Chapter 7: Deep Space:

Deep Space – Outer System:

"Whoa!" Sora gasped as the Milano emerged from hyperspace into a massive three way space battle between the Hellfire Club, the Unchained Legion, and the rapidly dwindling defenders of the Galactic Federation's capital. Even from the edge of the system, the Keyblade Master could see that Turo was going to end up roasted no matter which faction won the battle. Especially if either Maleficent or the Unchained managed to get their hands on the Infinity Stone locked deep inside the planet's capitol building. Quill had explained about the stone on the way there, and now two of the largest remaining enemy factions in the universe had come to claim it as their own.

"Alright kid," Tony began, snapping the brunette out of his shock. "You know these guys better than anyone. What are we up against?" Sora blinked, and a quick glance around the cabin confirmed that both the Avengers and the Guardians were looking to him for leadership. He felt a sense of pride as he realized that Tony had a point. He'd fought the Hellfire Club for years, he'd memorized their battle tactics, how a lot of their members thought, what motivated them. Sora humbly thanked everyone for having so much faith in him before getting right down to the pre-battle briefing.

"The Lorwardian ships are a new thing for the Club," he began before looking at Nick Fury. "But I figured that since Earth has dealt with them before, S.H.I.E.L.D. might know how to deal with them." As expected, the former director nodded in agreement.

"Possible and Stoppable informed us that the ship they dealt with had an off switch in the engine room," Fury answered.

"Great," Sora replied. "Now the Heartless pirate ships they use are vulnerable on all of their external parts: attack the wheels, the canons, and the skull on the bow, and the ship will fall apart. All Heartless, airborne or grounded, Pureblood or Emblem, are immune to being destroyed by blunt force. You need to go after them with a cutting edge in order to defeat them. I don't have as much experience with the Unchained, but their ships are all made from Gummi Blocks using common Coalition designs. I know enough about the models they're using now to point out their week spots. We'll have to split into three groups: one team will go after the Unchained, one to take out the Lorwardian ships, and another to go for the Heartless fleet."

"Jake packed some magical air capsules," the Keyblade Master went on. "So he can fly two teams aboard the Lorwardian ships and commandeer extra ships: one to shuttle his own team from ship to ship after they hit the off switch on each one, and another to take the team to hit the Heartless pirate ships. The rest of you will stay aboard the Milano and take out the Unchained warships. Are there any questions?" Sora's sense of pride only increased when nobody on board the small spaceship questioned his leadership. They all trusted him.

"Alright," he continued. "Then here are the teams: Stitch, Jumba, Fury, Romanov, and Barton, you'll be taking on the Heartless armada. Quill, you and your team stay here and go after the Unchained fleet. Stark, your armor is capable of space flight, so you'll be providing support to either of those two groups. The rest of us will be taking out the Lorwardian fleet. Banner, we'll need the Hulk to give us an edge for when we actually have to fight any Lorwardians on board. Now let's move."

It was a testament to Sora's skill as a warrior, charismatic leadership, and ability to simply inspire everyone around him that everyone cheered enthusiastically. Even though Bruce Banner was always wary of the Hulk, even the "Other Guy" couldn't help but be inspired. There were very few people who the Hulk would ever take orders from. Captain American was one. And now Sora was another one. Without argument, the three groups all got into position. Jake passed out air capsules to nine of the eleven grouped around the airlock. Tony put on his face plate while Sora allowed darkness to form the all-environment body suit and accompanying helmet around his body.

Once everyone was ready, the airlock opened, the air capsules acticated, and the two teams were flung towards the nearest Lorwardian battle cruiser while the Milano peeled away and began firing on the nearest Unchained warship. Sora cast a high powered Reflega shield to deflect incoming laser fire from the group before cloaking everyone except Iron Man, who had already split off to draw the Lorwardian's fire away from the infiltration teams, with a Vanish spell. The nine heroes held their breaths as they silently fell towards the garbage hatch Fury had explained were on Lorwardian vessels.

True to form, the garbage chute opened and began dispensing large sacks of spaceship waste out into the stars. Pulses quickening, the group deftly dodged the oncoming trash and narrowly slid inside the bowels of the Lorwardian ship just as the hatch slid closed. Once they were inside the relative safety of the enemy battle cruiser, everyone turned to Sora to give out orders. Even Nick Fury, who prided himself on being in control of the situation at all times, acknowledged that the young Keyblade Master was more qualified to coordinate the battle at this time. A few minutes later, the ship's security forces were all focused on the emergence of a gigantic green figure who was tearing the inner workings of their ship apart.

