A/N: And here's The Grid! Enjoy~
Disclaimer: I own nothing but Shadow & Kurai.
Kingdom Hearts 3D, Kurai's Story
Chapter 4
Riku and I appeared in the next world with a flash of light, and the silverette examined himself in his new digital attire. My dark grey armor was even patterned in a similar manner.
"My clothes…Is this world special?" Riku wondered curiously. A sudden flash of light made us look up.
"A Dream Eater?" I guessed. The source of the light, an enormous flying machine, landed near us.
"No…Let's see how this plays out," the silverette suggested, and I nodded from his shoulder. Two guards exited the lowered passenger bay while two more approached us and grabbed Riku by the shoulders and pulled me off of him.
"Another stray," one of them said. Riku and I didn't struggle, so they released their grip, and I sprang back onto my partner's shoulder. The two of us walked over to the ship, apparently called a Recognizer, and stood in place next to another man.
"Are you a prisoner?" the man asked.
"Yeah. It looks that way," Riku answered.
"Name's Sam," he told us.
"I'm Kurai, and this is Riku," I replied. "Where are we, Sam?"
"We're on The Grid," Same said. Riku and I were transported to a place called the Game Grid, according to the guards, and it turned out to be a long, multi-leveled playing field. Riku stood with me crouched on his shoulder along a spacious lined raceway.
"You're in luck," an unfamiliar voice told us. We turned to see a man in a black body suit with glowing yellow stripes standing near us, two guards flanking him. "Only a precious few are granted Light Cycle battle privileges." The guard on the man's right walked over to us and handed Riku a small rod. Looking at it, I shrugged, not sure what it was for. We'll find out.
"You gonna explain why it's so lucky?" the silverette questioned.
"I'll show you," the man smirked. There was a sudden humming sound from behind us, and I looked sharply behind us with Riku to see two Light Cycles speed past us and race down the track.
"How hard can it be?" Riku shrugged as he looked at the rod in his hands.
Running forward, he held the rod in both hands, a Light Cycle forming in the air beneath him. I spread my wings and hovered next him, and then sped alongside the silverette as he raced full speed down the raceway, his front wheel raised for a few seconds before lowering.
Riku and I raced along the track, dodging the lasers from following Recognizers and the streams of light from other Light Cycles. Using his own stream of light form the back of his own Light Cycle, Riku took out the opposing ones, while I shot electric blasts at the flying opponents. When we had cleared out the others, a giant Dream Eater called Commantis flew in. The two of us fired shots at it, and definitely utilized the stream of light from the Light Cycle whenever Commantis was behind us. As soon as we finished it off, Riku and I looked at each other and nodded.
"I think we've had enough entertainment for one day," I growled. Riku smirked and activated the cycle's weaponry, shooting a heart-shaped hole into the wall. Riding through it, we came to a stop in the city.
"Riku! Kurai!" Sam's voice called out to us. He quickly ran over. "You made it. You escaped from the games."
"Yeah," Riku nodded.
"What, did you doubt us?" I laughed.
"I know a way off the Grid. Wanna come with?" Sam offered.
"No. You go ahead. Wait, what's the way out?" my partner asked, furrowing his brows in confusion.
"Through the Portal," Sam answered.
"Portal?" I repeated, confused.
"Yeah, it's like a gate that opened when I came here," he explained. "Once I'm back in the real world I can delete CLU. And then…then my dad will be able to come home."
"Your dad?" Riku questioned.
"He vanished—twenty years ago when he came here to the Grid," Sam told us. "But because he needed too protect his disk from CLU, he went into hiding. He's been trapped there ever since. But I'm gonna change that."
"I see…Sam, do you mind if we go with you after all? To the Portal?" I asked.
"Sure," he shrugged. "I'll take what help I can get. But first there's somebody I need to meet in the city." Riku and I nodded, and we ran to the city. When we arrived, Sam paused. "Kill some time until I get back." He then took off, leaving us alone. Suddenly, Dream Eaters appeared. Riku summoned his Keyblade to his hand, and my claws glowed with a pulsing light in response.
"Glad we get to fight more than boredom," the silverette smirked. He and I fought off the Dream Eaters with ease, but when we finished, we heard noises coming from the tower Sam had entered.
"What?" I uttered, looking in the direction of the tower. Riku and I glanced at each other before running ahead to the tower. There we found Sam and an older man that slightly resembled him and Sam was holding an injured girl in his arms. The older man must've been Sam's father.
"Sam!" Riku called out as we ran over.
"Who's this?" Sam's father, whom we later learned was named Flynn, asked.
"I'm Riku, and this is Kurai," the silverette answered, and gestured to me. "Sam, Kurai, and I were on our way to the Portal." Sam nodded to his father.
"Come with us," Flynn said.
