all streets in a three-mile radius. All airships are grounded and the ports are closed. We're closing down the gates right now. Anything else?"
"Leah9, send in squads of four at each of the entrances. Check the restrooms, the power room, everything except inside the stadium. We don't want a pandemonium here, understand? Have you alerted the local guards?"
There was no answer.
"Leah9!"
"Uh…sir, we've tried to contact them but they haven't answered. But…my men have been finding bodies lying throughout many of the hallways and the rooms. The camera room's destroyed so nothing's going to be recorded."
"Fucking shit…well, Leah9, I have to credit you with keeping a level head but start sending in your squads now. I've already alerted Storm and Wings. Have the Mages seen to Lester?"
"L182 has been taken back to headquarters. His foot's lost, unfortunately but—"
"The Mages will patch things up and I'll deal with him later. Right now, I want all of your men and women stationed at all entrances and exits. We'll handle the people. Understand?"
"Yessir Commander, sir. Leah9 out!"
Ashita sighed as he jammed the comms. link's buttons.
"Riku?"
"What's up?"
"We're fucked. This guy's moving like a virus. I'll meet you in the hall. I don't think the Lion's Guard can deal with this guy alone."
"I'll get the others."
"Don't tell Savvy or Wyvern yet, though. They may be the targets."
"Alright,"
Ashita sighed as he turned off the comms. link.
"Major fuck,"
He sure as hell didn't like some mass murderer wandering the halls of a jam-packed stadium full of important people.
"Fuck!"
Author's Endnote: I guess this is it until May. I bid you adieu for the next several weeks, and do warn others of my absence. I'd rather try and survive to write another chapter, if you know what I mean. 0.0 Thank you.