While the Hulk kept the ship's security distracted, the two teams split up. Jumba, having been to Lorwardia back during his "Evil Genius" days knew the layout of their ships well enough for him to lead Stitch, Fury, Black Widow, and Hawkeye to the hangar. Thanks to Banner going green and keeping the guards busy, the launch deck was relatively unguarded. While the Heartless extermination squad commandeered a Lorwardian troops shuttle, Sora was about to lead the rest of his team to the engine room to turn off the off switch when Steve offered a better idea.

"With security focused on the Hulk," Captain America explained. "They'll be too busy worrying about Banner to notice us until we've already ambushed them and taken control of the bridge." The captain didn't need to finish his sentence. The dots connected themselves in everyone else's heads. If they could get control of the bridge and start firing on the rest of the fleet, then they could disrupt the battle because the Hellfire Club would be too confused to figure out which ship was the one that had been boarded.

"Great idea," Sora replied. "We'll hit the bridge then. And hope they don't figure out what's going on until it's too late for them."


Titan's Sanctuary – Maleficent's Throne:

"You know," Kairi observed as the last Heartless vanished in a large cloud of smoke. "I know our source said that this place would only be lightly defended, but I was at least expected more of a challenge. I figured that we'd encounter more of those Leroy clones and not more Heartless. I thought Maleficent had learned by now that it'll take more than just a swarm of those things to slow us down." While Rose would have been hesitant to call that battle easy (for even quasi-immortal Keyblade Masters needed to strategize against their opponents instead of simply rushing in and cutting through monsters like butter), Kairi did have a point. Loki's intel indicated that the asteroid base's defenses would be lowered, but he hadn't said that it would practically be a skeleton crew.

"They may have more troops waiting in the catacombs," she suggested. "They probably figured that if anyone were to ever fly by, the Heartless could hide in the shadows and convince passersby that the compound was abandoned. Kairi nodded in agreement. It did make a good deal of sense. The only question now was how may guards were left inside the catacombs. That question was quickly answered when they walked into the first intersection just as a squad of Leroys rounded a corner from one of the surrounding tunnels and spotted them. From there, it was a flurry of action until they were able to duck inside a small room hidden in one of the side tunnels.

They were surprised when they found a little girl sitting amidst a pile of books and drawings in what was clearly a child's bedroom. For a moment, the five heroes could only stare in stunned silence as they pondered who this girl was and what she was doing here. Their first guess would have been that she was a prisoner, but the door was unlocked and she was clearly being well cared for. Before anyone could say anything, the girl looked up from her drawing and began to slowly back away from them.

"Are you here to kill my mommy and daddy?" the girl asked nervously.

"What!?" Kairi exclaimed. "No, no, sweetie. I wouldn't do that."

"That's not what daddy said," the girl replied. "He said that the Coalition would destroy them if they were ever found." Suddenly, it clicked to Kairi just why this little girl seemed so familiar. Her skin was more of a turquoise color, but even at a young age, the Princess of Heart could tell that the girl had inherited her mother's chin.

"Is… Is Maleficent your mother?" Kairi asked, unsure of if she was just grasping at straws of this girl really was Maleficent's daughter. However her theory was confirmed when the little girl nodded. Well this just got more complicated, she thought to herself as she shot a glance back at Riku, conveying "I know Maleficent and Hades are likely to be executed for everything they've done, but we can't let his little girl who's never done anything wrong grow up an orphan because of her parents' choices" with nothing but her eyes and facial expression. Thankfully, Riku got the message as he nodded in approval. He'd back her up when she explained to the Coalition legislature why Maleficent and Hades couldn't be given the death penalty. Donald and Goofy nodded in support as well, and Kairi breathed a sigh of relief as she turned back to face Maleficent's six year old daughter.

"Look, sweetie," the Princess of Heart began. "Your parents have broken a lot of laws and done some very bad things, and they have to go to jail for what they did, but I promise you that we'll bring them in alive."

"Pinky promise?" the girl asked in a cautious voice that just about broke the hearts (not literally) of all those present.

"Pinky promise," Kairi replied. "Now we have to get going now, okay?" After a few goodbyes, Kairi and the rest of her team slowly and quietly filed out of the room and closed the door behind them. No need for the girl to get caught in the crossfire. But as they crept back through the catacombs towards the exit, all Kairi could think about was how she was going to strangle Loki for not warning them that Maleficent was raising a child in the middle of her headquarters.


