Chapter Nine: Chris Talonflight: Aging.
"You really need to do something about those reflexes, Chris."
I looked up in stark disbelief. "John?" My school friend hauled me up to the sturdy floor, laughing.
"It's actually kind of funny." He said. "We were two of the most Kingdom Hearts involved people in the school, and now look: in the worlds of Fantasy themselves. Quite a trick, eh?"
"But… John, how did you get here?" I asked, perplexed.
"Not John." He wagged his finger. "Nhoxj."
"Huh?" I wondered. "Pronounced Nadje? From that Fanfiction I wrote? Spelled with an X?"
"One and the same." He said, grinning. "The nobody of John."
"Wait… you're a Nobody?" I asked, saddened. My friend nodded. How could he seem so cheerful?
"It's not bad at all. The PSI powers make up for a lot." He grinned again. "And Nobodies CAN feel some emotions, whatever DiZ says in 358/2 Days."
"I… uh… Wow." I stuttered. I had been reunited with my friends, and found that no one was as they were. "How are things at home? Have you been there?" I asked.
"Nope." He shook his head. "I'm travelling, trying to counter the Organization. You?"
"Playing Sora's parts, with a few changes." I grinned back. I showed him my keyblade. He showed me him-throwing-blocks-of-stone-with-his-mind.
"Have fun with this, Chris." He smirked. "I must say, Yuffie has quite a crush on you."
"HUH?" I stood bolt upright. "You've met Yuffie? How is she?"
"She's fine." My friend laughed at my reaction. "A bit depressed, but fine. She's mad at herself that she forgot about you for the past year."
"Thank god." I sighed, relieved. "How many worlds have you been to?"
"Hollow Bastion, Traverse Town, Halloween Town, Agrabah, Twilight Town, and a few others. I got rid of Xaldin for you too, by the way, so you don't need to go hunting through his castle and fight that giant heartless thing. Beast is guarding the castle for when Xaldin comes back. You know, when you visit Beast's Castle for the second time, when you fight Xaldin in KH2?"
"Yeah." I smiled. "I have a friend with a pair of scythes who has been spoiling for a good fight. He might be interested."
"When this is over, we should take our KH obsessed friends on a camping trip to the End of the World." Nhoxj joked. We laughed.
"We could make thousands in cosplay posters alone!" I theorized.
"Also…" Nhoxj said, "… I've seen Ansem hanging around in Twilight Town. Didn't you kill him?"
"Actually, he wasn't the boss in the KH1 events." I grimaced. "There was this guy called Johnson, who was really tough, who did everything that Ansem was supposed to do in KH1. Since the real life KH events are different from the games, while still also following events, even entire final boss fights are changed. I battled Johnson and Maleficent along with a Replica of myself… I wonder what happened to him."
"Well, I can't-"
I never found out what Nhoxj couldn't, because the glowing Heartless that made me age appeared.
"Get him!" I yelled. I ran at the heartless, but it merely sent a stream of flying glass at me, slicing up my body. I felt myself age this time. However, as I aged, I felt myself get stronger. I roared as I sent my keyblade flying at the head of the heartless. However, the heartless fled with a scream as Nhoxj let out a PSI blast.
"Damn!" I swore. "I need to kill that thing to end this curse!"
Nhoxj raised his eyebrow. "You sure get yourself into a lot of trouble. This is even worse then when you got your shoe stolen in the locker room back in school and had to walk up to our school, five floors up, with only one shoe."
"Yeah…" I grinned as I used my cure Materia to return me to normal. Yuffie had given me this Materia, along with a Materia that could be changed into anything. I had transformed it into a Curagala Materia. A Curagala spell was one step up from a Curaga, and only Yen Sid himself could cast the spell. I remember that I had gone to Yen Sid's castle directly, and he had made a copy of my memories as payment for casting the spell. That was the reason we had been so familiar with each other. HE had said that he was going to write a book, because my memories from my previous excursion had been so intriguing. I couldn't argue with that.
Exactly one year before, I had lived on Earth, a world separated from the worlds of fantasy. Then the Heartless had come, and had destroyed my world, sending it through the torn veil between Fantasy and Reality to merge with Kingdom Hearts. I had fought my way through several other worlds, along with my friends: Ashley, Rodney, and C. Ashley was a Keyblade wielder, and she wielded a keyblade named Lurebreaker. Rodney had wielded the power of lightning, but he had succumbed to darkness. The last I knew of him, he had been battling C. C wielded a guitar that could control water: a useful weapon.