"Where are we headed?" I asked.
"The Portal, but we need a Solar Sailer," the older man answered. "There's one in the underground docks." Walking on ahead, we made our way down to the underground docks, where Sam and Flynn carried the injured girl, whom Sam told us was named Quorra, to a hidden area where we wouldn't be spotted. Out of nowhere, Sam noticed something and spoke up.
"Your disc…Dad, it's gone," he murmured.
"It is," was all Flynn said. He kneeled down and checked on Quorra. "She's stable."
"We have to go back," Sam said urgently. "CLU will use it to reach the outside world. I can stop him from destroying it if you'd just let me do this!"
"You've done enough already!" Flynn barked back at him.
"So what do we do now?" Sam questioned.
"I don't know. Nothing. We do nothing. Be still. Wait," the older man muttered. Pausing, he added, "We can hop a Solar Sailer. A full-on sprint to the Portal. We can beat CLU there! Let's get her out of here." We quickly ran off to board a Solar Sailer, and started the ride. Sam and Flynn carefully laid Quorra down on the floor, and then Flynn scanned her code from a hologram on her identity disk.
"Is she gonna make it?" Sam wondered worriedly.
"I don't know," Flynn admitted.
"But didn't you write her code?" his son questioned.
"Some of it. But…the rest is just…" he paused as he moved his hand through different lines of blue code in the hologram, until he reached a blue spiral with a small red piece in it. "…beyond me."
"She's an ISO," Sam murmured.
"ISO?" I repeated curiously.
"A whole new life form," Flynn said. "Quorra is the last ISO."
"And you created them?" Riku guessed.
"They manifested, like a flame. They weren't really…really from anywhere," the older man explained. "The conditions were right and they came into being. For centuries we've dreamed of a pure existence beyond our own. I found them in here, like flowers in a wasteland. They were spectacular. Everything I'd hoped to find in the system—control, order, perfection—none of it meant a thing. The ISOs—they were gonna be my gift to the world." Reaching into the code, he pulled out the red piece, which flew away and dissolved. "There, good as new. It's gonna take a while for her system to reboot."
"So what happened…to your gift?" I asked softly.
"CLU. CLU happened," Flynn sighed. "He was built to create the perfect system. But endless potential can never, ever be fully realized. CLU saw the ISOs as an imperfection, so he destroyed them."
"He screwed up," Sam assumed.
"No, he's me," Flynn shook his head. "I screwed it up. Chasing after perfection—chasing after what was right in front of me. Right in front of me." He stared at his son as Riku and I walked down the Sailer.
"Look too hard for one thing and you miss everything else," we murmured. "And then, the people around you get hurt in the process. Like Xehanort. His single-minded thirst for answers created Ansem. We all have a little of that curiosity in us…So if we're not careful, any one of us could create an Ansem." Suddenly, a Recognizer flew by on our left, alerting us to its presence and making me growl in warning.
"Great. They found us," Riku grumbled.
"We've been put on a new course," Flynn said. We ended up at a docking station where we hid from a program named Rinzler. Thankfully, Quorra was awake by this time. Suddenly, Quorra handed her disk to Flynn.
"Good-bye," she said, and ran out to distract Rinzler.
"Quorra. Quorra!" Flynn called out.
"No, wait!" Sam hissed. Rinzler leapt down and subdued her.
"She's removing herself from the equation," Flynn said sadly.
"We can't just let her go," Sam argued.
"Yeah," Riku and I agreed.
"No. Hold on, Sam," Flynn told his son firmly. "What about getting you to the Portal? You shut them down from the outside."
"But Quorra comes first! And we still have to get back your disc," Sam pointed out.
"Sam. If you chase two rabbits, you won't catch either," Flynn replied.
"If this is a father-son thing, we won't butt in, but we should probably get back that disc at least—before CLU uses it to destroy the outside world," Riku interrupted. "Come on, Sam."
"Right," Sam nodded, and he turned to his father. "Meet me on the flight deck, and get us some wheels."
"Wheels? What's your plan?" his father wondered.
"I'm a User. I'll improvise," Sam smirked. Sam, Riku, and I then ran on ahead. "Riku, Kurai, I gotta save Quorra, too."
"Don't worry. We will," I assured him. Sam laughed lightly.
"The disc should be somewhere on the Throneship," he said. "I saw it dock here earlier." Looking around, he must have spotted it, because he pointed. "Over there!"
"All right," Riku nodded, and we ran over, sneaking onto the ship. It was a simple task to find Flynn's disk, as it was suspended by lasers in a circular hole overlooking the front of the ship. Walking up to it, Sam grabbed the disk, which sounded an alarm. Suddenly, the doors opened and Rinzler walked in with the captive Quorra.