Earth – Atilan Throne Room; 8,021 Years Ago:

Explosions rocked the royal palace as Blackagar Boltagon paced from one end of his throne room to another. Ever since that wretch Jenova had allied with the Pro-Light Keyblade guilds, his empire had been under constant attack. With each passing day, more of his territory was chipped away, until finally Atilan itself was under siege. The Anguis Guild and the Unchained Legion had been bombarding the capital of the Inhuman Empire non-stop for the past week. Inhumans did not leave their homes in fear for their safety, and yet the death toll was already in the thousands.

Emperor Boltagon cursed Jenova's insatiable ambition and unpleasable arrogance. If she hadn't put her great grandfather on such a pedestal, then the Inhuman race wouldn't be facing extinction. Blackagar was under no illusions as to the trustworthiness of the Foreteller Leopardos in regards to the deal they had worked out for the war. He was well aware of the fact that Leopardos and Ursus hoped to topple the existing world order. But even if he was damning himself for his alliance with those who sought out the corrupting influence of Darkness, his one and only priority was keeping his people safe and alive. And now Jenova's greed was about to undo all his hard work.

Jenova's grievances against the Boltagon royal family were justified and well deserved, but her ideas of reparation were beyond what any sane sentient being would consider reasonable. Jenova was one of the last living descendants of General Alveus, the first Inhuman. Alveus had been engineered by the Kree to serve as the leader of their people, but Alveus' means of commanding the Kree's army was through parasitic mind control. Enraged at the loss of free will and disgusted with Alveus' idea of freedom (which consisted of the entire Inhuman species enslaved to a single hive with Alveus in the center), Black Bolt's great-grandfather Lash lead the remaining free Inhumans in an open rebellion, since his abilities allowed him to cure those infected by Alveus' spores.

With a few powerful energy blasts, Emperor Lash killed Alveus and drove the Kree empire off their planet. Paranoid that the Inhuman General's powers would be passed down to his descendants, Lash ordered the execution of every member of Alveus' family. Unfortunately for Lash, Alveus' pregnant wife managed to slip through the Inhuamn emperor's fingers. Lash's son refused to give in to mindless slaughter, and repealed the execution order on Alveus' descendants, but they were indefinitely forbidden from ever undergoing Terrigenesis. All Terrigen crystals would be tightly regulated and strictly controlled both to prevent those with world-destroying powers from going through the mists, and to keep Alveus' descendants from possibly acquiring their ancestor's powers.

Jenova had come to Atilan a year ago seeking reparations for the persecution of her family, wanting her descendants to finally be allowed to experience the Terrigen Mists. Were she more humble, Blackagar would have granted her request. But despite her claims of wanting her sister to experience their heritage, the Boltagon family could see the greed and ambition naked on her face. She didn't want Terrigen crystals for her family, she only wanted more power for herself. So the Inhuman genetics council, at Blackagar's recommendation, denied Jenova's request to undergo Terrigenesis.

But being rebuffed did not deter the arrogant young woman. Jenova kept coming back and resubmitting her request every few months, and each time she was denied. Now that the Keyblade War had broken out, she had taken another approach. Instead of asking Boltagon to undergo Terrigenesis, she told Anguis and Unicornis of his alliance with their enemies and convinced them to overthrow the Boltagon dynasty in order to cut off supply lines to the Seekers of Darkness. And once Black Bolt and the rest of the royal family were dead, she would undergo Terrigenesis and take the Imperial Throne for herself.

Emperor Boltagon was snapped out of his musings by a violent pounding on the ornate doors of the throne room. And so it begins, he signed to his wife Medusa as she raced to his side. If they wish to take out my empire, they'll have to kill us both. Will you speak for me? Medusa nodded. When her husband emerged from the Terrigen Mists, his voice was powerful enough that he could shatter bones with nothing but a whisper. To avoid destroying the entire planet, the Inhuman prince took a vow of silence. He did not speak, even in his sleep, and he communicated entirely through sign language. This required an interpreter to translate his signals and speak for him to others. First his family, and now his wife.