At the end of my journey, we had encountered our greatest enemy so far: a man who called himself Johnson, who had wielded the power of darkness. I had faced him in combat at the end, and barely defeated him. He had died when he tried to summon the power of Kingdom Hearts. It had killed him instead. However, the door to Kingdom Hearts had been opened, and there was only one way to close it. Johnson had created a replica of me using power contained in the mysterious fortress known as Castle Oblivion, and the replica had rebelled against him and joined me. The replica agreed to be sealed inside Kingdom Hearts along with the King of Disney Castle, King Mickey. Their Keyblades, weapons that could lock and unlock worlds, combined with the power of my own keyblade, had locked Kingdom Hearts, and ensured that it could never be accessed from that point again... or so I hoped. My friends Ashley and C had been returned to our world when the door was locked, because re-locking the door would cause all of the worlds that had been destroyed to return to their place, which was, in their case, Earth. Another friend, David Frostmourne, had been returned to his world of Disney Castle: or so I hoped, but I had since suspected that Frostmourne had no true home. But it was the departure of my last friend, Yuffie Kisaragi Stromwind, which had troubled me most. You see, I was in love with her.
Yuffie and I had met the same day that I had arrived in a world called Traverse Town. We had developed a relationship, and I still bore her parting gifts: my legendary healing Materia Curagala, and her headband.
After I had been left stranded in the Endless Abyss after locking Kingdom Hearts, I had managed to escape. Creating portals of darkness was no problem when you were in the realm of darkness, after all. I had ended up in a place which I knew, from my previous knowledge, was the remains of the world called The Land of Departure. There was a strange castle there, called Castle Oblivion, which worked on your memory in strange ways. The farther up I went towards the top of the castle, the more memories I would lose. However, I had to do it: a group of Nobodies, known as Organization XIII, had sent a few of their members there. I had no way of returning to Castle Oblivion once I left it, so I had to take my opportunity to slay a good half of their members... I think. When I reached the top, I had lost my memory completely. Namine, a nobody whom I suspected was Yuffie's nobody (Since Yuffie seemed to be taking the place of Kairi for the most part, and her heart had been removed at Hollow Bastion when Johnson kidnapped her to lure me to him), put me to sleep for a year while she fixed my memory. That was where things got complicated.
When I had been battling Johnson, I had been forced to turn into a heartless. Because of my singular powers of darkness, I escaped form the Heartless condition, but I still had my nobody created. I had no idea what my nobody had done in the intervening year between my falling asleep and my awakening, but I knew that only my nobody could have awakened me from that sleep, since he contained my final pieces of memory. I assumed that he had gone through the events of Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, and whoever was playing the part of Riku had defeated him and brought him to DiZ, who made him wake me up.
In all perfect honesty, I could at any time end the threat of Organization XIII and face Xemnas, in addition to messing up the timeline of my adventures, but I also wanted to help the worlds. I, like all stupid video game obsessed people, wanted the final battle to be just that: a FINAL battle, not a battle that gives way to me having to go help a few random worlds, and then battle any members of the Organization that managed to escape. Plus, I wanted to get more powerful before facing Xemnas. I had known he would be in Hollow Bastion back when I was battling Johnson, because in the game he was an optional boss. However, I had the distinct feeling that he was too powerful for me to beat. While I had defeated Marluxia and Johnson, when I had battled Johnson, I had been substantially powered up from being a user of darkness while being in the Endless Abyss, a world of pure darkness. As for battling Marluxia… I couldn't remember.
I wandered the halls of the Castle of Time with my former friend for a long while. We talked about non-consequential things: how our friends were doing, whether Keith had made the basketball scholarship he was hoping for, whether Jia was still buying old video games, whether Mr. Rosser was mad at me for missing a YEAR of school, whether Oscar had found a new Asian girl to date and whether or not I should introduce him to Yuffie (considering, after all, that Yuffie was Asian), if anyone else had been thrown into the Fantasy world like us, whether the Heartless were around on Earth, that sort of thing.
"Hey, when this is over, are you coming back to our world?" Nhoxj asked.
"I… I don't know." I answered honestly. "I wanted to at first, but then I met Yuffie… And also, I have responsibilities as a keyblade wielder. If someone else tries to take Kingdom Hearts, well… It's up to us keyblade users to defend it." I hesitated. "Plus, I don't feel that I fit into the small life given me in our world anymore."
"Yeah, I know the feeling." Nhoxj nodded. "I'm a nobody who can feel emotions so I'm kind of human as well, and yet because of all I've gone through and all of my new power, I just can't see myself there."
"You yourself could probably become a leader in these worlds: rebuild Organization XIII, that sort of thing." I pointed out. "You could rebuild the nobody society and hopefully disprove people's conceptions about Nobodies being all bad."
"Hmmm…. Not a bad idea." Nhoxj grinned. "And in order to do that, all we've got to stop the current Organization."
"Yeah…" I smirked. "It shouldn't be that hard…"
Suddenly, the heartless appeared again. It threw more shards of glass at me, before disappearing in a puff of smoke. I was out of potions, so I had to use my Materia again to heal myself.
"That's really weird, you know?" Nhoxj wrinkled his nose.
"Tell me about it." I agreed. We paused there. We were in a circular room, only one way out behind us. We were in a dead end. Suddenly, the door behind us closed.
"Uh-oh…" I muttered.