"Sam. Go!" she cried out, but Rinzler knocked her to the floor and whipped out his disks. Riku summoned his Keyblade, making my claws glow, and Sam threw his own disc at Rinzler, who spun in the air to dodge it. Riku and I leapt at the wall, using Flowmotion, and kicked off from it, landing a powerful strike with the Keyblade and my claws at Rinzler. The program lost his discs and fell off the ship.
"What are you doing here?" Quorra demanded as Sam helped her up.
"To the flight deck!" Sam said instead.
"But CLU will be here any minute," she argued. "We'll never make it."
"Don't worry. Riku and Kurai are here to help," Sam pointed out. I grinned reassuringly. We quickly escaped and ran along the docks to find Flynn. Soon enough, the four of us caught up to the older man. Flynn had apparently gotten us a ride, which turned out to be a Light Jet. Once on board, the craft turned from red-lined to blue, and then everyone but me took off in it. I flew alongside them, relishing in the feeling of flying again. I followed the Light Jet to the Portal at the I/O Tower, where CLU was waiting for us at the bridge. Flynn stepped forward.
"This is mine," he told us. Approaching CLU, he called out, "Had a feeling you'd be here!"
"You! You promised that we would change the world…together! You broke your promise!" CLU accused. The Commantis Dream Eater appeared behind him, wind whipping around the Portal. I shuddered and hunkered down on Riku's shoulder. "I took the System to its maximum potential. And now, you see the applications at my disposal!" The Nightmare spun the disc on its back and clawed at the air with its mechanical pincers.
"I don't believe it," Flynn breathed. Riku and I approached him.
"You can leave this one to us," we said in unison. The two of us fought against the Commantis, making quick work of it, and then turned to our friends. As soon as we won, CLU looked shocked.
"I created the perfect system!" he bellowed.
"The thing about perfection is that it's unknowable. It's impossible, but it's also…right in front of us, all the time. You wouldn't know that because I didn't when I created you. I'm sorry, CLU. I'm sorry," Flynn told him apologetically. CLU stared at him for a few moments before kicking him away. Sam gave a yell and tried to tackle CLU, but the program merely tossed him over his shoulder. The young man rolled to the ground in pain as Quorra checked Flynn over. Riku and I ran over, my partner holding his Keyblade and me with my claws out and fangs bared. "Go," he ordered Quorra.
She nodded and used a rope to spin around the platform and landed in front of Sam, Riku, and me as CLU approached us. She whipped out a light-sword and faced him.
"CLU! Remember what you came here for," Flynn reminded him. The program walked back over to the older man, and the bridge split, separating CLU and Flynn from the rest of us. CLU kicked him in the face, flipping him over, and took his disk from his back. Activating it, he saw in horror that it was a hologram of Quorra, not Flynn.
"No…" CLU whispered. He looked over at the rest of us as we reached the Portal, and Quorra looked back at him. "No…why?" He turned to Flynn.
"He's my son," the older man answered simply. CLU deactivated the hologram and threw the disk onto the ground near Flynn, and then ran back up the bridge to the Portal. "Go!" Flynn shouted at us. CLU jumped over the gap in the bridge, nearly missing as he clung to the other side in desperation.
"Dad!" Sam cried out. His father stood.
"Sam! It's time!" the older man declared.
"No!" his son protested.
"Sam. It's what he wants," Quorra urged.
"I'm not leaving you!" Sam insisted.
"Take her!" Flynn ordered. Quorra handed Flynn's disk to Sam, and he accepted it from her. "Yes!" Sam held the disc upwards, activating the Portal, and light engulfed them. "Good-bye, kiddo." The identity disk floated upwards into the pillar of light, and Sam cast his father one last glance. CLU finally clambered onto the bridge and stood, but Riku and I ran over to protect the pair in the pillar of light.
"Don't even think about it," I growled warningly.
Suddenly, Flynn gasped and knelt quickly, his long coat flowing out behind him. The older man touched the ground and a burst of pure energy rippled from him. It reached CLU, and the program seemed as if he were being tugged back towards Flynn. He reached out to the Portal and tried to step forward, but the force pulling him back was too much. Flynn stood up with his arms out as the wind became too much for CLU, and knocked him back into Flynn, releasing out a massive pulse of bright energy that engulfed everything. When the light dissipated, Riku and I stood alone where the Portal once was.
"The Portal is gone," Riku began. "These gates that connect worlds—maybe when we pass through them, we're challenged, and changed. And it's not over. There are more trials ahead that we have to overcome. But we'll be ready, Sora."
"And Shadow," I added with a grin. The Keyhole appeared, and we sealed it together before moving on to the next world.
A/N: And there's that one! Like I stated earlier, I've been busy getting ready for a road trip, but I'll still be able to write and update. R&R, peeps!