The pounding of the door finally ended in a splintering crash as the doors of the throne room were knocked inward. Dozens of Keyblade Wielders came swarming through the broken door and engaged the royal guards stationed in the room. While the Keyblade foot soldiers engaged his own troops, three leaders of the Keyblade guilds came marching up the stairs towards his throne. At the head of the grouped walked Invi, the Foreteller Anguis, flanked by two blond-haired women he recognized as Foreteller Ava's Unchained. As Invi marched up the stairs, the leader of the Anguis guild removed her hood to reveal a look of regret in her soft blue eyes.

"My husband and I do not wish to fight a friend," Medusa spoke as the three Keyblade wielders reached the top of the stairs despite the sounds of combat raging on around them. Invi had been close friends with the Inhuman Queen before her marriage to King Blackagar, and had remained friends ever since, although the recent conflict had put a strain on their relationship.

"Neither do I, 'usa," Invi replied sadly, her blue hair fluttering in the blue hair generated by the roar of combat all around the throne. "But your family's alliance with the forces of Darkness cannot go unpunished."

"We are doing what we have to to keep our people alive," Medusa protested. "Inhumans have been hated and feared for centuries. If King Lash had not carved out the Empire all those centuries ago, we'd have been the victims of genocide already. Only the borders of the Empire grant us any degree of respect in the world. And as much as I would prefer to continue our long standing policy of isolation, Inhumans out in the rest of the world are being lynched in the streets out of fear because your people are too busy killing each other to keep the peace. If the Inhuman Empire remains neutral, your war will destroy us. I'm sorry Invi, but we cannot sit idly by and allow our kind to be slaughtered in the crossfire."

Invi nodded in understanding as she pulled out her Keyblade, tears flowing down her cheeks at the thought of fighting one of her closest friends. But before anyone in the circle could make a move, they were interrupted by the alarming sound of a shrill klaxon coming from behind the throne room. Invi, Blackagar, and Medusa's eyes all widened in horror as they realized what was going on and bolted for the throne, all conflict forgotten. As an added security measure to control the spread of Terrigen crystals, Terrigenesis was only allowed to be conducted in a specialized chamber built into the back of the throne room. Access to the Terrigen chamber required a DNA scan from a member of the royal family. And all except Blackagar and Medusa themselves had been killed in the Unchaineds' burning of Inhuman settlements. The only person with the motivation to save a Boltagon's fingerprints and eyes would be…

"JENOVA!" Valerie screamed as the group reached the back of the room to find Inhuman woman was slowly enveloped in a stone cocoon behind a bulletproof glass door.


And so the battle of Turo has begun. I'm trying to give these next couple of chepters the feel of something extremely large in scale. The battle will be raging on, but I want to keep the focus on the main characters as they fight their way across the Turoan solar system. But this is probably going to be one of the three largest scale battles in the entire Acolytes of Chaos saga. To give you all an idea of how large the battle really is, picture the battle of Quell, Salleucami, and Sullust, from Star Wars: The Clone Wars combined with the battle at Zarkon's central command in the season 1 finale of Voltron: Legendary Defender. So yeah… Pretty big.

I wanted to have a flashback to the Atilan Sieges at some point in the story. Originally, I wanted to have a full-length story set entirely during the Keyblade War focusing on the events surrounding the campaign between the Unchained Legion and the Inhuman Empire, but I realized that ultimately it wasn't very practical, so a flashback or two will have to do. And since Andrew never became Lash like he did in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., I wanted to work Lash into the story somehow, and so as I was writing this chapter, I came up with the idea of Lash being Black Bolt's ancestor the same way that Hive is Jenova's as a bit of a foil.

Anyway, now Kairi had met Lily and learned the uncomfortable truth that one of the greatest villains of the Kingdom Hearts universe is a mother. As you'd expect, this is going to present an interesting conundrum for the heroes. Obviously, Maleficent and her allies probably deserve the death penalty (or at least life in prison in some cases depending on the severity of their actions) for everything they've done, but that would also mean making Lily an orphan. So Kairi has resolved to convince the Coalition government to be lenient on Maleficent and Hades so that Lily doesn't grow up without her parents. Whether or not either Maleficent or Hades will survive the rest of the saga remains to be seen.

And as for how they now that Hades is Lily's dad, Maleficent wears an underworld themed wedding ring, so it's not that hard to put two and two together. Besides, Loki was able to confirm it. As for why Kairi's team didn't do more in the Hellfire Club base, while they would have loved to have grabbed some information from what few computers Maleficent had, their main goal was to make Maleficent panic and send half her fleet racing back to the Sanctuary and weaken her assault on Turo.