The heartless appeared in front of us. And he looked strangely familiar…
"Kobe, is that you?" I asked. The heartless looked at me strangely.
"I guess the darkness finally got to you." Nhoxj said grimly. The heartless version of my friend Delorian Nappi, whom I referred to as Kobe, narrowed his eyes.
"Hey…" I said, as the heartless began walking towards us. "You don't have to do this."
The heartless accelerated into a run. Blades of glass started sprouting from his arms.
"Okay, maybe you do." I admitted, summoning my Soul Eater. Kobe leapt into the air, whirling his arms, lashing out with his glass blades. I leaned back, his blades passing an inch away from my face. I blocked a strike aimed at my kidney, and another at my leg. Leaned back to avoid a slash aimed at my face. I locked one of his glass blades with my Soul Eater, and summoned the second Soul Eater. I plunged it into his stomach. I ripped it out, and slid back.
Kobe stood there, a hole in him. He smiled, and then waved his arm. A glow surrounded him, and his wound closed instantly.
"Shit." I breathed. Controlled small-area time reversal? Kobe tripped me and threw me across the room, breaking a wall and making me forty years old. Kobe slid in a low attack and I managed to propel myself over his glass blades. I ran at him, and he sidestepped, ramming his elbow into the bone of my shoulder, and slashing me across my back, making me fifty years old. I turned, and he was twirling in midair, and then he kicked me in the chest, throwing me through the wall I broke, and into the outside courtyard. I was sliding across the smooth tiles, and I suddenly did a back flip and landed on my feet, Soul Eaters at the ready. Kobe stood at the broken wall, framed by the inner room. Suddenly, he was slammed forwards by a blast of PSI, and Nhoxj was there, sending him bouncing off walls. I took that opportunity to climb a nearby wall, and stand there, out of his range.
Suddenly, Kobe disappeared in a puff of smoke, appearing behind Nhoxj. He lashed out with his blades, and knocked my friend into a wall, where he slumped, unconscious.
I crooked my finger at Kobe, in the classic "come get me" motion. I figured it would take him a bit of time to scale the wall.
Kobe disappeared in a puff of smoke.
"Oh great." I breathed. I then lashed out behind me, Kobe disappearing from behind me at that instant. I nearly fell of the wall. HE appeared next to me, lashing out. I barely blocked. He locked my blades and pulled, hard. I flopped over, on my stomach. I tried to lash out and hit his feet from under him, but he did a flip over my blade and landed straddling my back, one of his blades pinning my seventy year old shoulder to the wall. HE pulled back his other blade for a finishing strike-
-and was thrown off the wall by a PSI blast. I stood, staring at Nhoxj, dazedly. He smirked.
The heartless appeared, standing between us, arms flailing. Pieces of glass slashed deeply into Nhoxj and me, pushing us apart. Suddenly, the heartless disappeared again in more smoke.
"Back to back!" I yelled. Me and my nobody friend went back to back.
"I got him!" I yelled as I saw our opponent flipping towards me.
"Oh no you don't." Nhoxj muttered, as he saw the same thing. Kobe flipped over us, and disappeared again. While we were still staring stupidly at the place he had been, he appeared in front of Nhoxj, slashing him. Then he was in front of me, kicking me. Then punching Nhoxj with his glass blades. Then tripping me. Then stabbing Nhoxj. Then slashing my arms. Then-
Nhoxj was grabbing him by the neck, preventing him from escaping. I ran Kobe through with my twin blades. He fell, finally defeated. My age dropped away, and I was my normal self again, nineteen.
"Well, Kobe, I hope you're happy." I said as I drew back my sword for the kill.
"Not Kobe…" the heartless gasped. "Nexus!"
He vanished, appearing far away this time.
"I had fun… see you later…" the humanoid heartless grinned, and then vanished.
"In all honesty… that was a very deeply disturbing sight." I admitted.
"Yeah…" Nhoxj said. "I think I'm going to track him."
"How do you plan on doing that?" I asked.
"I got a bit of his essence when I used that PSI attack. I'll be able to find him." He said determinedly. I decided not to ask what a PSI essence was, and therefore did not look like an idiot.
Nhoxj disappeared in the same way that Nexus had, in a puff of smoke.
After a long arduous five minutes, during which I tried to create a dark portal across time to the Throne Room, I finally succeeded, and encountered Kaileena. Unfortunately, I ended up there at the same moment that Prince and my friends started attacking her, so I never got the chance to try and stop the violence. However, we had all just appeared in the Present, in the ruined plateau, when the Dahaka arrived. So now it was Prince, Kaileena, Xanju, Nudge, and I against a monster out of legend.
I really had been tired by my battle with Nexus, so I merely used my dark powers to immobilize the Dahaka. The Prince killed it with his Water Sword, and I said my goodbyes. However, before he left, he gave me a blue stone. Who knew: maybe I would see him again for the events of Prince of Persia: the Two Thrones!
